If your car has EVER been titled in KS. READ THIS!

[Tracy C.]

Here is hope for anyone searching their cars history if it has been registered in the state of Kansas.

About 8 weeks ago I saw a post on another forum from Dennis Beck proclaiming that he had recieved registration history for his car while it was in Kansas. Dennis's post mentioned that Kansas was still maintaining historical records from way back. I emailed Dennis and he said he had picked up the information off the Kansas website so I took a look myself. What I found with my limited sleuthing ability wasn't too promising, so I blew it off.

When Dennis posted the information he recieved a few weeks later I was motivated to take another whack at it. This time I made a few phone calls to Topeka to get pointed in the right direction. Boy am I glad I did!!!

For a mere $10, I learned that my car has been in KS for almost it's entire life. What's even more cool is that it spent most of this time less than 100 miles from where it sets today!!

Even WAY MORE cool is that a first cut from whitepages.com seems to indicate that the first 4 owners appear to still reside in the same town where the car spent from 1963 to 1968. Heck I was even provided the original Dealer information!! Believe it or not my Car was sold new from Mc Mahan Chevrolet Co. in Lafayette Colorado. to young fella from Hutchinson KS on July 31, 1963. It sat just 6 days on the lot!! (Why does a guy from Hutchinson KS buy a new car in Colorado?)

Needless to say, I'm still in a mild state of shock at how easy this was. I've included a link to the form a person needs to fill out to give this a try. Just fill out the left hand collumn and request the $10 vehicle history.

My next step is to draft up some letters in an attempt to get some information on the car. If anyone has any advise, I'm all ears.

Good Luck,
tc

http://www.ksrevenue.org/pdf/forms/trdl302.pdf

[Dennis B.]

Re: If your car has EVER been titled in KS. READ T

Tracy,
Glad to see you were successful too! Not bad for $10.00.

Dennis #41966

[Dennis B.]

Re: If your car has EVER been titled in KS. READ T

If I might add. My information took me back to Oklahoma where I think the car started out. I made the same requests through the Oklahoma Bureau of Taxation but I struck out. No records from back then even though I have a photo copy of an Oklahoma Title and taxing records.

[Pat K.]

Re: If your car has EVER been titled in KS. READ T

Congrats! You found gold.

Does anyone know if California offers this service?

[Dave Morris]

Re: If your car has EVER been titled in KS. READ T

Tracy,
Congrats to you on your successful search. I was able to do the same with my 63 that was bought new in Wichita on Oct. 1, 62. Even got a copy of the MSO. Over the last few years I have have tried to track a 64 and a 62 with a Kansas history. Got records from Kansas to back in the late 60's when the cars entered the state. Both just happend to have come from Missouri and there the search went cold. Wish other states were more help.
Dave

[Jay G.]

Re: If your car has EVER been titled in KS. READ T

West Virginia retains records back 50 yrs. As a of 2002.

[Gary J.]

I would like

to know about California too. I have a little history on my '66 that I have owned for 22 years now.

Gary Jaynes
#3503

[Dennis C.]

My experience with California is they...

...won't give you the time of day or anything else, either because they don't know it, or it might violate some privacy act...

[Tom A.]

Re: My experience with California is they...

North Carolina will go back as far as the first NC registration for a $5.00 fee.
Plus all copy's of the state titles.

[Joe L.]

Re: My experience with California is they...

Dennis-----

That's just about the way it is. In fact, recently some reporters in the Bay Area did a VERY interesting story. They went around to a whole "laundry list" (about 30) of governmental agencies, including police departments, city hall departments, etc. They asked each one for several specific types of information WHICH CALIFORNIA LAW SPECIFICALLY PROVIDES IS PUBLIC INFORMATION AND WHICH CALIFORNIA LAW SPECIFICALLY PROVIDES MUST BE RELEASED WITHOUT RESTRICTION AND WITHOUT THE NECESSITY OF THE REQUESTER PROVIDING ANY REASON THEY WANT OR NEED THE INFORMATION. Only ONE of the 30, or so, agencies visited would provide the requested information. In many cases, they were treated with hostility and/or "given the third degree" by agency personnel. In several cases they were told that they had to request the information IN WRITING (which the law does NOT require) and, upon subsequently making such requests in writing, they were, in every case, refused or ignored.

In California, the VAST, VAST majority of information held by state, county, and local agencies is BY LAW publicly available information. However, it seems that most agencies don't know that. So, THEY are the ones breaking the law by NOT providing the requested information.

State law provides that the only thing that government agencies are allowed to do in connection with such requests is make a reasonable charge for copies and/or research time. State law even caps the per page charge for copies and provides that, in most cases, a certain number have to be provided free of charge.

Next time that someone in California government refuses to provide requested information, ask them what SPECIFIC STATUTE OR REGULATION exempts the release of that information. If there is none, then they have to provide it, like it or not.

[William Liddle]

Re: If your car has EVER been titled in KS. READ T

tc, I did the same thing some years ago for a 1967 A/C big block sidepipe car. I managed to connect with several of the previous owners and a few sent photos of the car during their ownership. The photos (1967-70) were a great aid in documenting the big block and sidepipes before they became standard equipment on all 67s.