Don't have to report wrecks or getting totaled in Ok. or Ark???

Question

A friend told me that if a car is wrecked or totaled in Oklahoma or Arkansas that it doesn't show on the title??? Is this still true?

Answer 1

That depends.  If the car is truly totaled, an insurance company will brand the title 'salvage' and then resell it to a parts yard, body shop, or rebuildarer.

BUT

Lets say you are tooling around in a 1971 pickup, and you run off the road and hit a tree.  Since no one else was involved, it is just your vehicle that is damaged.  If you report that to insurance, your rates will go up.  So, in a case like this, you may just tow that old clunker home, and sell it to a scrap yard or some other private party.

The car was wrecked.  There was no police report.  Insurance was not involved.  This car will not have a salvage title unless someone else does it.

You could even repair that clunker and sell it on a clean title - for all the reasons I just named.

Under those circumstances, or similar ones, the car will not be branded

Answer 2

It isn't true now or ever. Any time a vehicle is destroyed beyond repair it would have a "branded" or "salvage" title.

Answer 3

You have strange friends.  Come to my towing company, I'll show you a hand full of both "Salvage" and "Junk" titles that are the direct result of a car being totaled in Oklahoma.  I went to the tow board and asked some companies in Arkansas, and they assure me they have them also.