Featured guide
Paper Trail Auto
- Recalls & Defects Who Pays for a Recall on a Used Car: Limits and Refunds Free, but not forever and not for everything. The 15-year cutoff, the 10-year reimbursement window, and what actually changes when parts are not available.
- Inspection & Condition Signs a Car Has Been Repainted: Paint Depth and Panel Gaps A paint gauge measures the distance to bare steel, not paint. What the readings prove about a repaint, and the federal label rules that date a panel.
- Contracts & Service Plans What Voids an Extended Warranty: Mods, Records, Rideshare Three published service contract forms, one question about weekend rideshare driving, three different answers. The clauses that cancel coverage, quoted.
- Title & VIN Records Branded Title vs Salvage Title in Six States Salvage, rebuilt, flood and buyback are state words, not federal ones. What each means by statute in six states, and which ones survive a move across the line.
- The Deal & the Paperwork Private Sale Title Transfer: Liens, Signatures, Tags A signed title is only half the transfer. Deadlines, notary rules, lien releases and drive-it-home permits, quoted from six state agencies and read this week.
- Running Costs & Repair Math Car Maintenance Schedule vs the Advisor’s Upsell List The word 'flush' appears nowhere in Toyota's 68-page maintenance guide. How to sort an advisor's printout into required, evidence, and upsell.
- Inspection & Condition Pre Purchase Inspection Report: Negotiate or Walk Which PPI findings convert into dollars off the price, which ones end the deal, and why a replaced air bag became the hardest line to clear in 2026.
- Contracts & Service Plans Extended Warranty Coverage Types: Exclusionary vs Stated One burst radiator hose, two contract structures, two different answers. The clauses that actually decide it, quoted from two published sample forms.
- Recalls & Defects NHTSA Complaints and TSBs: Finding Known Faults A complaint total is not a score. How to read NHTSA's complaint file, bulletin index and open investigations before you go and look at a used car.
- Recalls & Defects Federal Emissions Warranty: 8 Years, 80,000 Miles A catalytic converter quote at 74,000 miles is not automatically your bill. The federal warranty runs to every subsequent purchaser, and two dates decide it.
- The Deal & the Paperwork Window Sticker by VIN: Checking a Listing's Trim Ten real VINs, one manufacturer server, one label that actually came back — and what that PDF proves about a used listing when a VIN decode runs out of fields.