I am waiting to hear back from Virginia DMV on the following question, but thought I would check here as well. This may vary state to state, but in general, does the title number on a vehicle registration have a digit or letter that indicates wether the title it is assigned to is the first title, second title, etc? And if so, does it change only when ownership changes, or would it change when a title is lost and re-issued for example? I was fortunate enough to have two previous owner's registrations in the glove box of my car when purchased; the first number of the first owner's title number is a 1 and the first number of the second owner's title number is a 2. Someone mentioned to me that they though PA title numbers had an "A" for first title issued, "B" for second etc. Anyone know how this works for certain?

Thanks,
Richard.

 

In WI there is nothing like that but it states previously titled in state... I've heard of the A,B thing like in AZ they have box A, Box B i think and it has to do with mileage.

 

Thanks for the info, I'll post back whatever I find out from VA DMV

 

Answer from VA DMV:

"The title number does not represent the number of prior titles issued on a particular vehicle, those numbers are generated numerically in order as titles are generated in DMV's system for all vehicles, not just one vehicle particularly."

Given the above answer I suppose you can tell by the title number if one owner registration pre-dates another but since they are dated with an issue and expiration date for that year anyway, that is not much help. Would have been nice if the title number had a specific digit that tied in to number of owners.