Used car owners soon could receive vital information about vehicles that may not have been previously accessible.

The Illinois General Assembly will vote this week on the Used Car Buyers Right-to-Know Bill. If approved, the bill will help protect used car buyers from purchasing shoddy vehicles.

The bill, sponsored by state senators James Meeks (D-Calumet City) and Kirk Dillard (R-Westmont), would change state policy and require the Illinois Department of Transportation to disclose the police reports of auto accident history records of used vehicles.

“There has been a move over the past couple of years about trying to find out the past history of automobiles,” State Sen. Brad Burzynski (R-Sycamore) said.

Consumers may be in the dark when it comes to the history of vehicles and where they came from.

“One of the issues regarding used cars has been people that are buying cars from Hurricane Katrina-ravaged areas,” State Rep. Bob Pritchard (R-Hinkley) said. “We need to protect people who might potentially buy a vehicle that has been damaged like that.”

Information services have been organized to protect people from buying unreliable vehicles.

One service available to consumers is CARFAX.com. Through the site, consumers can enter the vehicle identification number and find out if the car has been stolen, leased, damaged or auctioned in the past.

Although CARFAX is a valuable service, problems do arise from its use. Entering the wrong VIN can lead to inaccurate reports.

“I am very concerned about the opportunity for misinformation,” Burzynski said. “Some people could look up the wrong information and that could be detrimental to the person selling the vehicle.”

Some prevalent car dealerships have disclosed history and accident reports to their customers prior to this new proposed bill.

One example, Joe Rizza dealerships in Orland Park, makes history reports available to buyers on every used vehicle.

“We automatically run history reports and disclose accident reports to our customers,” said Bill Kay, a sales manager at Joe Rizza.

If the used car bill is approved, it will be a major step toward efforts made by the state to protect used car buyers.

“My premise is that consumers ought to have information to allow them to make a decision and not an assumption,” Pritchard said.

Illinois and Oregon are the only two states that do not make accident reports available to its consumers.