Stolen cars in Western Europe wind up in Eastern Europe most of the time. But what happens in the U.S.? It's one system, isn't it? When they can't be registered anywhere else, do they all get stripped for parts? How huge is the market?
VIN swaps can be done by taking the VIN of a totaled car, and using it on another vehicle and registering it as "rebuilt/salvage" - I'm sure they're other ways, but that's the most common afaik
But shouldn't that be relatively easy to check? I mean, how many cars are actually rebuilt/salvaged per year. If Portland alone has 10,000 thefts per year, throughout the U.S. most rebuild/salvaged cars would have to be stolen.