(1) The secretary of state, upon receipt of a properly endorsed certificate of title and application for transfer of registration accompanied by the required fee, shall transfer the registration thereof under its registration number to the newly acquired vehicle and shall issue a new registration certificate and certificate of title as upon an original registration.

    (2) The secretary of state shall retain and appropriately file every surrendered certificate of title, the file to be so maintained as to permit the tracing of title of the vehicles designated in the file for a period of 6 years, except that records of stolen vehicles reported in section 253 may be destroyed after being maintained on file for the year of entry plus 4 years.

    (3) The secretary of state shall retain the records for 2 years after the date of notification that a vehicle has been processed for scrap.