How to find out your car`s last owner?

[Mika]

Hello!

I have to ask if you know some service or company that could help me track down my car`s first owner? Is it even possible after 14 years?

I know that my car was bought from California in 1991 (1990 coupe) but I don`t know nothing else about its history in USA. After that the history is clear and I am the third owner of that car.

Only reason why I would like to know the first owner is that last winter when the car was re-painted we found out that somebody has rolled it up. There was quite much damage in a door area and the places where "over-head bar" ( I don´t know the real name=) is connected. And it was very poorly fixed up so that water had made already some damage=(

Now my car is all fixed up and looks almost new, but still it would be cool to know what happened. Second owner didn`t know anything and when he bought it mileage was only 2500miles
Now I know why the second roofpanel is missing=)

Have a nice summer to all Corvette drivers out there!
Let`s hope that gas price goes down soon, because here in Finland the price is almost 5$ per gallon already=)

-Mika

 

[c4cruiser]

CARFAX is a vehicle reporting organization that has access to vehicle title history on nearly all cars sold in the USA. It should have the record of the original issuance of a "Certificate of Title" from any of the 50 States when the car was sold each time and a new registration and proof of ownership was issued. The information you can get includes whether or not it was issued a: Salvaged/Junk" title
Rebuilt/Reconstructed title
Flood Damage title
Damage Disclosure title
Manufacturer Buyback (Lemon Law) title
Exceeds Mechanical Limits title
Not Actual Mileage title
These conditions would identify a previously wrecked vehicle or one that was damages enough to be not repairable. Sometimes shops or auto wrecking yards will buy damaged or wrecked cars and apply cosmetic fixes and resell them with title likes these. Go to www.carfax.com and look at their site. Some other Vette forums may also have members that have purchased the service and will do a CARFAX check for somebody else at no charge.

CARFAX will, for a fee, allow you to search for your car's history using the VIN number to find the title history. While the returned data has the name of the city, the state and the title number that was issued to each owner, it does not have the owner's name. Some states do not allow release of the names shown on certificate of titles to the general public. Hopefully your car won't show up on the CARFAX database as a car that had been salvaged and another title re-issued!!

Usually when a car is traded in on another and resold, the new owner may not always get any history on the prior owner. I keep all of my repair receipts and any documentation relating to my car and put it all in an envelope and that goes with the car to the new owner. Not everyone does this so individual owner history goes away.

 

[First C4]

From what I have found at the local DMV they will not give you the info from the title numbers. So they know who and where but keep it to themselves.

 

[Mika]

c4cruiser many thanks for the address. It worked very well and easily.

Unfortunately my car was found Salvage Title in california=(
I still try to find which dealer used it because it was wrecked very early stage beause it wasn`t never registered in any form. There wasn`t any detailed information so maybe it was damaged during transportation to dealer or something.

I keep searching=)

Have fun while cruising!

 

[First C4]

I know what the original selling dealer was, I know it was traded in 89 to another chevy dealer and purchased that same year by the second owner who I have been able to speak with. The original dealer does not have paperwork, nor does the traded dealership. Looks like I will never find the dealer, unless he looks here...who knows. I need a friend in the DMV that can run a title number and give me some info. It is all about who you know.

 

[Borack]

Here is some help

I know what the original selling dealer was, I know it was traded in 89 to another chevy dealer and purchased that same year by the second owner who I have been able to speak with. The original dealer does not have paperwork, nor does the traded dealership. Looks like I will never find the dealer, unless he looks here...who knows. I need a friend in the DMV that can run a title number and give me some info. It is all about who you know.

Find someone who has a subscription to "AutoTrack", or get one yourself for that matter...(It aint cheap !!) It's a service mostly used by Law Enforcement. P.I.'s ect. You can track the VIN from all 50 states with one button (and Purteo Rico..!) as well as anybody or anything!! www.autotrack.com

 

[First C4]

Find someone who has a subscription to "AutoTrack", or get one yourself for that matter...(It aint cheap !!) It's a service mostly used by Law Enforcement. P.I.'s ect. You can track the VIN from all 50 states with one button (and Purteo Rico..!) as well as anybody or anything!! www.autotrack.com

I found nothing with the fees for application, nor ordering information. Do you know someone that could run my VIN and get more information than Carfax can. I have the title numbers from Carfax, that is all. I could fill out the application, but it appears they check the information on it. So no fake tax id information. Now I have to figure out how to find someone that has this service.

 

[Borack]

I found nothing with the fees for application, nor ordering information. Do you know someone that could run my VIN and get more information than Carfax can. I have the title numbers from Carfax, that is all. I could fill out the application, but it appears they check the information on it. So no fake tax id information. Now I have to figure out how to find someone that has this service.

If you know any P.I.s, detectives or your insurance company probably have access to Autotrack...There is no application fee for Autotrack, you are charged for specific usage..Vin checks cost so much, DL checks, address checks..Each has thier own individual cost..My agencies monthly autotrack bill runs about 1900.00 to 2500.00 but saves enormous amounts of man hours trying to hunt the information.

 

[rwpeders]

I found nothing with the fees for application, nor ordering information. Do you know someone that could run my VIN and get more information than Carfax can. I have the title numbers from Carfax, that is all. I could fill out the application, but it appears they check the information on it. So no fake tax id information. Now I have to figure out how to find someone that has this service.

If you are looking for the original dealer - the one the car was sent to by the factory, you can order a copy of your window sticker from the National Corvette Museum. They have all for corvettes built in Bowling Green and some from those that were built in St. Louis. You can also get a copy of the original build sheet, which hows all the options put on the car. It too will show the dealer charged with the car and the dealer the car was shipped to.

 

[First C4]

If you are looking for the original dealer - the one the car was sent to by the factory, you can order a copy of your window sticker from the National Corvette Museum. They have all for corvettes built in Bowling Green and some from those that were built in St. Louis. You can also get a copy of the original build sheet, which hows all the options put on the car. It too will show the dealer charged with the car and the dealer the car was shipped to.

I have the build sheet, and it lists the local dealer who sold the vette. There is also a sticker in the center console that lists the dealers name and a certification of "checkout/inspection" Dated 5-16-1986

 

[SSTibet]

Mika,

What will you do even if you found the first owner??? What if the guy (or gal) tells you "hey I was speeding and ıt rolled over and became a piece of crap"...

Enjoy the car buddy and forget what happened in the past. Hey, maybe you will have to admit to its next owner when u sell it, right? So if you dont know it you dont have to admit it either...

 

[Mika]

Well sometimes you find intresting things like me and I have been tracking my car only one week. Last owner told my that my car was from Hollywood and is was used in a movie. Thats why it never wasn`t in registered or delivered to dealer=)
Now I have to find out just which company had it. Maybe you think why to search bad things out from the past. But after spending a lot of money to repairing those damages its cool to know car`s history=)

 

[KREX 725]

Sometimes you can find out some interesting stuff when you track the history of your car.

When I bought mine, I had to take it to a dealer for some work. The tech ran my VIN and discovered the car was originally sold 2 miles down the road at another dealer (I drove hundreds of miles to buy it). So it was kinda like I brought him home, or so I like to think.

 

[oceangal]

maybe its one of these, its a list of corvettes used in movies:

http://www.imcdb.org/vehicles.php?m...76&PHPSESSID=8986701b6a8257ef307e9ec892350976