Number of owners?

[FTOandTVR]

My car has had 4 previous owners, two of which were in it's first year, probs garages, had a guy phone yesterday and say he was looking for 3 owners or less for resale reasons, is this a valid argument in any way?

[Nick P]

no.....condition, condition, condition

[FTOandTVR]

That's what I thought?

[griffter]

My Griff's had 9 and IMHO is all the better for it. A new owner generally injects fresh money into the car, gets it serviced etc. Sure 1 careful owner is a nice feature, but what about 1 uncareful owner? Or 1 careful owner with a misguided allegance to a poor garage etc etc. You just can't second guess - problem is once somebeody gets it into their head that more than 3 owners is a resale nightmare, you won't persuade them otherwise and they become a self-fulfilling prophecy...

[FTOandTVR]

fair comment.

[mgaut]

think you need to differentiate between the number of owners on the DVLA document, and the number of registration changes. On both my Chim and Audi a change to (and from) a personal plate seems to generate a new owner.

No idea how you would prove this to a prospective seller though.

[nig-gtv]

griffter said:

My Griff's had 9 and IMHO is all the better for it. A new owner generally injects fresh money into the car, gets it serviced etc. Sure 1 careful owner is a nice feature, but what about 1 uncareful owner? Or 1 careful owner with a misguided allegance to a poor garage etc etc. You just can't second guess - problem is once somebeody gets it into their head that more than 3 owners is a resale nightmare, you won't persuade them otherwise and they become a self-fulfilling prophecy...

I think it's difficult to second guess really....it does all come down to condition. The flipside of the argument re new owners injecting cash is that someone only intending to own a car for a short time might not be prepared to lavish the attention (money!) on maintenance that someone who intends to keep the car for several years might. The common perception is also that troublesome cars get moved on more quickly than others, hence have more owners... but again it is all speculation.

Both my TVRs have had a low number of previous owners .... my current Chim was owned until a year old by the first owner, and then sold to a colleague who kept for the 6 years until I bought it. It was definitely a plus point for me when I bought it.

[nig-gtv]

mgaut said:

think you need to differentiate between the number of owners on the DVLA document, and the number of registration changes. On both my Chim and Audi a change to (and from) a personal plate seems to generate a new owner.

No idea how you would prove this to a prospective seller though.

Probably shows on HPI?

[sparkythecat]

mgaut said:

think you need to differentiate between the number of owners on the DVLA document, and the number of registration changes. On both my Chim and Audi a change to (and from) a personal plate seems to generate a new owner.

No idea how you would prove this to a prospective seller though.

When I notified them of my change of address, DVLA made me both the current keeper at my new address and the previous keeeper at my old address.

FFS