Previous Owners - Why is more seen as bad?
Discussion
I shall explain.
If a car has had one owner for five years, that person might have been a dreadful driver and poor maintainer of the car. They might have hooned it, rarely washed it, revved the testicles off of it when cold.... The list goes on.
Chuck a second owner in and you average things out. Less chance that both owners were idiots. Add in a third and chances are at least one of them looked after it.
Don't get me wrong, one owner who really cared for a car is ideal, but the point for discussion is that a car with a greater number of owners means that there's less chance that it has always been mistreated.
If a car has had one owner for five years, that person might have been a dreadful driver and poor maintainer of the car. They might have hooned it, rarely washed it, revved the testicles off of it when cold.... The list goes on.
Chuck a second owner in and you average things out. Less chance that both owners were idiots. Add in a third and chances are at least one of them looked after it.
Don't get me wrong, one owner who really cared for a car is ideal, but the point for discussion is that a car with a greater number of owners means that there's less chance that it has always been mistreated.
LordHaveMurci said:
Suggests the car could be a lemon & people pass it on rather than stick with it & spend the money to sort it out.
This. There's an immediate assumption that the car has recurring problems that nobody wants to pay to fix. Likely nonsense - but then "common sense" is incredibly uncommon.Saw a minter of a car recently, a real beauty. No expense spared, just have various work done, just had £1200 worth of tyres, just had a detail etc.
Then I read 7 owners
Thats not necessarily a bad thing, just means extra checks have to be made to confirm all of those 7 owners were good duys, treated th car sympathetically and didn't skrimp on maintenance.
The other thing I try and check is sale dates. If 3 of those 7 owners were in the last year that would ring alarm bells of a serious problem to expensive to fix.
You can check this by the invoice name and address on garage paperwork if they've had any work done.
Then I read 7 owners
Thats not necessarily a bad thing, just means extra checks have to be made to confirm all of those 7 owners were good duys, treated th car sympathetically and didn't skrimp on maintenance.
The other thing I try and check is sale dates. If 3 of those 7 owners were in the last year that would ring alarm bells of a serious problem to expensive to fix.
You can check this by the invoice name and address on garage paperwork if they've had any work done.
Depends on the type of car. Convertibles can have more owners because they are often bought as summer toys. The dea of a 2 seater ragtop appeals for a while, then winter, and practicality issues kick in.
I would beware of a car that had had a lot of short term owners unless it was a ragtop or something.
I would beware of a car that had had a lot of short term owners unless it was a ragtop or something.
Edited by wildcat45 on Monday 25th November 22:42
I had this when I sold my Type R, the most important thing to many enquiring parties was how many previous owners it had had, rather than anything about the actual condition of the car. I had even stated in the advert that I'd had the car nearly 3 years myself, so it should have been clear that I wasn't just moving a dodgy old lemon on.
ks.I've bought clearly neglected and/or too many previous owner cars before. You just have to go in expecting to replace 4 tyres with something good quality, replace all discs and pads, rebush most of the suspension and fit new dampers and give the car a full service inc replacing all fluids.
Anything you find you don't have to do because it's already been done or isn't knackered is a bonus.
Anything you find you don't have to do because it's already been done or isn't knackered is a bonus.
The Moose said:
One may say its a good thing - each new owner takes care of their new expensive purchase and has enthusiasm to fix any faults at time of purchase etc.
I've found the opposite sadly. People are told to buy on condition, which is fine. They then own the car with the attitude that it's in good condition and doesn't need anything done. If it doesn't fail an MOT, nothing gets spent.People who indulge in preventative maintenance or indeed just want the car to feel a bit tighter are an extremely rare breed in my opinion.
essayer said:
I saw a Polo at the weekend that had three previous owners.
It was 9 months old and had done 12,000 miles
Dealership or private sale? It's possible the original dealership was at least one of those previous owners. It was 9 months old and had done 12,000 miles
When I bought my 645 the (private) dealer told me it was a one-owner car. Right enough, if you did a HPI on the private plate it was on, it was one owner. But do a HPI on it's original plate and it showed 5 previous owners. I never let on to the dealer as he had already knocked a sizable chunk off the asking price and it was a South London dealer so took everything he said with a pinch of salt. When I looked into it (before buying), 3 of the 6 owners were dealerships which helped to account for things.
My MG ZT has something like 10 previous owners, the car is a shed, and I bought it for shed money; it has a few problems but it's not unreliable. I've put 10k miles on it since buying it. I have no idea why it's been shifted on so much (averages out at about 1 owner a year since new) and I know pretty much nothing about its history.
Edited by George7 on Monday 25th November 11:08
I bought an approved used car and made the mistake of not checking out the paperwork... because it was Approved Used, surely I wouldn't have to?
I learned my lesson- my 4 year old car had 3 owners and was serviced by a variety of under-the-arches sorts.
And do you know what? I still own it 3 years on, and apart from a faulty air-mass sensor and a bent suspension swing arm- the latter caused by me not noticing a speed bump- it's been flawless. Just because there are more owners than average doesn't necessarily mean that what you're buying is poor.
Mind you, if I'd seen 3 owners in 12 months, or similar, alarm bells would ring. And I'd be a little more wary of Approved Used cars in future.
I learned my lesson- my 4 year old car had 3 owners and was serviced by a variety of under-the-arches sorts.
And do you know what? I still own it 3 years on, and apart from a faulty air-mass sensor and a bent suspension swing arm- the latter caused by me not noticing a speed bump- it's been flawless. Just because there are more owners than average doesn't necessarily mean that what you're buying is poor.
Mind you, if I'd seen 3 owners in 12 months, or similar, alarm bells would ring. And I'd be a little more wary of Approved Used cars in future.
What about this as an alternate hypothesis - given your scenario below:
If a car has an owner who plans to keep it for five years (and subsequently keeps it for five years) I think its more likely they will look after it.
If someone buys a car with the intention of upgrading it in a year or two - then I think its less likely they will look after it as well (though of course not to the detriment of its re-sale)?
To me multiple owners does not signify a lemon - more that the more different people have driven a car the more likely its been subjected to more abuse... i.e. lets say 1 in 3 drivers are just bad sympathetically when it comes to a car - the more owners that a car has had the more likely it has been driven by a bad driver... !
If a car has an owner who plans to keep it for five years (and subsequently keeps it for five years) I think its more likely they will look after it.
If someone buys a car with the intention of upgrading it in a year or two - then I think its less likely they will look after it as well (though of course not to the detriment of its re-sale)?
To me multiple owners does not signify a lemon - more that the more different people have driven a car the more likely its been subjected to more abuse... i.e. lets say 1 in 3 drivers are just bad sympathetically when it comes to a car - the more owners that a car has had the more likely it has been driven by a bad driver... !
budfox said:
I shall explain.
If a car has had one owner for five years, that person might have been a dreadful driver and poor maintainer of the car. They might have hooned it, rarely washed it, revved the testicles off of it when cold.... The list goes on.
Chuck a second owner in and you average things out. Less chance that both owners were idiots. Add in a third and chances are at least one of them looked after it.
If a car has had one owner for five years, that person might have been a dreadful driver and poor maintainer of the car. They might have hooned it, rarely washed it, revved the testicles off of it when cold.... The list goes on.
Chuck a second owner in and you average things out. Less chance that both owners were idiots. Add in a third and chances are at least one of them looked after it.
budfox said:
I shall explain.
If a car has had one owner for five years, that person might have been a dreadful driver and poor maintainer of the car. They might have hooned it, rarely washed it, revved the testicles off of it when cold.... The list goes on.
.
Certainly on a lot of the sort of cars that PHers buy with steep depreciation curves I think there is a fair bit of logic to it:If a car has had one owner for five years, that person might have been a dreadful driver and poor maintainer of the car. They might have hooned it, rarely washed it, revved the testicles off of it when cold.... The list goes on.
.
If you buy a car for £40k you will have both the finances and motivation to maintain it at all cost. To you that car remains a £40k car long after depreciation renders it relatively cheap.
The second owner is someone who has a £20k budget but is maintaining a £40k car at that budget. Still fine.
4 owners later and you have someone who is buying the car for £8k yet having to try and maintain a car worth many times the value.
THis person will be maintaining it on a relative shoestring in comparison
Had the original owner still got it, there is every chance he would still be getting main dealer servicing and doing everything they told him needed doing
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