Number of Previous Owners - Why?

[BlackR8]

Been in the market for a car recently and found a couple that were worth a closer look. However on learning more about the cars one had 13 owners and the other 10.

Now while I understand that it's all in the condition and history, but whether I agree on not the number of previous owners does impact on the value of a car and its desirability, and even if I can overcome this aspect personally then in future when trying to sell it would no doubt be a factor in how easy the car will be to sell on.

Does anyone know the rationale for why DVLA insist on recording the number of previous owners? Probably not the fairest comparison but if you were to buy a house, or a second hand bike or the likes then I don't think any of those assets a similar thing recorded.

[emperorburger]

When it comes to previous owners, think of a car more like a condom rather than a house.

[Miserablegit]

It’s probably a fair indication of how many “watch this” moments the vehicle has been subjected to.

Not really applicable to a house or push bike. At least in my case I’m happier owning a 404 year old house rather than a new one irrespective of the number of previous owners.

[davek_964]

I know (from PH) that some people care. But I'm pretty sure that nobody has ever asked me how many owners my cars have had for any that I've sold. So not sure if can make that much difference to price.

(For reference, cars I've owned / sold include Porsche 911s, Ferrari etc so are the kind of cars where people might care)

[BlackR8]

I seen a fair few threads were 'petrolheads' insist that number of owners doesn't bother them but it is more the condition/service history on the car that informs their buying decision. On this basis people do advertise their cars at the same price level as those with similar miles/year but low owners.

If I was to use the condom analogy from above then I don't care how nice the condition might be it would be a no-go if the owners was very high.

[carl_w]

BlackR8 said:

Does anyone know the rationale for why DVLA insist on recording the number of previous owners? Probably not the fairest comparison but if you were to buy a house, or a second hand bike or the likes then I don't think any of those assets a similar thing recorded.

The Land Registry records every time a house is sold and the amount it sold for.

[MattyD803]

To be fair, the number of house sales (including price) from around the early 90's is publicly available via many websites (even previous sale listing photos and detail is sometimes available).....and to be honest, I would be equally wary of a house which has sold 10-15 times since say 1995, as I would be for car that has also changed hands as many times in the last 25 years. (e.g. Noisy neighbours, disputes, parking issues etc etc).

For me personally, without having to dig too deep into a car's history, it is a sign that for whatever reason, it's not been and nor will it be a 'keeper'.....possible things that spring to mind are too thirsty, niggly or reoccurring faults, leaks perhaps, high tax, worse drive than expecting, silly service costs, crash damage etc. When buying used, amongst many other things, I naturally want low owners, as it more often than not goes hand in hand with originality, better care, consistent history, servicing documents being present, spare keys etc (Yes, I know, all very presumptive, but hey...it's part of the gut feel for me).

I for one, am glad that is an openly available piece of data.....

Edited by MattyD803 on Thursday 13th October 15:08

[coldel]

BlackR8 said:

Does anyone know the rationale for why DVLA insist on recording the number of previous owners? Probably not the fairest comparison but if you were to buy a house, or a second hand bike or the likes then I don't think any of those assets a similar thing recorded.

The DVLA has to be informed of a change of registered owner, to track vehicles across the UK. From this requirement it is then possible to know the number of previous owners. It's a derived number from the data stored for the car rather them having any rationale for just tracking the number of owners.

[Castellet]

If you are buying a used car, and carry out one of these on-line 'vehicle checks', next to Previous Keepers it often says:
Tip: Frequent keeper changes with short ownership length could indicate a problematic vehicle which nobody wanted to keep for longer. This is not always the rule but could be a sign for further investigation
Presumably why it impinges on values.

[Nurburgsingh]

Miserablegit said:

It’s probably a fair indication of how many “watch this” moments the vehicle has been subjected to.

This - if someone owns a car knowing that they're going to be getting rid of it in a few thousand miles before having to spend any money on servicing etc.. then its more likely ( in my head ) to have been driven without a second thought to mechanical sympathy etc..

[Aunty Pasty]

The owners and number of owners form part of the cars history which factor into thinking about why it has changed hands each time. Also the more owners, the more likely that it was with an owner who mistreated it or didn't care about it. Fair enough that the very first owner may be that person but the chances go up with more owners. It does affect resale value whether it's rational or not in a similar way that the paint colour affects resale value. In an ideal world we'll buy a car of whatever colour we fancy but people usually spec the car with an eye on their potential resale value so choose a colour that would potentially appeal to other people as much as themselves.

[QJumper]

For me it's more about length of ownership. If a car has had several owners, who've owned it for 2 or 3 years each, then that wouldn't bother me. However, if the last couple of owners moved it on quickly, then I'd suspect there were problems.

The flip side is a one owner car, of around 10 years old, which will usually be seen in a positive light, but it's possible (if not likely) that the owner will have got bored of it by then and might not have been inclined to spend as much on maintenance in the last couple of years. Usually people will look after a car in the first couple of years, until the novelty wears off, after that it's anyone's guess.

[Decky_Q]

I've found that if it's a halo car or a performance vehicle alot of people want to tick it off the list or experience it, but arent in it for the long term so they usually do have more owners than you would expect.

Unfortunately this also means they may buy it use it as intended and then move on after 6 months before any maintenance is needed. Then someone buys a stamp and fills the book during their ownership and sells it on. Are there records showing that all necessary work has been done? Is the same stamp used across several owners?

[coldel]

Aunty Pasty said:

The owners and number of owners form part of the cars history which factor into thinking about why it has changed hands each time. Also the more owners, the more likely that it was with an owner who mistreated it or didn't care about it. Fair enough that the very first owner may be that person but the chances go up with more owners. It does affect resale value whether it's rational or not in a similar way that the paint colour affects resale value. In an ideal world we'll buy a car of whatever colour we fancy but people usually spec the car with an eye on their potential resale value so choose a colour that would potentially appeal to other people as much as themselves.

This isn't actually true as a general rule (although I appreciate it might be in some cases) For instance any VX220 Elise type of car often has loads of owners, but this is because it is a type of car that often is 'an itch to scratch' and gets moved on. Additionally, most owners do nothing other than improve the car each time it changes hands, extra servicing, replacement of perishables etc. Certainly, I wouldnt bat an eyelid at an Elise that had 8 owners in 12 years.

The more important bit is to look at length of ownership of each owner and timings of it. vhceck can do this for you. So if you had two identical looking cars both with say 5 owners...but one had a single owner for 90% of its life then it quickly changed hands 4 times, I would be much more concerned about that than a car that had owners each owning it similar amounts of time.

[BlackR8]

Castellet said:

If you are buying a used car, and carry out one of these on-line 'vehicle checks', next to Previous Keepers it often says:
Tip: Frequent keeper changes with short ownership length could indicate a problematic vehicle which nobody wanted to keep for longer. This is not always the rule but could be a sign for further investigation
Presumably why it impinges on values.

Yes this. I assume all these car buying websites also factor in number of owners and offer a value accordingly, would be interesting to have a play and see what the impact of value is on the exact same car but toggling the number of owners.