Previous owners - how many is too many?

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
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I've always been rather fond of the idea of cars with only one owner, or at the most, two before yourself.

How many do you guys feel reasonable, and why? I'm looking at a car at the moment which is otherwise pretty much exactly what I am after, but it has a total of 5 previous owners. The car is coming up for 6 years old - it is an X reg (So the first of the facelift E39s).

It has FSH and is apparently immaculate, but for some reason I felt a dip in my enthusiasm when they said how many previous owners the car has had. The current owner has had it for nearly a year and has a properly genuine reason for sale (I wont go into why, but I'm 100% certain it is being sold for the right reasons).

So, on average, a new owner every year. Would this put you off, and why? It's putting me off which is a shame as the car is otherwise just what I'm after.
 
I look at the overall condition of the car rather than the number of owners...

That said, the Shuv was owned by the same guy (a vicar!) from 1982 until late 2004 then by one guy from then until I bought it in august 2006.

*n
 
I tend to think that if I had the money to buy a car which cost more than your average motor (i.e. new 5 series territory), I would have the money to change it yearly or every 2 years so a couple of owners is ok, but 5?!
 
I dont really thinks its a problem aslong as the condition of the car is good.

Down the line there could have been a few owners that had to sell on the car. You never know but aslong as the condition of the car is good and your happy with it, who cares about how many owners it has had.

Go for it!
 
Depends, one side of me thinks, umm that many owners problem car?

Another side says its what i've been looking for if its in good condition go for it!
 
Mmm no not really, it certainly wouldn't put me off buying a car if there were no other negativities against it (like in your case).

Saying that I'd be more happy a "fun" car having more owners than say a barge, can't really explain why though...

I'm the 4th owner in 6 years and theres nothing wrong with mine :)
 
Number of owners is immaterial. If the car has been well maintained, it's been well maintained, no need to worry.

Or are you worried that your new toy has been "sullied" and driven hard by many many people? ;)
 
Didn't put me off mine, it had 33k and 5 owners when I bought it.

It's sat on 58k now and is just running in nicely :)

I was lucky though, I know the last two owners cherished the thing, can't speak for the owners previous to that though.

Wasn't worried that a previous owner had driven it hard, I'd have thought they all would have done, you don't buy cars like that and not drive them :)
 
I'm the 5th owner in 6 years on my GT, no reason to doubt it's any less genuine than 1 owner.

Ifthe car is in good condition, at the right price, and it's what you want, I wouldn't let the number of owners put you off.
 
I'd be more concerned about who they were than how many of them there were.

My gran used to buy a new (as in brand new) car every single year and probably did about 5,000 miles on them before selling them. I'd rather 5 owners like that than have someone that ragged it to death for 5 years then got rid before there were any major problems.
 
I don't think I'll ever buy a car with 4 previous owners or more. My dad deals in a lot of cars and there must be a reason why the number of owners is high especially for a car which is less than 4-5 years old. I wouldn't like to buy it and then find out. However, this is just mine and my dad thoughts. If you like the car, and you certainly convienced that it is nop notch, then go for it. Obviously don't pay too much for it.
 
If I was paying a lot then I think I'd be concerned about it having lots of owners. Depends on the car really. One of my cars has had lots of previous keepers but, it turned out that one person had actually owned the car at 3 different times during its life. Can't you do what I did and contact the previous owners and ask about the car?
 
Nathan said:
Too many for age of car imo
Click to expand...
I was thinking there very same.

Take my car : 1990 H reg Rover 216GTI - 5 owners, last owner had it for around 5 or more years and had the car stored for 3 years.

I paid the grand sum of £350 for it with 118,000 miles and FSH, for the money the car was in good condition and runs fine and dandy.

For me this was a bargain and I would certainly be put off a car that had 5 owners in 5 years, for a car thats around ten years old I woul consider fiver owners ok.
 
In many ways I see a car with high mileage, lack of service and lots of owners as one that'll go on to do the same in the future - lesser used cars that are more anally protected might not have the same boast. Horses for courses, but you can keep your £500 official services.
 
Can't say I've ever worried or really been put off by number of owners. Usually I've gont to see a car, and only when I'm looking at the documents notice the number of owners.

My bike had 4 previous owners and it'd only done 10k! Doesn't mean anythig about the bike though other than perhaps its a bit of a summer toy for the previous owners.
 
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