Why so many owners? Help!

ccd18

ccd18

ccd18

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12 Dec 2023
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8
Location
scotland
Hi guys! I wonder if anyone could help me with this…. I’m looking to sell my car soon but I think the amount of previous owners is going to cause me an issue. Does anyone have any idea why some of them have owned the car for such a short time? I’m confused! The car is 2017 plate, golf estate, great condition and 55k miles.

Owner 1 - 3 years, 4 months
Owner 2 - 42 days
Owner 3 - 95 days
Owner 4 - 30 days
Owner 5 - 33 days
Owner 6 - 144 days
Owner 7 (me) - 2 years, 4 months
 
ccd18 said:
Hi guys! I wonder if anyone could help me with this…. I’m looking to sell my car soon but I think the amount of previous owners is going to cause me an issue. Does anyone have any idea why some of them have owned the car for such a short time? I’m confused! The car is 2017 plate, golf estate, great condition and 55k miles.

Owner 1 - 3 years, 4 months
Owner 2 - 42 days
Owner 3 - 95 days
Owner 4 - 30 days
Owner 5 - 33 days
Owner 6 - 144 days
Owner 7 (me) - 2 years, 4 months
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Did you not think to ask when you purchased the car?

It's anyone's guess but would be red flag if I was a buyer
 
Begbie said:
No one will ever be able to tell you why, don't advertise it and let people do their own research. Some people won't care.
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Yeah, I suppose that’s the only way to go with it. I know no one is able to tell me, I was just wondering if there were any reasons as to why a car would be owned for a short time that I hadn’t known/thought about. I don’t know it businesses would ever use it for a short time or anything like that
 
That does seem odd. At a guess it may have had a reoccurring problem that others couldn't fix until owner 6 fixed it? Do you have any invoices or paperwork from the previous owners for work on the car? Or possibly it was due to the covid lockdown with each owner being unable to use it much?

I'll be honest it would put me off although you having it for a couple of years does help a bit.
 
looks like a lease car based on 1st owner. but thats purely speculation based on having many leases, maybe it got sold to an auction house then again a few times until it finally came to you. thats standard for lease cars.
 
Various reasons, some worse than others, my guess for the time period involved (looks to be around 2020) is that it was amateur traders trying to make a bit of quick money during COVID (whilst prices were all over the place) buying and selling cars but not able to put them into the trade, so each sale was adding an owner.
 
Sometimes it's a lemon, sometimes it just happens.

If it's a lemon you are probably going to notice before the 3 month warranty is up (actually you get 6 months to take it back accordingly to the legislation)
 
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The number of owners at short intervals would put me off, it suggests it might have been through the trade a few times until it landed with the previous owner before you.
If you have had it serviced regularly and the MOT history comes up clean you have the basic things in place to sell it.

If you offer a test drive to prospective buyers and have documentation to show re servicing and MOT's it should sell, how close a sale price is to your hoped for price is the only issue I think?

Good luck with your sale.
 
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So that’s 5 owners in just under a year, the fact that the first had it for 3 years and you’ve had it for 2 will be reassuring for any potential buyer.
To me obviously the 5 in the middle were trade of some kind.
Sounds a decent buy to me, probably expect to sell for slightly under the normal price but not much.
 
The only thing I can add that’s not already been said is that the car could have been damaged previously and sold through auctions (AIA, CoPart) and repaired. Not all of them are recorded as CAT-N or S on MIAFTR where they should be. If you run a salvage check on it (Vcheck, Car Vertical) they’ll let you know if there’s any salvage history.
 
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jpaul said:
how many miles elapsed between annual MOT's too - that would say a lot about owners motives.
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MOT 1 - 35,407

MOT 2 - 36,810

MOT 3 - 44,610

MOT 5 - 55,132



So after the first owner having it for the 3 and a bit years it had the 35k, and then I bought it at the 36,810k MOT mark. So those 5 owners in between only clocked a total of 1403 miles between them, and all had it for such a short time. Most people have suggested it’s probably a case of traders/auctions.
 
Meatball said:
The only thing I can add that’s not already been said is that the car could have been damaged previously and sold through auctions (AIA, CoPart) and repaired. Not all of them are recorded as CAT-N or S on MIAFTR where they should be. If you run a salvage check on it (Vcheck, Car Vertical) they’ll let you know if there’s any salvage history.
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No salvage or damage history on it
 
Really odd, my car is almost 18 years old and i am the 2nd owner

owner one 7 years
me 10 years

i would never buy a car with history like that one
 
ccd18 said:
MOT 1 - 35,407

MOT 2 - 36,810

MOT 3 - 44,610

MOT 5 - 55,132



So after the first owner having it for the 3 and a bit years it had the 35k, and then I bought it at the 36,810k MOT mark. So those 5 owners in between only clocked a total of 1403 miles between them, and all had it for such a short time. Most people have suggested it’s probably a case of traders/auctions.
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sounds about right to be fair, they normally mot it before sale to show that everything is ok.
 
Don't trust MOTs done by a dealer. It's fraud to hide things on an MOT but they try it anyway.

I've learned my lesson from that. Get it re-MOTed and if it fails take it straight back.
 
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oh yea i know but thats the practise isnt it, trader sells the car and does an mot before hand

was looking at a car a while ago that had an oil leak on a previous mot, trader re mot'd it, i asked why it wasnt there anymore and trader couldnt explain it, sale promptly cancelled.
 
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