visible23

I'm in the process of looking for a C4 or C4S to buy and many, many cars that I have found on the market have been through multiple owners to the point of ridiculousness.

Anyone know why or have a theory about why these cars have had so many owners and have traipsed across the country *****-nilly? Lemons? Accidents? Many also started their lives being registered as "for corporate use". Is that some kind of Carfax euphamism that I don't understand?

Along similar lines anyone know any quick checks for a car having been hit that I could run through when looking at a car?

As always, thanks a million.

Matt

Texas993

I find that Carfax overstates the number of owners. Corporate use may mean it was initially leased. In the past one of my cars showed 4 prior owners, when I know it was just 2. Maybe some records from the DMV, like moving to a different state, show as a new owner.

Bull

I have seen moving to a different state show up as a new "owner" on my cars. I think they are really reporting changes in registration, which may not be an ownership change. Some states also report purchases made for resale. I think it requires more info than just Carfax before you can draw a conclusion.

993polarsilver

My car had one previous owner, but the Carfax showed four. Three were corporate entities, such as the lease company, his company, etc. This is common according to DMV and others who are aware of this sort of thing. Try checking the service records as well to determine how many people might have owned the car. Good luck.

chris walrod

Carfax is full of errors and is only accurate as the reporting systems it uses. I am shown as fourth owner on my car, but actually second as it was first leased 'corporate', then titled after lease was 'up' to the original owner. Owner later sold it to a consignment auto broker, who also got their name on the ownership list. WTF?

Anyhow, Carfax is good to purchase just to try and dig-up as much information as possible when purchasing a car..

friar93

In the past I have unregistered(is this a real word?) my car in the winter and reregistered it in the spring. Does anyone know if that would cause a 'new owner' trigger......maybe another explaination for you.

JT

Paulsha911

I bought a car from an Ohio Honda dealer a couple of years ago. The dealer registered a temporary license and put it on a truck to California. The leasing company then registered it in CA. And I am in the process of figuring out how to "buy it" and then flip to a new buyer.

So, that's 3 "ownership changes" in CarFax even though it was all me.

robroy72

Carfax is really only useful for verifying mileage and to see if the car has been in an accident that was reported to insurance. Other items in the reports are flaky at best.

hawk993

RE"Carfax is full of errors and is only accurate as the reporting systems it uses. I am shown as fourth owner on my car, but actually second as it was first leased 'corporate', then titled after lease was 'up' to the original owner. Owner later sold it to a consignment auto broker, who also got their name on the ownership list. WTF?"
this seems right...1st owner would be the company that bought it to lease it, 2nd would be the guy who then bought the car after the lease was up, 3rd was the company who bought the car to sell it as the consignment shop, then 4th would be you, seems to make sense.

chris walrod

The fist legal owner and the second legal owner was the same person. The consignment company never titled the car, as it was not owned by them, rather the person who bought the car new (actually leased it and then bought it later). This is why the confusion amongst many new higher-end car owners..

hawk993

yes it does seem confusing doesn't it.. check out the gt3 video it's pretty cool