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Old Sep 11, 2008 | 12:20 AM
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I am looking at a '99 C5 that has had 7 previous owners, gone from Indiana to Texas to California (auction) to the dealer in Reno. Anyone have any suggestions as to how I might be able to find out who any of those owners were?
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Old Sep 11, 2008 | 12:37 AM
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I know I am not answering your question. However, I would be asking myself these questions before I would buy this car.

• Why so many owners on one car?
• 7 different owners… minimum of 7 different type of drivers… hard & reckless, abusive driver, good driver, bad driver, etc.
• Is it the car a lemon, and that’s why it is going from one owner to the next.
• How many collision has it been in?
• There got to be a reason for each one of the sales… and they all cannot be good reasons.

Bottom line, I wouldn’t buy it. Believe me, there is a lot of good Vettes for sale, without all that baggage.
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Old Sep 11, 2008 | 02:32 AM
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Originally Posted by 1FUNVTT
..............Bottom line, I wouldn’t buy it. Believe me, there is a lot of good Vettes for sale, without all that baggage.
My vette had three previous owners when I purchased it with 25K on the clock and no problems. As a general guideline, what 1FUNVTT says is totally true and good advice. However, if you heart is really set on the car (e.g. price point, Mod's, place of sale), a good and reputable mechanic's inspection and CarFax report can go a long way.

I think vette people in general keep good records. If you work backward from the person you are buying from, you may be able to find previous owners. But for privacy reasons, people might not want to give that stuff out. In my case, I was able to get the name of the 2nd owner of my car from the 3rd owner (seller).
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Old Sep 11, 2008 | 07:30 AM
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That's one heck of a lot of owners. A good mechanic looking over the car might be able to tell you if there are any issues, but personally I'd shy away from it - too many other cars out there that are still on the first or second owner.
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Old Sep 11, 2008 | 07:34 AM
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some people buy and sell a Corvette each year. drive it for the summer, liquidate the cash at the end of the drive season instead of storing...

Check carfax and have a mechanic you trust check it out.
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Old Sep 11, 2008 | 09:49 AM
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Originally Posted by 1FUNVTT
I know I am not answering your question. However, I would be asking myself these questions before I would buy this car.

• Why so many owners on one car?
• 7 different owners… minimum of 7 different type of drivers… hard & reckless, abusive driver, good driver, bad driver, etc.
• Is it the car a lemon, and that’s why it is going from one owner to the next.
• How many collision has it been in?
• There got to be a reason for each one of the sales… and they all cannot be good reasons.

Bottom line, I wouldn’t buy it. Believe me, there is a lot of good Vettes for sale, without all that baggage.
Suggest you really do your homework on this car before you pull the purchase trigger.
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Old Sep 11, 2008 | 11:50 AM
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Well the car may show up as having so many owners but that does not mean that the car was actually driven. What happens at auctions is dealers buy them then trade them for other cars with other dealers. Every trade will show as a new owner. I see this alot.. But always check the Carfax and make sure it has a clean title, Do a little research on the car.
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