is there anyway to get the history of who owned my car before me. besides the person i bought it from.

is there anyway to get the history of who owned my car before me. besides the person i bought it from.

Its tough...do you have anything to go by? DMV won't help with classic cars at all.

You need to look at maintenace records. Ask him who he bought it from? Look on the title for other names? Other than that...it's unlikely. You'll probably never find the ORIGINAL owner of the car...I'm in the same boat, I can only trace it back to around 1984...

If you can get a name or maybe location...perhaps.

If you find a buildsheet in the car that has the bottom left corner intact, you may be able to find out WHAT dealership the car was first shipped to out of the factory...what year car is it?

Most DMVs keep ownership records for registered vehicles for 20 years or possibly longer. And most DMVs will do a title search for a fee. Start the title search in the state from whom you bought the car. Depending on how far back this search goes, it will stop either when you reach the end of the retained records, or when the car came into that state from a different one. If the car came in from another state, initiate a title search in that state. You will finally reach a dead in when the records reach the end of their time frame. If nothing else, you will get names of people who previously registered the car, and might be able to find their address and/or phone number. I was able to track mine back to 1988, was able to locate that person, and found that that he bought it from the original owner. What luck!

Privacy laws prevent the DMV from giving out any personal information such as names and addresses.

privacy laws prevent the dmv from giving out any personal information such as names and addresses.


x2

Quote:
Originally Posted by tunes http://www.chevelles.com/forums/olp/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2650689#post2650689)
privacy laws prevent the dmv from giving out any personal information such as names and addresses.


x2

That could very well be the case now. However, I did title searches through four states starting in January '09 and received the final search in June. Maybe each state has the option to reveal this or not. The hardest part of the searches was finding the correct form to fill out requesting the info.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tunes http://www.chevelles.com/forums/olp/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2650689#post2650689)
privacy laws prevent the dmv from giving out any personal information such as names and addresses.




That could very well be the case now. However, I did title searches through four states starting in January '09 and received the final search in June. Maybe each state has the option to reveal this or not. The hardest part of the searches was finding the correct form to fill out requesting the info.

OHIO and INDIANA will not release that information, I was on the phone with them a week ago, and on top of that they said they have no records for car more than 6 years ago on the computer so...it won't help most of us if we're trying to get to the original owner, a lot of these cars have seen many mine has seen 6 in the last 15 years and I still haven't reached nor know of the original owner or where it was bought new...

Most of use are screwed. :(

I guess I got lucky,my Chevelles original owner tracked ME down,trying to find his car.:)

Looks like it's possible in New Jersey, sounds like you might need to pull in a favor from a buddy at a dealership-

http://www.state.nj.us/mvc/pdf/Licenses/CAIR_Online_User_Guide.pdf

They are not supposed to give out personal information according to the federal anti-stalking law BUT it depends on which clerk you get.

A lot of people couldn't care less if they follow the rules and many just do as they please as soon as you're not watching them.
Plus new employees may not even know.

OHIO and INDIANA will not release that information, I was on the phone with them a week ago, and on top of that they said they have no records for car more than 6 years ago on the computer so...it won't help most of us if we're trying to get to the original owner, a lot of these cars have seen many mine has seen 6 in the last 15 years and I still haven't reached nor know of the original owner or where it was bought new...

Most of use are screwed. :(

Alek:
I will PM you sometime tomorrow. My last title info came from Indiana, 6 months ago. All my searches were submitted on state forms, found on their website. Could be they will cooperate if request is in writing.

Alek:
I will PM you sometime tomorrow. My last title info came from Indiana, 6 months ago. All my searches were submitted on state forms, found on their website. Could be they will cooperate if request is in writing.


Thanks Jeff, Please do. I really wanted to get this done, but was despondent after the phone calls. :(


:beers:

I found a check receipt under the rear seat of my 70 ... had a name and address on it and I tracked the person down. Researched back to 1984 but hit a wall :( Apparently the original motor was already pulled by '84, darn kids must of blew it up back in the day.

CA DMV records are purged after seven years being out of system. I don't believe CA would give out any info on prior owners.

You can do a title search in New Jersey, but it only goes back to 1981.