Previous owners

[x332race]

Does it matter how may previous owners a car has has

I am looking to buy a SL 500 round about 2003. The one I am looking at today has had 4 owners but appears to be in good condition....it has a FSH from Merc.

Should I be concerned at number of previous owners?

 

[Seamster15]

Quite a few get used as a summer car then moved on before the winter sets in, I would be more interested in the condition and service history. Saying that I would pay more for a single owner car...

 

[JumboBeef]

The last four owners on my Disco are myself and my wife

Does number of owners affect the car? I would say yes......in a positive way.

Look at it in this way: what is the first thing you do when you get a car? Fix those little jobs that need doing, get it serviced maybe (I know I do, I spend hours fettling). So when a car has a number of owners instead of just one, then it has been brand new (to them) and their pride of joy more than once in it's life, and so loved more.

I've seen too many cars which were one owner, which were frankly unloved with a pile of little (and most possibly big) jobs waiting to be done.

 

[c955]

Look at it in this way: what is the first thing you do when you get a car? Fix those little jobs that need doing, get it serviced maybe (I know I do, I spend hours fettling). So when a car has a number of owners instead of just one, then it has been brand new (to them) and their pride of joy more than once in it's life, and so loved more.

I've seen too many cars which were one owner, which were frankly unloved with a pile of little (and most possibly big) jobs waiting to be done.

That's an interesting take on the number of owners factor. I think the more common view is that a car with many owners somehow implies it might have some 'problem/issue' which each owner has decided they don't want to put up with, so they get rid of it.

I prefer your view since we're the seventh owners of our C230K estate!

 

[grober]

I'm of the fewer owners=fewer problems school of thought.

as an after thought

10 year old R129 = no problem
6 year old R230 = many expensive electrical gismos to go wrong

 

[JumboBeef]

I think the more common view is that a car with many owners somehow implies it might have some 'problem/issue' which each owner has decided they don't want to put up with, so they get rid of it.

I think a quick change of owner would worry me: as long the most recent owner has had the car for a decent amount of time, then I just wouldn't worry about it.

 

[JonnyCJ]

The last four owners on my Disco are myself and my wife

Does number of owners affect the car? I would say yes......in a positive way.

Look at it in this way: what is the first thing you do when you get a car? Fix those little jobs that need doing, get it serviced maybe (I know I do, I spend hours fettling). So when a car has a number of owners instead of just one, then it has been brand new (to them) and their pride of joy more than once in it's life, and so loved more.
quote]

Sounds exactly like what I do - and if we're representative of your normal owner, then I don;t think 1 owner a year is a bad thing at all.

 

[x332race]

Went to look at the car.....its in nice conditon...howver there have been actually 6 owners (it is only just over 6 years old), The service log book is missing (although there is a letter from Merc showing 4 services), it has not been serviced for over 2 years.

Although the car appeared in good overall condition, I think we are going to walk away from this one....

 

[w124nut]

I am the 5th owner of my cabriolet.

There is a stigma about the number of owners a car has as it could be taken to be a "hand me round" and generally speaking, an unloved car but for me, the condition and documented history is more important.

 

[MercFanUk]

I think every car is different. I wouldn't bat an eye at a 6 or 7 owner car if it had great service history and wasn't full of faults.

On the other hand, if lot's of the history has been lost over changing of hands so often, and it needs little jobs doing etc, then I might be more inclined to avoid it.

 

[Will]

Number of owners on a car is similar to mileage - both can give you a blind 'guide' to how a car might turn out to be on inspection, but no guarantee. Both also seem to affect the price to quite a degree also.

As long as you are happy with the car, I guess a piece of paper that you never look at saying how many owners it has had is largely irrelevant.

Obviously, all things being equal - we all know the lower owner car with lower mileage is the one we'd prefer - if nothing else for pride and resale value!

Will

 

[jaymanek]

these days, many people change their car once every year, maybe two at the most.... Its nothing to be scared of if the car has its history and is in nice condition, dont be put off.

 

[BTB 500]

IMO someone who plans to keep a car long term tends to look after it better than someone who knows they'll be moving it on in 12 months.

Stuff like driving it hard when the engine is cold ... using cheap fuel ... etc. which won't necessarily give a problem in the short term.

 

[wxmclk]

IMO someone who plans to keep a car long term tends to look after it better than someone who knows they'll be moving it on in 12 months.

Stuff like driving it hard when the engine is cold ... using cheap fuel ... etc. which won't necessarily give a problem in the short term.

Cheap Fuel- whats that?

 

[x332race]

I think every car is different. I wouldn't bat an eye at a 6 or 7 owner car if it had great service history and wasn't full of faults.

On the other hand, if lot's of the history has been lost over changing of hands so often, and it needs little jobs doing etc, then I might be more inclined to avoid it.

Theres. the nub....car has a number of small faults including one on the Comand unit....history has been lost and can only rely on letter showing services from Merc HQ. It is with a private dealer and he bought if at auction...it seems he did not even have the V5 when he bought it although this was subsequently forwarded to him.....reading between the lines, we suspect that it was a reposession...steering clear of it.

 

[HowardD]

If it was a pre-reg then the first owner will have been the dealer, that's at least one owner you could disregard.

 

[SL300-24]

I used to think that it was best to go for a car with low owners. However a mate said this to me:
Ist owner has the car for 2 years, gets a little bored with it and sells. 2nd Owner then has new enthusiasm for the car, does all the little jobs requierd and keeps it for 2 years, gets bored and and sells. 3rd owner another new injection of enthusiasm for the car for a couple of years and so forth.
The alternative: First owner keeps for 6-8 years and after the first year is bored with the car and does the absolute minimum to it for the next 6-7 years until he changes it?
Food for thought.......

 

[JumboBeef]

I used to think that it was best to go for a car with low owners. However a mate said this to me:
Ist owner has the car for 2 years, gets a little bored with it and sells. 2nd Owner then has new enthusiasm for the car, does all the little jobs requierd and keeps it for 2 years, gets bored and and sells. 3rd owner another new injection of enthusiasm for the car for a couple of years and so forth.
The alternative: First owner keeps for 6-8 years and after the first year is bored with the car and does the absolute minimum to it for the next 6-7 years until he changes it?
Food for thought.......

Wot I said

Look at it in this way: what is the first thing you do when you get a car? Fix those little jobs that need doing, get it serviced maybe (I know I do, I spend hours fettling). So when a car has a number of owners instead of just one, then it has been brand new (to them) and their pride of joy more than once in it's life, and so loved more.

I've seen too many cars which were one owner, which were frankly unloved with a pile of little (and most possibly big) jobs waiting to be done.

 

[Will]

Quite a lot of truth in what JumboBeef and Ray (SL300-24) have said. For example, my other 2.5-16 that I recently sold had had something like 10 owners from memory (!) over 20 years, but they'd spent (well, not even all of them in fact) about £14k over their ownership on repairs and maintenance (probably over the last 10-12 years - a good £5k+ of that over the last couple). It was in a much better state when it left my hands than it was when I acquired it, despite me being an 'additional owner'. However, even with all this investment, it wasn't as nice a car and certainly not as original as my current 2.5-16 which has full MBSH and much lower ownership (3 or 4 previous from memory).

So there's truth in both cases - lower ownership and full dealer history certainly hints at a good car (why would you bother keeping it and spending money on it at a main dealer if it was a bad car?). I mentioned on another thread about an S-class earlier - 'one owner from new' tends to ring nice bells also - if you're the original owner of a car, chances are you've got a bit of money (to buy a new car in the first place), so there's a better likelihood that you'll have had the money to look after it also.

Plenty of ways of looking at this - but as ever, these are generalisations, and a viewing with a bit of experience tends to tell much more than any paperwork can.

Will