Contacting Previous Owners

I did this for the guy that owned my car way back in the 90s. I found his name on an invoice, googled it, found his current phone number and called him. He seemed confused at first but I was able to gather a lot of info about the car from him which has helped explain some things (like why mine has no rev limiter). I didn't get the impression he wanted to be bothered again but the phone call was worth it anyway. I say go for it. The worst that can happen is the person wouldn't want to talk to you. You never know if you don't try.

 

I never sold a car I didn't love, and I've always been happy to talk about past loves.

That said - the dealer screwed up, the car should have been "sanitized".

 

I contacted mine. I sent a very cautious text making it clear I didn't wanna bother him, total respect for his privacy and wouldn't contact him again if he said the word...
He replied extremely friendly, "no bother at all" told me stores about the car/memories and sent me the missing red and black keys.

Just use extreme discretion

 

I've been contacted a few times. Never bothered me at all, but I'm pretty easygoing and love to talk about cars

 

I would love to be able to talk to POs, but no records before the most recent PO.

 

I found the name/address of the prior owner of my 355 in some paperwork...I sent him a quick letter (yes snail mail!) saying I found his address in the car & would love to catch up if he had time...AND I said in the letter that I totally understood if he didn't want to be bothered and/or didn't respond. I put my e-mail in the letter and a few days later got an e-mail that it would be no problem.

We found a Saturday that he said would be great for a chat and I had a really great conversation with him for 10-15 mins. I had a pad/pen ready for notes as I didn't want to forget some things. He remembered things like what he paid for the car & where he bought it, which was about 8 years ago.. lots of the info was just his time with the car, etc vs. specific mechanical discussion, but I enjoyed the conversation very much.

I took a quick video and e-mailed it to him of me winding out the car in the first 4 gears with the top down and with the hyperflows and tubi I had installed and he liked that. He sold the car to get an airplane, but still loved 355s.

I found out neat things like: My car had terrible stick on carbon fiber stickers on the interior, which I removed and had the sticky mess corrected...he bought the car with those already on. I asked the question I was hopeful on...did he have the tools for the car? Unfortunately no- he thought they were there when he looked at the car, then when the dealer delivered the car they weren't there- he hounded them for a couple of weeks then gave up. Lucikly I was able to get a reasonably priced set by a fellow f-chatter vs. some of the absolutely absurd prices people ASK for on ebay (not sure if they actually sell for that). I was able to ask him what happened when the valve guides went (driving steady 70, then loss of power), how he used the car (he said he was in his 50s and didn't drive it hard- I know there are many people out of their 50s here that do drive their ferraris hard ) that sort of thing. Great discussion/info I was curious about!

 

Greats anecdotes; cool thread. I too found the names of a couple of previous owners of my car and have wanted to contact them, but have dragged my feet because I haven't wanted to bother them or invade their privacy. I really like the idea of sending a letter though, and think I will do just that. Thanks for the discussion.

 

I actually contacted previous owners even for cars that I was just looking at buying, to see what they could share. Found some good things like hidden accident history, maintenance details, etc. As long as you are polite, respectful of their time, and give them a chance to decline the conversation, I don't see anything wrong with it.

 

This.

They will likely be happy to talk to you and can fill you in on great details and my surprise you with extra missing parts.

Politeness goes a long way.

Robb

 

Have done this with all of my exotics, owners have been super happy to hear from me, most are begging for pictures of the cars as they still have an attachment to them

 

I got a full history on my challenge car from the previous owner. Great guy. I say go for it!

Mike

 

The original owner of my Challenge car actually saw me posting about it here and contacted me. All the way from Korea! He sent me a bunch of pictures, told some interesting stories about the history of the car and gave me the original pit passes from when the car ran in the finals at Imola. Too cool.

 

Come to think of it, I did the same thing way back when, regarding an MB sedan. The car looked great but it was at a sketchy dealer so I noted the owners name and gave him a call. Turned out that the car had been hit hard and repaired during his ownership. The repair was done right (I didn't notice any signs of a hard shunt in my inspection) and he drove it for quite sometime after that, but the sketchy dealer wanted full money for the car so I passed and eventually found an even better deal on a perfect car.

Being a private person, I hate to bother people, but, especially in the case of an exotic, it's probably not as much bother as it might seem to me.

In the future, knowing the past ownership of these cars will indeed matter, if for no other reason than just for the sake of history. If you bought a Daytona or even older car today, wouldn't you love to know its story? The same will be of our cars as they become rarer and more valuable. So better to try to piece together their history ASAP.

Again, cool thread.

 

I personally welcome questions about my previous ownership. Only for the Ferrari though.

 

Sell me your SS for cheap. Then tell me all about it.

 

I reached out to the two most recent owners of my '95 GTB - both F-chat members - and their perspective on the car while I was going through pre-purchase deliberations sealed the deal. They were happy to talk about their experiences and encouraged me to dig deep into the paperwork, which was fortunately a deep stack and easy to explore. Headers, valve guides, cats, majors, and Tubi exhaust work all revealed itself and built my confidence this car was seriously well cared for.

I feel like I'm continuing a line of conscientious, passionate ownership, rather than just receiving a title handoff and a set of keys. I'd recommend reaching out respectfully, if you can, and giving people an easy out. My guess is at least a few will take you up on the offer and talk your ear off.

 

Only after I become delusional, like you obviously are.

 

But I've already started a gofundme page...

 

saw this thread and was struck that this question ("can I call a prior owner?") needs to be even asked, but then again the world has become interesting....

I've done this many times, what I've found is 1) if the prior owners are even remotely "car guys", they are happy to discuss 2) if they are the immediate prior owners and I had not met them, they're defensive! (perhaps expecting an angry owner of a used car?) but most get over it, 3) those that were "not interested in talking" also ended up not knowing much anyway

To turn it around, I've sold a number of cars, and I have a habit of calling the new owners to see how things turn out. I while ago, I "restored/modded" a 1967 Bronco, and sold it to a family who wanted to let their 18 year old daughter use it. I tried and tried to convince them not to, I even asked them to sign a letter i had a lawyer draft for me ("this vehicle is over-powered, under-braked and likely to tip over and kill anyone within 50 yards at any time"). I called several times, all was fine, until the time I called and the daughter had totaled the truck.

I sold a Porsche race car, which was simply brutal to drive, way over-powered, a snap-on Andial single turbo race engine. Perhaps I was too aggressive in wanting the next owner not to ball the car up, but he reassured me he was an expert PCA DE instructor. I offered to pay to have the owner of the shop that built it spend a day with him, and to host him at a track with a pro coach. He lasted one session in the car...eventually he wanted to blame me for the car being "unsorted", which is like blaming the knife company if you lose a hand juggling meat cleavers.

All in all, I think we as a society should get back to actually talking to people, and being receptive....

 

I can't agree more with you on this.

I am missing some records for my car and have often thought about contraction the previous owner(s).

It's only this newly instilled fear that society has about talking to people that has stopped me.

Like others have said here - What's there to lose?