Pre-owned. How many owners are too many?

Joe. If it looks nice, drives nice, and the PPI checks out alright, who cares how many owners. They aren’t driving it, YOU will be.

 

Yeah key is professional PPI and (if available) a review of the maintenance records, and if possible a conversation with 1-2 prior owners. Eight feels like a lot but many owners of occasional use cars run through a lot of them. Doing these things should provide reasonable assurance there isn't some underlying issue causing the sales. (Also, I have also seen Carfaxes that look like multiple owners when it is sometimes the same owner moving and re-registering in a new state.)

 

How does it look right now. Mine had like 6-8 owners 10 years ago, I still bought it and she's been PERFECT. You ask about the owners to get an idea about the condition of the car when you buy it... why not do a PPI before you buy it... to get an idea about the condition of the car?

 

Fewer is better but Ferrari owners tend to be a fickle lot and always looking to move on to another car. I did that myself in my early days of Ferrari ownership. Over time, I've kept them for longer periods. I would recommend doing as much research as possible to see if there are chronic issues but barring that, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Dave

 

A lot of these cars had multiple (2-5) owners in their first couple of years. This was back in the days when a current model (or one iteration old) car in hand was worth significantly more than its MSRP. I would say that the import thing to look at is how many owners in the past 5 years.

 

Yes. This makes alot of sense.

 

Exactly.

 

Buy for condition and records.

 

Right, buy something special that has been well maintained. Number of owners really isn’t a worry. Was it a Vegas rental car? That would be more of a worry...

Robb

 

I like this for an approach....for a 25 year old car, maybe go back and look for 10 years of stable ownership. Another concern is miles over time. It could have had just 1 owner the last 10 years, but if he only drove it 1,000 miles during that period I would be concerned.

 

Gerald Rouse of Ferrari Market Letter fame used to say only three things mattered when buying a used Ferrari: (1) Condition, (2) Condition, and (3) Condition. What happened before was not relevant. His specific reference was to vintage Ferraris. If you're looking a 275 GTB, for example, what difference would it make if the car was previously crashed beyond recognition. All that matters today was how well the car was repaired.

I think the same holds true for newer Ferraris. I would only buy a "known car," where you know what has happened and what repairs have been done. Buying an unknown car is not for me.

 

The one thing I will say about vehicles I have driven over my nearly 50 years of driving ( and I know many out there can attest to this) is that cars did best when they were with their existing owner over time. No doubt about it. After all, why do you think that trucking firms want to keep the same driver in the truck as long as they can and thats because you put a new driver in the unit and it suffers a breakdown. So, going forward to today, for myself, I would much rather obtain a Ferrari that has fewer owners than more. My Speciale, being a 2015 car, I am considering myself to be LUCKY to be only the 3rd owner of it. My explanation to all the excessive ownership is that many Ferrari owners were either so anxious to buy the next model.....AKA...too much money and no brains in many cases....that these things traded hands like nobody's business which again, cars do no like because each driver operates differently. The other possibility is that the owner of those excessive owner situations could be that they recognized that they got in over their heads and had to walk away from the car because they could not afford the ownership.

 

More than 1 owner per five years since original purchase. That is my guide.

 

The fewer owners IMO the better; the question you should ask is: would you buy a rental car?

 

No, I wouldn’t consider a rental car. I know how I drove them…

I like to see long term ownership for a few reasons:

1. You don’t defer maintenance on a car you keep for 10 or 20 years. A $5000 service visit is tolerable on a “keeper”, but for a 2-3 year “fling” there’s incentive to go cheap. This is probably the key reason. One owner every 10 years seems a reasonable goal, although not an ironclad rule.

2. If a car is really satisfying and brings more joy than frustration, it tends to be a long-term keeper. My 911/964 had one owner for 28 years, and in the year I’ve had it I can see why. There aren’t many of that model year/configuration so it’s not something one could easily replace. My 328 had three owners and was a special car due to the condition and rare colors.

3. History and records. Yes, I agree with Roush about condition-condition-condition, but I like to have original tools, books, window sticker, etc., and the likelihood of that is better if a car hasn’t changed hands too often.




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As I thought about my ownership of my fun cars over the last 45 years; they have been either new(not many) or one owner cars. I hadn’t really given that any thought until now so I must be biased internally or have the “one owner car gene”. haha

 

The thing that scares people about a lot of previous owners, is every one takes time seeing what the car will do, pushing it/abusing it, etc and then dumping it.

I think that's a little unfounded with F-Cars though as they change hands mostly without being driven much at all. Also majority of owners aren't idiots. Most important is the condition of the car, and service records.

 

I’m looking at a 2003 360. It has around 10,000 miles and 7 previous owners. The current owner said they were short term leases and he’s had the car for 15 years. But he’s only put 1,500 miles on it. Lots of service records from a dealership. But the number of owners puts me off. Should it? He’s asking $95,000 and is local to me.
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I'd be more concerned with 100 miles per year for 15 years than the amount of owners. 1500 miles in 15 years is terrible for the car.

 

I think my car listed 7 owners but 3 of them were dealers. I think the first dealer was listed as first owner. Look at the record close and determine how many real owners it had. I suspect the first real owner was a 3 year lease.

 

I would say a multi owner car with miles is better than a one owner with no / low miles. cars that sit are trouble for the next person. cars with F1 boxes, and lots of electronics that sit are even worse.

Unless you are looking specifically for a garage / show car and all the history from new... cars that get driven go to the top of my list. However a car that looks abused - has been abused regardless of miles.