Contacting the former car owner, or contacted by a new owner of your car

[Nayov]

I bought a car from a sleazy Florida car corner lot ("stealer" in BITOG parlance) but it came incomplete with no remote, Owner's Manual and just one (chip) key. (When asked where they were, the salesman said "I dunno.") I contacted the former owner in the hope he had those and send to me and I'd pay the postage. No response and I suspect it was a dead man's car; stealer bought the car from a local wholesale outfit, not the previous owner.

Have you ever contacted the former owner of a car you have bought and how would you feel about being contacted by the new owner of your previously-owned car? Of course, we are not talking about a private sale.

 

[Zee09]

I have had buyers contact me on cars I traded in and was happy to help them or answer questions as my trade ins were stellar.
Not sure if I myself would search out previous owners.
I'm not a used car buyer anyway.

 

[SC Maintenance]

If someone reached out to me politely, I wouldn't be offended. However my guess is they likely don't have the things your looking for or they would have left them with the car. They may even have left them with the car and were lost along the way.

You can usually find the manual download for free in PDF online or on fleabay for a couple bucks. The chip key - assuming its not one of the new smart keys, likely is under $100 from a lock smith.

 

[John105]

Wouldn’t that be creepy to do so? I bought my used Lexus from a new car dealer, and NYS law has a form that shows the previous owner (why??!!). So I could contact the prev owner and ask her why she put so many miles on it in 2 years, but I didn’t

First owner 8 years and 37k. Second owner 2 years and 44k.

Me, 6.5 years and 54k and counting and will keep the car the rest of its life. That car care nut guy just got one with 600k miles so I have a ways to go

 

[atikovi]

I've contacted previous owners many times. Mainly to find out the service history like if the timing belt was replaced or if the car has had major work done to it. 99% of the time they are helpful and I only remember two incidents. One where the dealer I bought the car at auction from contacted me explaining how the guy he bought the car from, went off on him because somehow I got his name and contacted him. Well, his name was on the title, Duh. The other time the owner's girlfriend thought I was staking them asking these questions but seemed to settle down after explaining the purpose of the call and messages.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Wouldn’t that be creepy to do so?

I think it depends on what you ask. If its along the lines of "Sorry to bother you, I bought your old car and wondered if you had the other key and owners manual and if I could buy them from you", then no.

If you started with that then I think if they want to talk they will, if they don't they will decline. As long as you don't push it, then I would be OK.

 

[John105]

I think it depends on what you ask. If its along the lines of "Sorry to bother you, I bought your old car and wondered if you had the other key and owners manual and if I could buy them from you", then no.

If you started with that then I think if they want to talk they will, if they don't they will decline. As long as you don't push it, then I would be OK.

If I traded the car in and got some call out of the blue, imho it’s inappropriate. But if I sold it to someone 3rd party used, that’s different imho…

 

[SC Maintenance]

If I traded the car in and got some call out of the blue, imho it’s inappropriate. But if I sold it to someone 3rd party used, that’s different imho…

Then you could hang up I suppose. People that don't want to be contacted usually don't list their phone number. It wouldn't bother me at all if they were polite. Everyone is different. If I can help someone without much trouble I usually try to, but again they would need to start out politely.

 

[Kira]

My very first car had a warning sticker regarding a high powered ignition system. The car had been taken in on trade but not processed as my friend pulled it off the lot for me.
I found an envelope under the carpeting with the P.O.'s name and address so I called him about it.
We were both polite and he told me he had removed said ignition upgrade.
Gimme a 1970 Toyota Corona MkII wagon (with the 8RC) in puke green any day of the week.

A private sale example was the P.O. calling me 3 years after I bought his 2002 Volvo V70 because he found a third key.
Yup, he had lost one and had one made. Upon finding the lost key he was nice enough to call.
Those keys were $120-$140 in 2006.
That he kept notes on the sale is something.
Also, his wife was from my family's Brooklyn neighborhood and we knew exactly where each other had lived.
We had friends in common.

This has been mentioned here before but the practice of tossing everything out of a car including owner's manuals and extra keys bugs the crap out of me.

 

[John105]

Then you could hang up I suppose. People that don't want to be contacted usually don't list their phone number. It wouldn't bother me at all if they were polite. Everyone is different. If I can help someone without much trouble I usually try to, but again they would need to start out politely.

In this day and age it’s always going to be possible to find information. My 2006 Lexus has home programmed in the gps. I googled and it took all of 1 minute to see that it began life in a home with an 8 car garage, it was owned by the wife who is an atty, the husband donated 6 figures to local politics, and right away these are people with whom my path would never cross. I think it would be bizarre to ask them how come the fuel sender unit was replaced 3x. I looked them up in curiosity, but I would not use the info nor make contact.

 

[supton]

Only done it once. The enclosed trailer I bought, off CL, we didn’t do the bill of sale correctly (has to have like both addresses on it or something), so I called the guy back a couple days later, just to get a verbal ”approval” for me to doctor the BOS. I figured, if DMV questioned it, it was better for me to have asked permission first. He agreed but sounded like he was busy / trying to get off the phone, so I quickly ended the call, and that was that.

I ran into the prior owner of my (old) house some time after we had bought it. I think he asked, how was it going. I said ok, ’cept for the roof damming problem. He suddenly got a phone call that he had to take. I’ve always wondered…

 

[Dave Hess]

In this day and age it’s always going to be possible to find information. My 2006 Lexus has home programmed in the gps. I googled and it took all of 1 minute to see that it began life in a home with an 8 car garage, it was owned by the wife who is an atty, the husband donated 6 figures to local politics, and right away these are people with whom my path would never cross. I think it would be bizarre to ask them how come the fuel sender unit was replaced 3x. I looked them up in curiosity, but I would not use the info nor make contact.

I agree with you. That would be very creepy and pestering strangers.

 

[John105]

I agree with you. That would be very creepy and pestering strangers.

It’s understandable to forget to remove home from the gps. I’ve forgotten to unpairBluetooth on countless rental cars at work. But just being a normal person, forgetting that should not have consequences such as someone making contact…

Sometimes treat adult situations with the seeming wisdom of a child, not the for gain angle of an adult….again yes a person can ignore the new owner, but why even do that and put someone in that position, if they’ve never had any prior contact…

 

[eljefino]

I've gotten a couple contacts wondering "who wrote my inspection stickers." One was a year later, a lot can happen in a year.

 

[Fla]

This has been mentioned here before but the practice of tossing everything out of a car including owner's manuals and extra keys bugs the crap out of me.

X2. I remember reading about some successful car dealer back in the day that did the opposite. When they took a car in trade, they would clean it, including taking out the back seats and getting all of the loose coins and other items out from under it, and they saved everything that belonged to the previous owner. He even mentioned that if they didn't find much loose change that they throw in some from out of their own pockets. They'd put everything in a box and call the owner and tell them that they could come get it. He said that it so impressed the previous owners that he always got a lot of repeat business from them.

I've contacted previous owners and newer owner have contacted me and we always had enjoyable conversations about the history our cars. Years ago I even visted the Plymouth dealership in Lynchburg,Va that originally sold the Plymouth Superbird that I owned and they gave me all of the information about when it was sold and for how much and who to.

Around the same time, I visted a Dodge dealership in Roanoke for something else and got friendly with the parts guy. He found that I had a superbird so he went in the back and pulled out some parts that they had ordered for another Superbird but the owner had never picked up, so he sold them to me at costs. SCORE! He also gave me the name and phone number of the guy that ordered the parts. I drove to Salem, Va and meet him and found that he had sold his Superbird but he still had a stash of parts for it so he gave all of those to me too. SCORE AGAIN!

 

[Kira]

It's all in how you approach people.

I like the MO of that car dealer you described. Give me a better, cheaper way to create a warm and fuzzy feeling.

 

[Cujet]

In the aviation world, it is not unusual for new owners to ask previous owners for advice and knowledge. Especially on complex aircraft that may have secrets, such as the location of emergency lighting battery packs, that are interior specific.

In light of this, I've always been willing to help out the new owners of cars and other vehicles I've sold. I see it as being fair.

 

[Donald]

I sold a car to a guy and a week or two after the sale he told me his mechanic said it needed CV joints on both sides and wanted me to cover the cost. I declined and he grumbled. I did not think it was reasonable and a bit of a scam as CV joints don't wear out at the same time on both sides of the vehicle.

 

[Zee09]

In the aviation world, it is not unusual for new owners to ask previous owners for advice and knowledge. Especially on complex aircraft that may have secrets, such as the location of emergency lighting battery packs, that are interior specific.

In light of this, I've always been willing to help out the new owners of cars and other vehicles I've sold. I see it as being fair.

Yup...me too
Creepy posts bother me..
What's so creepy about helping someone out.

 

[RhondaHonda]

I had the former owner of my 1990 Mustang show up at my mom’s house when I was in college, 5 years after I bought it. He wanted to buy it back and she gave him my #. I didn’t really appreciate him just showing up and he had a friend in law enforcement give him the address from the VIN, likely against department policy. I told him all the mods I’d done to it, he sent me a copy of the window sticker and a pic or two of it when he got it. I sold it to someone else 5 years later.

I also had the buyer of a 2006 Jetta TDI call me. I guess he got my # or email from a Weathertech receipt I left in it. He said the dealer told him an older couple owned it. I was 27 when I traded it in. Explained all the service I did, he’s was very nice and had owned other TDIs.

Lastly, and kind of the opposite. I sold my 2019 Raptor to Vroom. I had the Ford app so I could still see where it was as I waited on the check. I watched it go to their Kansas City sales lot. Then on to New Hampshire to the new owner’s house. I could see the spot in the driveway that the new owner parked it. I got a request through the app to give the new owner control to setup the vehicle on his app. I allowed it but could have been a jerk and I’m not sure what option he’d have to add it.