Finding a cars original owner

I decided to start this thread after I kind of got off track on the "mystery cruiser".

Basically I'm wondering if anyone has had any luck looking up a previous owner of their car. For me I'd like to look up the original owner, the guy that ordered the car new. Purely a curiosity thing since it's not your typical wagon. But even if it weren't, I'd think it would be fun to talk to them about it and hear what adventures they may have had in it and I'd like to think they'd enjoy it too.

I've tried the 'title search' that people have mentioned on other forums, but the DMV said that new rules won't allow giving out any info due to national security. And they won't pass on my info either.

Not to mention that they said they probably don't have the info in their database anyway, since I'm looking to go back 45 years. And it doesn't help that I'm in FL and the car spent it's life in AZ, so any paper documents would be in AZ.

Anybody have any thoughts, suggestions, stories? Anybody done it? How did it go?

 

Original owner?

It is never easy but here is a tip. If you have the original owner's manual, you may find a name, receipt or other clue in it. When you buy a car, always search under the seat cushions for scraps of paper that may give hints about the vehicle. Old stickers from oil changes, AC charges etc. may show the garage name where it was done. I wish I could trace cars I used to own!
Ralph

 

From other thread:

The guy that ordered it new in late '65 and got delivery late '65 or early '66. It's a 66 model year Pontiac. I know that from the Pontiac Historical Society info. It also lists the dealer code on that list, but that code doesn't match anything I've found. Car was built in Arlington Tx and delivered to dealer #155 in zone #22. (Pretty sure those are the numbers, based on the copy of the microfiche)

Fast forward to 1968 and the folks I bought it from purchased it from a Gregory Auto Sales in Tucson, AZ. I have that bill of sale/receipt. Of course that car lot is long gone. I have the copy of the title in 1968 for the new owners and it lists the previous title number. That might only have the car lots info on it, but it would also have the previous title listed there. THAT might be the person I'm looking for...

And I've dug through that car all over. Found all kinds of receipts and registrations from the 70's, but nothing back to pre-68. No original paperwork. And the owner only had it for two years so there was less chance of all that crap building up or getting wedged in the seats like the next 40 years.

I've looked under the front seat, but haven't had it out yet. Pulled the back seat and checked everywhere else I could think of and see. No luck.

I'm actually hoping AZwagon will chime in as he's been through so many cars he might have a tip, and he's in that area. He might have connections. (fingers crossed..)

 

Well teej, you've got a start with the dealer# and zone#. Now, you need to find an old Pontiac dealer expert to decode those numbers for you. My guess is that since a used car dealer in Arizona had the wagon, chances are good that the Pontiac dealer was also in that area. I'd try to find a GM dealer somewhere there that used to sell Pontiacs and go from there....

 

Seems like you are real close having thos codes, teej! Go to GM if you have to and find out what dealer had those numbers.

 

As far as Pontiac dealers in Tucson the only one that I know of is Quebedeaux. They now sell Buicks and GMCs. Not sure if they existed is the 60's or not.

I found this site, hope it helps some:
http://www.ultimategto.com/art18.htm

It shows zone 22 being the Houston area.

 

The zone 22 is in Tx and rumor has it the car was originally sold around El Paso. I've looked up a lot of dealer codes and zones on Pontiac sites, but mine doesn't show up.

I have talked to GM, but they say their codes changed and so those numbers don't mean anything to them anymore.

 

We've all wanted this at some time or another. I managed to trace the ownership history of a 1964 Olds I purchased in 1991 back to about 1980 by stepping backwards through all the titles the car had had. In Ohio, the name of the previous owner is normally on the current title you hold. But I hit a brick wall with the 1980 information because that title did not have the previous owner's name it. The DMV lady told me that this can happen if the previous title had been lost and a new title had to be created.

I did all of this in about 1992, well before 9/11 and homeland security and all the rest, and, as others have noted, at a time when the DMV offices I called in the various counties in Ohio the car resided in were willing to freely give out the information I was seeking. I imagine that today it would be impossible to do this the way I did it.


Keep in mind two other important considerations as you begin your search.

1. Just because YOU want to contact this person, who is a complete stranger to you, doesn't mean that they want to be contacted. They may not want their privacy invaded. I'm not saying this is likely. I'm just saying this is possible. You might have a benign intent in contacting them, but that doesn't mean than everyone would. Don't be surprised to find the door slammed in your face.

2. You're talking about a car purchased 45 years ago. There's at least a 50% chance the person who bought it is now dead. If they're not dead, they're probably quite elderly now and not necessarily in any condition to converse about a car they purchased nearly a half-century ago.


I have seen a few instances of #2 on other forums I've been on. People have managed to find at least the family of an original owner but have found that the original purchaser him or her-self is dead and who you're talking to is descendants who know nothing of the car.


Good luck.

 

Yep, those are both possibilities I have considered, with there being a pretty good chance that #2 is the case. They would have had to be fairly successful to afford this car back then, (1966, $6000) and I'm thinking that means they weren't some kid...

I do think that the odds of #1 are pretty low. I can imagine a few that either don't remember much or don't care, but I don't think it would come across as so invasive that I'd get a proverbial door slammed in my face.

Either way, I'd like to find out.

 

The beauty of it is that I do have the info on the family that owned it from '68 till I bought it, so the majority of the cars history is still there. The Mom cried when they loaded the car up according to the son.

 

With the information you have, you're off to an excellent start. Most people have nothing like what you have. Let us know what you find out.

 

I also attempted this with a '75 Olds Delta 88 convertible I purchased back in 1994. I found the build sheet, and it had on it the code for the dealer the car was originally shipped to. I wrote to the Olds History Center, which still existed back then, and they gave me the name and location of that dealer, who was still in business. Of course, at that time, Oldsmobile itself was still in business.

I wrote to the dealer (it was in Trenton, New Jersey) with the car's VIN and a photo of it, and I got a letter back from the dealership's president who was very interested in what I was trying to do. He looked back through his files and was able to come up with a "delivery card" for the car which had on it the name and address of the original purchaser. He told me that he looked in the Trenton phone book but could find no listing by that name.

I had purchased the car in Florida, so I figured that perhaps the owner had moved to Florida at some point after buying the car, so I did a search on phone book databases for anyone by his name. This was before the internet, but databases on CD were becoming available at libraries and things like that.

I was a bit lucky in this regard because his last name, Reaves, was a bit unusual. The common spelling is with two e's, and if it had been that, I might have turned up hundreds of Richard Reeves in Florida. I thanked my lucky stars that his name wasn't John Smith. Only three people by the name of Richard Reaves came up in the Florida database.

I wrote to all three of them asking if they might have been the original purchaser of the car. One wrote me back and said he wasn't but he was interested in what I was trying to do and wished me luck. I never heard back from the other two.

I never pursued it any further figuring that these other two either weren't the right person or didn't want to be bothered.

 

I was able to find the son of the original owner of a '67 Eldorado I once had. But it wasn't too difficult, as I had the original owner's name and address on the maintenance card in the owner's manual. I was only the third owner, and the first owner's last name wasn't that common. There were only a few listings in the phone directory, and I found the son of the original owner living nearby.

I wanted to locate them because I was getting ready to sell the car, and thought maybe they'd like to get it back in the family. The son was interested, but he had children about to go to college and thus couldn't afford to buy it, so I sold it to someone else.

In Ohio, it used to be pretty easy to find out the current owner of a car just by writing down the license plate number and going to the DMV. If I remember correctly, they would give you the owner's name and address for a buck. That worked well unless the car was leased. However, because of domestic violence and stalking types of incidents, the DMV will no longer release that information to just anyone.

 

I started a post on C.P. to see if any Pontiac owners over there could help, here's the link to the thread...

http://canadianponcho.activeboard.com/t47786431/not-sure-if-anyone-can-help/

...they are suggesting you try the (PHS) Pontiac Historical Services???

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the thought Fannie, let me know if anyone has any other ideas.

As for the Pontiac Historical Society, I am familiar with them and have used them on all the cars that they cover, including this one. It's a great service and well worth the $50 for historical info on any Pontiac after 62 I think. They provide you with all the details on options the car was originally ordered with as well as the dealer and zone. That's where I got the info I have, the Zone 22, Dealer 155. But they don't list the names of the dealers and they don't have the customer info.