It's the question we ask or are asked for when we buy / sell our cars - how many previous owners? I think I've just found out something I never knew.

 

I bought my latest car via PCP to take advantage of an extra financial incentive. Had always intended to pay it off after a few days but in all the research I did, I never came up against a downside to buying on finance that I thought would exist.

 

People often make the mistake when buying on finance that the car is theirs but it's not, it belongs to the finance company. Which got me thinking, if I pay the car off after a few days then I'll be the 2nd owner. Not that it would worry me ( it makes burger all difference to the trade-in value ), but by law I was expecting to have to fill in the V5 and return it to DVLA. Just checked the V5 and to my amazement it doesn't mention the owner of the car, it's only concerned with the registered keeper. I never knew that.

 

So the next time a salesman or buyer inquires about previous owners, how can you possibly tell? Surely they mean how many registered keepers has the car had?

 

Perhaps someone with more legal expertise than me knows what the correct terminology is.

That is it,  not Previous Owners it is Registered Keepers.

The car can go in and out of trade and never have another Keeper / Owner show.

 

Any Company Car or a Lease Car that is owned by a Finance Company might only have one previous Registered Keeper & dozens of drivers.

Same with a Ex Demonstrator / Management car from any Manufacturer.  

The Sales Managers car they say.

 

Cars First Registered to M/S Hertz or M/S Eurocar might not be one lady owner, never raced or rallied.

I'm the third registered keeper of my current car.  The previous two were VW & Finance.  I picked it up with 24 miles on the clock, so the number of keepers, in this instance, is of no particular consequence (to me).

 

Gaz

Huh. I wasn't aware of this either actually, but as someone's said above, even if you do not know the exact figure of previous drivers if it only shows as one/a few registered keepers, you will kind of be able to gauge how many drivers it's had by the mileage

@SkarySkoda

Maybe Mrs Hertz, or Mrs Eurocar or even Mrs British School of Motoring where the actual owner no matter the name of a Registered Keeper.

 

An Ex Management car from VW Finance can have been a Demonstrator / Courtesy car or even a Media car,  never raced or rallied, well maybe not.

Never had the tyre pressures checked or the oil unless a warning light came on.

On 27/02/2020 at 13:44, Roottootemblowinootsoot said:

@SkarySkoda

Maybe Mrs Hertz, or Mrs Eurocar or even Mrs British School of Motoring where the actual owner no matter the name of a Registered Keeper.

 

An Ex Management car from VW Finance can have been a Demonstrator / Courtesy car or even a Media car,  never raced or rallied, well maybe not.

Never had the tyre pressures checked or the oil unless a warning light came on.

Any need for the sarcasm? 

Reality.

2 hours ago, Roottootemblowinootsoot said:

Reality.

Okay big guy, you enjoy yourself 🤣

@SkarySkoda   You as well, and welcome to the forum, i hope you enjoy it. 

Sorry i missed your first post.