Tracing California Car History

[68SSCamaro]

I mailed in this form last year for my car. I've owned it since 1990. The printout they sent back mostly lists the registrations from about 1999. There were some interesting fields that I couldn't figure out. I finally sent them another letter a few weeks ago asking about them. One interesting field is PREV LIC. My car has the blue plates and I figured they were from the late 70's. The date on this is in 1979 so it's the date the new plates were registered. There are 6 letters after PREV LIC. They don't make sense so I hope the DMV will tell me what they mean. That's all I got. Still no info on the car for the first 20 years.

[TMagda]

I bought a new Mazda RX-7 in CA in 1983 (Marin Mazda??) and it came with blue plates with yellow letters.

[tirebird]

Holiday Chevrolet is long gone. I lived about three blocks from the dealership and used to pick up old transmission bearings from the Chevy mechanics for my street coaster. Anyway, it's been a grocery store for the past 30 years of so. Ellis Brooks is the only Chevy dealer left in San Francisco. Stewart Chevrolet has been around for several decades but they're in Colma, just south of the City.

[hubleyman]

A couple of my 1967-68 Camaros were purchased from the following Chevy dealer in SF (earliest date I have is 8/2/67, according to the POP stamping):

Geer Chevrolet
3855 Geary Blvd.
San Francisco, Calif. 94118

According to some of my 1969 POP's (earliest recorded date I have is 08/19/69, latest is 10/19/70), it became:

David Varner Chevrolet
3855 Geary Boulevard
San Francisco, Calif. 94118

[SuperNovaSS]

My 65 Nova SS was purchased at Gateway Chevrolet in Daly City(South San Francisco). Another possibility?


Jason

[ken_z]

Thanks to everyone for the information. The DMV form
went out today, hopefully I'll get something useful.
I'll be hitting a phone book as well for numbers for the dealers offered up.
The library may also have old phone book or two.

Ken

[tirebird]

Thanks everyone for the trip down memory lane. "Geer" Chevrolet was Geary(named after the street)and is now a Toyota dealership. Gateway Chevrolet closed several decades ago. It's a microcosim of the automobile business. A city with several domestic dealerships now has only 3, one for each of the major manufacturers. One of my biggest regrets was looking at a 1987 Buick GNX sit unsold on the showroom floor for two years at the Buick Dealership, from 87 to 89. The car was finally sold for 30K to a local roofer who drove it to his garage and kept it there until 4 years ago when he sold it for 60K. It had 1800 miles on it. Oh well, 30k was a lot of money to me in 1987.