Contacting Car's Original Owner

[flyingn]

I have never met a previous owner who was not thrilled to hear about their old car. Make that call! Im sure you will find the same thing

[BCreekDave]

Originally Posted by flyingn

I have never met a previous owner who was not thrilled to hear about their old car. Make that call! Im sure you will find the same thing

I too encourage the OP to make contact, but it isn't always a positive experience.

I am the 4th owner of my car and reached out to the second and original owners and while the original owner was great, I was threatened with serious bodily harm from the second owner. Come to find out from the third owner that the guy was fairly well known in the area of being aligned with the mob and his son had just the year before committed suicide after the police were closing in for the disappearance of his son's wife, who they still have never found. Not everybody shares the love of an old musclecar!

I went so far as to postal mail letters explaining my search and included a pre-addressed and stamped envelope that if they did not want to be contacted, to just put the envelope in the mail and I would then know that they do not want to be contacted further. I did not receive the letter back so after some time I called #2 and that's when I was threatened.

[Tracker1]

Originally Posted by flyingn

I have never met a previous owner who was not thrilled to hear about their old car. Make that call! Im sure you will find the same thing

X2

[earntaz]

I for one would be THRILLED to see some of my old cars/trucks ... TAZ

[Mr70]

Originally Posted by flyingn

I have never met a previous owner who was not thrilled to hear about their old car. Make that call! Im sure you will find the same thing

I shared this thought,until the one time I contacted a previous owner and they hung up.Found out later their son owned the car I was asking about car but was now deceased.
Seems the Father did not want to talk about it.
After I later wrote a letter to them explaining,the Mother wrote me back saying they don't wish to discuss the car because their son came home from Vietnam & soon died.They blamed that car but wouldn't tell me why.Seems he sevred 2 tours and lived,yet came back home & it was the car that killed him.
Father wrote in the note if he ever saw the car again,he was going to spit on it,if not kick & curse it.

[Igosplut]

I've been trying to track down the original owner(s) of my 70 Nova for years (who of all things lost it to his wife in a divorce in 72, and egged the car the night before she left with it) I've contacted all the previous owners, and with the exception of two being, shall we say "eccentric" it all went well (one even still had parts from the car). I would say the hardest thing with a cold call, is convincing whoever answers that you are not some kind of telemarketer. But do it right away, as one day can make all the difference...

[chevyman0429]

I have the original owners name and address of my car called 4 times left messages on his voicemail and sent 2 letters to his address and never heard anything back! A good friend of his is who gave me the information but asked me not to mention how I got his information!

[Rumbleguts396]

I found the Original owner of My 1969 Corvette in the early 1990’s. He was over the top thrilled when I reached out to him as he hadn’t seen his old corvette since the 1970’s. I am lucky enough to be in instant contact at anytime. Having his cell and sending him photos and asking questions about the cars history. My initial contact was not easy. I have all the original purchase documents. His address when he purchased the car New was the USNA in Annapolis Md. This was before google etc. So I called the alumni office of the USNA. Luckily and helpful lady answered my call. She Looked up his name and bingo. She had a current address as he was on the alumni mailing list. She told me he was a retired Captain/Pilot and his Information was classified. She told to write him a letter and mail it to her at the alumni office and she would slip it into the next quarterly mailing. 6 months later he called my house thrilled!!! And we speak several times a year. So morale of the story. Don’t give up. Car guys will ALWAYS be Car Guys!!!! Rob

[ZLP955]

Thanks everyone, I expected a range of experiences from other's attempts but I don't really have anything to lose, and a lot to gain if it pays off. I got quite a lot of details and info on the car's history when I bought it, but it was mostly anecdotal. A couple of key pieces of that info have been supported by the recent discovery of information which led to finding the original owner contact details.
I'm travelling on business but will be making that call when home for the weekend, wish me luck!

[cudino]

One other thing to prepare for is if they ask about the car’s current value, and/or how much you paid for it. Certainly these cars have gone up in value since their ownership, sometimes significantly. In my experience, especially if you are normally humble/private about this kind of info, I’ve found just answering these questions without reservation is the best. After all, you have contacted them, basically a total stranger, asking them to relay information to you, so be prepared to do the same. Initially, I was concerned that prior owners might feel bad about letting a car go that is now considered “valuable”. Especially in the case of original or early owners, who owned these value-less cars while they were still depreciating, for the most part I’ve seen just the opposite. The fact that they have historically played a key role in the ownership, or perhaps even ordering, of a car that not only still exists today but is also considered “valuable” is something they cherish. Of course not every prior owner will have this same response, but for the most part that’s what I’ve seen.

Plus, here’s one other thing I’ve seen. You might be surprised how many “facts” these early owners will share about their cars, “facts” that simply cannot be true based on the knowledge-base we have today. I’ve also found to leave these memories alone and just listen, there’s no benefit in questioning these “facts”. Like I said, listening and answering questions seems to be the best approach, at least through the first contact.

Best of luck, and let us know how it goes.
- Wade