Hi,

I'm looking to buy a particular F-Type V8 and the history report shows 6(!) previous owners with only <30.000 miles on it. I'd usually stay away far away from anything with 3+ owners, but the car is a really good deal and I just brought it to a Jaguar dealer for a pre-purchase inspection. They found it to be in excellent condition. 100% clean title.

Is there any reasonable explanation for so many owners? Could it be that the automated AutoCheck report got it wrong? Could it be that changing titles in a different state from the same owner or the fact that it went through theft recovery, leasing, and several cross-state auctions be recorded as owner change?

History:
1. title change: 06/24/2014, TX
2. title change: 10/30/2014, TX (Leased Vehicle)
3. title change: 08/23/2016, OH
4. title change: 06/23/2017, IN
5. title change:12/30/2019, NV
6. title change: 12/30/2021, NV (Theft recovery)

Can't really make sense of this and whether I should ignore that it had 6 owners or if that stinks just a little bit too much.

 

Are you able to see who the various owners are? The theft recovery is a bit concerning, but I bought my car with 5 previous owners.
3 or 4 of the owners were just the car being shuffled between dealerships without private registration which made me more comfortable with purchasing the car.
No regrets in my case.

 

Also bought mine with 5 previous owners. Really depends on the owners.

In my case, they were all legit owners, and a binder of all service docs from Jaguar was provided. 3rd party inspection and 3rd party warranty and I havent had a single issue, its in great shape!

'15 R 34k miles now

 

I would really focus on the theft comment. I have rarely seen a stolen car that was not trashed by the losers that stole it.
Now if they recovered it quickly after the theft maybe a limited amount of damage.
Try to find out how much it cost to repair everything that happened from the theft.
I would need a lot of pictures from the theft before I would even consider that car!

Move on!
.
.
.

 

I'd guess that 1 and 2 might be the vehicle put "in service" by the dealer, then the initial lease. I think 5 and 6 might be the last owner, then the insurance company. Just speculation though.

I do agree that more worrying than the number of listed owners is the theft recovery. I can't imagine someone stealing a car like that and then not flogging it mercilessly. I'm also not sure how there wouldn't be a flag on the vehicle registration if it was payed off by the insurance company. If insurance pays off a claim due to damage there would be a salvage flag, but I don't know about a theft recovery.

If the price is good enough, it might be worth the risk of hidden damage. A discount enough to hedge that bet would be in order.

 

Change of registration is not necessarily a change of title. Some States will require a new title in order to get tags for the new address.

The first two in 2014 are likely to the dealership and then to whoever leased it. 2016 was likely off-lease and it would be difficult to say if the same person bought it coming off lease or if it was a lease return and acquired by someone else. OH and IN being contiguous States could be a move by the same owner. I remember some quirkiness with Ohio when I bought a new car up there...but that was 17-18 years ago.

As others note...the theft is the biggest concern I have because you don't know JUST how much it got trashed. A good dealership could probably pull up the history for you...

Also, as a theft recovery, make sure your current State would issue a title that wasn't branded as a salvage AND that your insurance carrier won't bend you over on coverage.

 

Thanks for all the input. To shine some light on a few things, I've uploaded the AutoCheck Report which includes all relevant information about title changes and theft. Can someone help to interpret this?

The Autocheck report does not include owners, but when I cross-checked the title change dates on vincheck.info (report), the car was in dealership inventory for 4 of the 6 title changes, which indicates that the report indeed captured dealerships as "owner", and the actual number of owners is only 2-3 (people). Am I interpreting this correctly? Example:

2016-07-17 - Dealer listing, Bay Ridge Hyundai, NY
2016-08-23 - Title change, OH = new owner
2016-08-24 - Dealer listing, Toy Barn, OH

Regarding theft recovery, it says recovered after 3 days, no salvage, no damage. Sure, they probably didn't treat it well, but the same can be argued if someone takes it for a test drive... Should this still be a concern?

 

I'll be honest...the last three listings are a concern. Plano has a big Jaguar dealership as I recall, and if they couldn't move it in the metroplex in a bit over a month and instead it came down to Houston and a dealer HERE couldn't sell it in a similar time and NOW it is in Alabama...that sends big giant red flags. On edit, the CarMax thing is a turnoff. A good example of the F-Type would have been snapped by a Jaguar dealership given the inventory issues during the supply shortages that saw used prices skyrocket...

I also don't put a lot of stock in the assertion of no damage. Depending on the carrier, they may not report real promptly and there are certainly plenty of places that will do repairs and never report to the services that CLUE reports and the third-party places are looking at.

Unless the price is absolutely right, I would look for something else to fill your F-Type desires...

 

most of
the title changes are due to states only having 1 reassignment and have to be turned into the state on every transfer. The theft recovery is the only issue. Definitely devalues the car, you will always get docked on future trade because most dealers can't certify the car woth a bad carfax, ..and just will sell wholesale and obviously will get less money. Looks like a 3 owner car to me...

 

Thanks for all the feedback. Long story short, I didn't take it.