Car registration/previous owners conundrum

Bit of help please.

Looking at a car – it’s a 2006 Toyota from a dealers. He said it had 5 previous owners. All fine. I bought one of those car history checks from the RAC and it says this —

Total keepers – 2

but then on the Vehicle Regsistration History section it says —

Keeper number – 5. Date of Registration – 17/06/2014

And then some details about a registration plate change from its original to a private plate back to its original (which it has now)

So, to me it’s saying it’s only ever had 2 keepers but they have changed their ownership between them? or is it including dealers to buyer to dealers to buyer etc?

I’m confused?

My guess is the RAC check is not showing owners whilst it was on a private plate. Only the owners when it was on the original plate?

Just go with what the dealer says – if the car is right for you it doesn’t make any difference if it’s had 2 or 5 owners.

At the risk of sounding like a total arse, it’s a 14 year old car, number of owners is pretty much irrelevant unless it’s something incredibly special tbh.
Buy on condition and recent history if there is any.

I seem to remember odd stuff happening with private plates and registered keepers on cars I’ve bought before, can’t remember the nature of it. I really wouldn’t worry.

Hi Favouredimage…… Are you in England, Wales or Scotland?

Have a look at the registration plate again….

Is it in the format of 3 letters followed by 3 or 4 digits? ie GBZ 8008 ?

If it is then there is a good chance it is not actually a “private plate” but is actually a car from Northern Ireland.

A lot of people consider these “private plates” as they don’t indicate a Year of Registration.

It could be that you have a Northern Irish car first registered with DVLA Coleraine in the North which then travelled to “the main-land” and was re-registered with DVLA Swansea in 2014.

Check it out. I had to re-register all my Northern Irish cars when I moved to Devon years ago.

My guess is the RAC check is not showing owners whilst it was on a private plate.

That would only account for one owner though surely, and probably not even that? I can’t think of a scenario where someone would care sufficiently to get a private reg, sell the car with that registration still in place, then someone else reverts it back to the original plate several keepers later?

Unless the act of changing the registration increments the keeper tally as a new V5 is issued, maybe?

I’m struggling to see why anyone would overly care in any case, as Muffin says.

At the risk of sounding like a total arse, it’s a 14 year old car, number of owners is pretty much irrelevant unless it’s something incredibly special tbh.

I’d say the opposite. The more owners a car has, the less certain you can be of the history, and the more likely at least one of them has abused it.

A 14 year old car might be a cheap throwaway to some, but for many it’ll still be up there amongst the most expensive and highest risk items they’ve ever bought.

Is it in the format of 3 letters followed by 3 or 4 digits? ie GBZ 8008 ? If it is then there is a good chance it is not actually a “private plate” but is actually a car from Northern Ireland.

Subsequently owned by a bloke called Gaz, Daz or Baz in which case there are further considerations to be made about history and provenance 😉

I’d say the opposite. The more owners a car has, the less certain you can be of the history, and the more likely at least one of them has abused it.

Conversely it’s not been driven into the ground for 13.9 years by the same negligent one.

My OH’s Fiesta is 16 years old, 140,000miles and ‘tired’*. It’s annual MOT is accompanied by the same facebook post #Prayforfoxytheracingfiesta. She’s the 2nd owner.

My C-max, same engine and gearbox, 18months younger, same miles, much heavier car, no drama, never used a drop of oil.

*she tops the oil up when the engine gets a bit “growly”.

Did you give the VIN number when you generated the RAC report?

When i’ve done a full history check in the past, it also gives details of other reigstration numbers associated with that VIN number.

Ultimately, the number of previous owners doesn’t really matter, but you do want to ensure there are no unexplained gaps in its history where it could have been imported, stolen/recovered, involved in a serious accident etc.

I’d say the opposite. The more owners a car has, the less certain you can be of the history, and the more likely at least one of them has abused it.

A 14 year old car might be a cheap throwaway to some, but for many it’ll still be up there amongst the most expensive and highest risk items they’ve ever bought.

I pretty much exclusively buy cars of the nature the OP is buying as they’re all I can afford .
At 14 years old and 5 owners that’s still only an owner just under every 3 years. And even under average mileage that’s still North of 29k per owner. It’s not like buying a 5 year old M3 with 7 owners.

I’d much rather that than a 14 year old 20k car that’s been bounced off street furniture by an 85 year old and used for 2 mile trips, never warming up, then left to right in a garage.

My motorbike has me as previous registered keeper acquired in 2006 and current keeper acquired in 2013* – didn’t think that was normal for just moving house?

*not sure if number of keepers has increased since I bought it back in 2006

I’d much rather that than a 14 year old 20k car that’s been bounced off street furniture by an 85 year old and used for 2 mile trips, never warming up, then left to right in a garage.

You’ve pretty much exactly described my first car there. My uncle had had it from new, I acquired it after he died, 13 years old with £35k on the clock. (The car, not my uncle.)

It’s a little Toyota MR2 an 06 plate with very low mileage – under 50k. Looks great, drives great etc.

The 5 owners thing itself doesn’t bother me just the discrepency where it says it’s actually had only 2 registered keepers but then states that keeper number 5 regsitered it in 2014. The only other thing I could think of is that it was owned by a husband and wife and they swapped ownership? Or owned by a business?

other than that all the other info on the check is fine. MOT history, mileage history etc all fine. I was just perplexed rather than concerned.

Honestly, for that sort of car I wouldn’t even give it a second thought. They’re often bought as runarounds for a summer then sold on when people realise they’re a little impractical. My wife’s had multiple mx5s with high numbers of owners, all of which were fine. Bar one. Wich had 1 previous. And lots of ‘previous’.:D
I bet it’s something to do with private plates. My old 200sx had something similar but I can’t remember it dammit!

Only thing I can remember about those -is it a 190? Did that engine come in those ot was it just the Celica? Something about them in my memory banks, can’t remember what. But I seen to remember they only came with the 160.
Brilliant cars though, do it. You won’t regret it. Better in every single way than BL’s horrible equivalent.

The only other thing I could think of is that it was owned by a husband and wife and they swapped ownership?

‘owner’ and ‘keeper’ are different things. The V5 is only a record of keepers.

That would only account for one owner though surely, and probably not even that? I can’t think of a scenario where someone would care sufficiently to get a private reg, sell the car with that registration still in place, then someone else reverts it back to the original plate several keepers later?

I’m really not sure how it works, but we often get Motability cars in with personalised plates, usually at some point between coming in and going out again the car will get a new set of plates made up and fitted, but there are some which arrive with private plates on, and are sold on with them still fitted, usually because the owner is deceased, or their situation is such that they’re unable to drive anymore, so the plate stays with the car.
I would guess that whoever buys the car, almost inevitably a dealer via auction or online, then gets a regular plate fitted and offers up the personal plates for sale.
How this affects the ownership record I can’t say.

I bought one of those car history checks from the RAC and it says this —

Total keepers – 2

but then on the Vehicle Regsistration History section it says —

Keeper number – 5

You paid the RAC – maybe ask them to explain how they’ve come up with two different numbers.