I’m looking at a used car later today and just got the Carfax report for it. I was surprised to see that the report showed 3 owners with the most recent purchase being 8 days ago. The car was listed for sale 7 days ago.
The car was registered in another state originally, then was sold and registered in my state in the seller’s current city last year. The most recent title has the same city on the registration and no updated odometer reading. I’m wondering if this could be as simple as the seller having lost the original title and needing to get a replacement, or if this indicates some kind of a scam.
Also worth noting is that the NMVTIS report from carsforsale.com shows the car listed last year by a used car dealership for $1100 more than it’s being sold for now, with about 11,000 fewer miles than it currently has. The NMVTIS report shows that the most recent title was issued with the same odometer reading as the previous title.
Go look at this mystery vehicle . If you think you might want to buy it decide if it is worth spending about 125.00 to 150.00 to have it inspected . Used vehicles are a gamble anyway and Carfax is just a guide not actual records.
Normally I would not be too bothered by 3 owners of even a fairly new car… you don’t say what year this car is.
A leased car will likely have 2 owners right off the bat. An off-lease car will have 3, or even 4 depending on where it goes from there. Say, the car was leased at Bub Nissan and leased by ABC Bank in one state then turned in at the end of lease to Jim-Bob’s Nissan in another state and auctioned off to Hairy Harry’s Used Cars in yet another state. That will show as 4 owners on a CarFax in 3 different states.
Go look at the car, have your mechanic inspect it and then make your decision.
It’s a 2016 model, so on the newer side but old enough that I wouldn’t be concerned about 3 owners. My only concern is that a new title was issued a day before the car was listed, but it could be as simple as the seller needing to get a replacement title and Carfax interprets that as the vehicle being sold.
I ended up going to look at the car yesterday and asked the seller for an explanation. He said he thought he’d lost the title, so he got a replacement one, then found the original one. I ended up not buying the car for other reasons, but wanted to give an update here.