In scoping out used 996tt to purchase, would it scare you off if there were a high number of prior owners?

Granted in a perfect world, a well maintained 1 owner 996tt would be a good find, and would suggest this sole owner babied it like crazy.

But what about 3-4 owners?

I even saw one that had 7 owners.

 

only if we're talking about women. renters, sorry. i meant renters.

7?! ack. i've seen em too!

 

If the car is in great shape with a ton of maintenance records, who cares? Sometimes the ownership number changes but the owner doesn't - lease, retitle from corp to personal, etc.

My car showed 5 owners and I had every single dealer service record from pre-delivery until I bought it with 57k miles, and every single record is in the same owner's name.

 

Every vehicle has a story and the amount of owners can give you a clue as to what that story was. I would worry if there were a lot of owners recently who did not own the car for very long. It could be that they bought it and found a host of problems.

Now if there were many owners, but the most recent one had the car for a few years and had good records, then I would not worry so much.

 

I think having the car inspected or maint. records like already mentioned is more important than number of owners. My car had 10k and I was the 4th owner-apparently nobody drove the car. I don't think that is necessarily odd. I have owned many cars in the past and "just borrowed it" for a couple years and sold it. Most just because I hated looking at the car instead of driving it but found too many work or daddy related duties to do so the toy car would sit. I also bought many cars from the prior owners like that. Bought an 01 Z06 in 03 with 1k. Retirement present to the original owner but it sat under a cover. Also bought an 87 Grand National with 25k in about 10 years ago. As long as its what you are after and it checks out I wouldn't care how many owners it had.

 

well, for example I bought mine with 38k miles on it, I'm the 4th owner. 2nd owner, the car was a repo by the bank, 3rd owner didnt care much about the car, it was just sitting, and of course everything original - nothing ever touched ! or replaced, even wiper blades, it tells you how the owner care'd. Car was a dump, with missfire and slipping clutch. ripped off front outter boots, leaking plenum, Paid low 30's for mine, not gonna lie, but had to dump few thousands to put the car on the road and so it runs like it used to. Any used car you buy, you never know what is waiting for you... But if you dont know how to perform PPI - That's a MUST before buying any used P car.

 

Like others have said, several owners doesn't necessarily mean a bad car especially since these cars are now 10+ years old, relatively expensive, and there was a recession since they were made likely causing people to sell their toys if they were in financial trouble. However, I'd probably inspect a car and it's history with more detail if it had 7 owners car vs. a 1 or 2 owner car. These cars are so much fun, I'd be a little suspicious of one that was flipped several times!

 

As someone stated, these cars are getting 10+ years old. Sports cars in nature also are a type of car that are known to not be kept long. People buy and life changes, or they buy then want to try another car.

7 owners over 10 years where each owner had for about a year and a half and I generally wouldn't think much of it. 7 owners and six of them were in the last year and I might.

 

I've also seen several owner history is not uncommon especially if the vehicle has exchanged through several sets of dealer hands too.
PPI is most important.

 

OK, what are some things to look for in the PPI?

PPI has probably been beaten to death, but the things I have on my list:

-2nd gear pop out
-if coolant pipes have been welded on (per my local independent p-car mechanic, a common issue with the 996tt is the coolant pipes coming off), -rear spoiler hydraulics
-over revs
-clutch
-window regulators
-coolant tanks, are they leaking?

Anything else I'm missing?

 

Number of owners don't matter. The car could of had 5 owner and be in an amazing condition or have 1 owner and be completely trashed.

Rule #1: Get it inspected before any purchase. Know exactly what you are getting.

 

PPI offers lots of information on the vehicle depending on the person doing it. Dealers will likely give slightly differing information than indy. Reputable indy will look at performance mods or tweaks where it maybe bypassed by dealership.
At the least it on a stock car , it will show signs of abuse, body work , and overall health of the vehicle.
Some people will add things like blackstone labs oil analysis to their list for motor health.
Can't catch everything however.
Post what you get back before you purchase and we can all chime in. Might be a lot to read but would be helpful I think.....

 

My prior owner bought it as a CPO car. Had to rely exclusively on an extensive (I mean down to checking the light bulbs) and the service records at the dealerships.
I think a serious PPi is worth gold, not the number of owners. As said before by others, you have no idea how it was driven. These are true sports cars, so I doubt any are truly babied to church on Sunday.

 

These are older cars and as such I would expect around three maybe four owners. If it's had ten owners, then that tells me it's either been a short term lease car or someone has had problems with it and then gotten rid of it shortly thereafter. A thorough PPI gives me more information than the number of owners.

 

Before the PPI you have to subject the car to a thorough used car check out and test ride/drive.

Start with the test ride/drive.

Visit the car with the engine cold and start it and listen to the engine idle as it warms up.

Continue to let it idle for a while as you walk around the car looking at the body panel fits/finish but also keeping an ear on the engine.

After a while have the seller take you on a 15 mile test ride. Be sure the route gives the seller/driver a chance to demo the car as you will use it.

Back at the starting point continue to let the engine idle and swap seats. Take the car out this time as the driver and cover the same route, drive the car the same way.

Couple of things: Before starting the engine switch off the A/C. You test this after the test ride/drive. With the A/C on the fans run and this may mask an engine overheating problem. Next be sure when you turn the key on you see *all* the warning lights come on, especially the CEL, and they all go off as the engine fires and begins to run.

After the test ride/drive then back at the starting point give the car a thorough used car check out. Assume nothing works until you verify it does.

Then after all of the above if you still like the car and believe you can make a deal arrange for a PPI by someone that knows these cars inside and out. He will check the items you listed and about a zillion more.