Contacting Old owners of your Minor! A MUST DO!

[heathy12]

Just had a lovely afternoon speaking to the previous owners of my 1959 Traveller! Have made two elderly gents in their 70's and late 80's day!

Was at a bit of a loose end so dug the old service history for my Traveller out!



BT phone directory online produced two phone numbers - the second and third owners.

The first chap had the car for 27 years - dry used only, toddling upto the golf club and shops. Bought it for £460 from a berevement sale when he moved to the UK from Germany and then finally sold it to buy a cortina.

Third owner carried out a bit of work owned the car for 6 years and again - only used it in the dry weather for short trips. Had a small amount of work done to it after it was hit in the back wing by a mini! Boht owners fanatically looked after the woodwork and protecting it from the elements.

Third owner offered to find me the fourth owner (Im the sixth owner) for me and give me some more information about it.

So im happy as larry now - know a hell of a lot more about my traveller now!

Who knows - another few years and a few of the stories and recolections about the car may have been lost for good - thank you BT!

Cant beleive people keep hold of the same number and houses for so long! Buess its just a younger generation thing where people dont spend their whole lives in the same house!


If you've got time to kill over the christmas break why not dig out the old service history and see what you can find out! Mines all documented now which is always nice to have with the car. Like I said - made two old chaps very happy to hear their cars are still going strong 30 years after they had it!

Reccomended thing to do IMO!

Anyone else done similar...got any good stories!?

[Dean]

I checked out all of my previous owners and all but one on 192.com came up as deceased! The last owner who is an old lady in her 70's now lives in Wales... so when it's back on the road next year I may give her a call.

[markc]

I always try to contact the previous owners of any cars i've owned,they are often glad to hear were the cars got to!

In mogs case i received a lovely letter and some photos of the previous elderly owner with mog and he thanked me for writing to him and wanted some pictures of the restorations i did.

[icemanste]

How do you check the owner all i no is the last owner and he has just had the car for over a year he said it was in storage for 12 years prior to that ??

i am the 3rd owner so i need to contact the 1st owner where do i start

Ta

Steve

[mike.perry]

Its easier if you have the original log book which lists all the changes in ownership rather than just the last keeper.

[heathy12]

How do you check the owner all i no is the last owner and he has just had the car for over a year he said it was in storage for 12 years prior to that ??

i am the 3rd owner so i need to contact the 1st owner where do i start

Ta

Steve

I just ran thru the service history.

Had names from invoices and customer addresses so just searched for the names and the general area last lived and came up with the numbers.

Was really lucky the two guys hadn't changed numbers in 40 odd years though!!

Bit of detective work can really pay off!

[MGFmad]

The last owner of our Traveller only had the car for a month, he bought it to restore but decided against it, we bought it with no history/paperwork apart from the V5.

As we knew the car to be local, we got in touch with the previous owner to the one above, he had owned the car for 22 years and on asking about any history, he produced a pack of papers detailing the entire history from when the car was new, even the original 'passport to service' book, an receipts for everything - if a lightbulb was changed, there was a receipt for it in the pack!

He gave us all the paperwork including details of the cars previous 2 owners, I have tried to locate them on 192.com, directory enquires etc but no luck.

[les]

You could send off for a list of previous owners as a start, then go from there Steve?
Hey heathy12, hope your covering paragraph as a footnote doesn't lead to us all having to do the same, you know how tight this ship is already!.

[rayofleamington]

Anyone else done similar...got any good stories!?

I've only tried to contact 2 and not heard back (sent a letter and a photo).
The previous owner of my 54 was very happy that it got back on the road and got many updates, but as I'd met him when collecting it that doesn't really count. I got lots of stories from him and his daughter about family trips way back when in the Minor.

[icemanste]

No service history with my car thats what i wanted to ask the owner for and its a new style log book bit of a pain dont suppose there is any way then of me finding out??

Its a shame because some people do hold on to them

oh well


Thanks

steve

[rayofleamington]

dont suppose there is any way then of me finding out??

DVLA will provide a list of the previous keepers. It used to cost £5 but possibly more now.

[icemanste]

Yes called them they can do that and it cost £5 good that if anyone else wants info on how to apply

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Diol1/DoItO ... G_10016794

Then type in top right search box v888 download the application for for a fee of £5 the info is yours she said depends on how many owners it has had to how long it will take.

Thanks for your help

Steve

[Shawn]

I made a point of finding all the living owners of my car, but I was only able to complete the picture because I had the original sales invoice.

I'm the fourth owner; the guy I bought it from purchased it from a guy in the local pub, who was the nephew of the original owner. I only had a vague description of where the nephew lived, but I was told he lived in a big white house in one of the cul-de-sacs near the pub. I door-knocked about half a dozen houses, and luckilly found him at home.

He had lots of stories about the car and was pleased to hear it would be restored.

I too have documented all of this and will pass it on with the car (when the time comes).

It's a worthwhile exercise, I'd recommend it to anybody!