Just wondering if / how you can trace a car's history in the States ??
I'd like to document the car I've bought from the guy in S.C., but all I know is that he's had it since 2000 and he bought it from a guy in Hershey Penn.He didn't keep any purchase documentation so he can't even give me a name.
Any clues?

 

Try doing an interior restoration - you might find all sorts of lost docs, like insurance cards, registration papers, etc.

Did the previous owner have the last owner's info on the title before signing it over to you?
Last resort is to make friends with someone at the tax office when you pay your registration. They ~might~ be able to give some clues, but due to privacy issues, they might not be able to give you names or addresses.
If the car was in another state, then your state's dept may not be able to get much from the other state's anyway.
Since you are in another country, you might be out of luck (but hope not...)

It is frustrating indeed. I have been down that road before with my mom's Olds and my '72 and was amazed at how little they could find when they tried. I had a sweet ladyfriend helping me, too, and she was determined!
Knowing all this, I think it is possible for some of the "clunkers" from the cars program to make it back on to the streets. Our govt is run like a submarine with screen doors...

 

Sign me up for a dozen screen doored Olds clunkers.
2 doors, preferably.

 

I forgot were I got this but go here you can call or write and get your cars info http://www.oldsclub.org/histcntr.htm

 

Privacy laws prevent you from getting prior information from DMVs in most states.

 

The short answer is that you can't, at least easily or in any sort of systematic way for cars of 1970s vintage or earlier.

When you say "trace a car's history", I presume you mean you want to know such things as how many owners its had, their names and locations if possible, when and where it was originally sold, and how much money changed hands for each of these transactions. You also want to know if is has ever been in a flood or a major accident.

As I say, none of this is recorded for vehicles this old. When you do a VIN search using Carmax or a similar service, you can find this out, but only for 1980s and newer cars. You can do the calling of the various title agencies in the various states in which the car has lived, starting with the most recent and working backwards, and I've done this, but it is entirely dependent on the cooperativeness of the person you happen to reach on the phone, privacy policies, and the quality of the records kept at the various state title offices or DMV offices you'll encounter.

The Olds or GM History Center will not have any of this information. For 1977 and later cars, they can pull up original selling dealer info, including the name and location of the original selling dealer and a copy of the sales invoice, so you can know how much your car originally cost and what options were on it. I don't know if this info includes the name of the person who originally bought the car. They will also give you basic info about the car including such things production numbers of the various body styles, perhaps copies of sales literature, and so forth.

For Oldsmobiles older than 1977, they don't have any of the selling dealer or invoice info. They can only give you the most barebones of information, much of which you probably already know or can get from other literature.


As has been suggested, you can hunt around in the car itself for scraps of paper hidden under the seats or in the trunk to see if that can tell you anything, but you're unlikely to be able to piece together any sort of complete chronology of your car's history. I have found the occasional interesting piece of paper, etc. in my cars. My most recent one, a '67 Delta 88, had a match book under the seat from a restaurant in northern Ohio, so the car must have been there at least once. In the trunk of the '64 Jetstar 88 I bought back in 1991 was a letter addressed to a prior owner from a collection agency informing him that his payment on the car was overdue. That was interesting. This car also had an AAA (American Automobile Association) sticker from the Dayton office on the front bumper. I ultimately determined that the car was originally sold in Dayton, was kept by the original owner until 1980, and then changed hands nine more times between then and when I bought it in 1991. So I wasn't lucky enough to be the second owner or third owner or anything glamorous like that. No, I was the ELEVENTH owner!

Unless you find the proverbial "one owner" or "two owner" car where all sales and service receipts have been meticulously kept and recorded since the car was purchased new, you have to content yourself to enjoying the car as is, realizing that you'll likely never know its complete history, or even a significant portion of it.

 

PA used to let you do a title search at $5/per owner. But that was a while ago.

Most of my history came from starting with the previous owner and working backwards. But judging from your post.....

 

This is a good way to do it IF the previous owners are cooperative and not dead. I imagine that the farther back you go, the more difficult finding owners and contacting them might be. I know that if I received a phone call from a guy who claimed he now owned a car that I owned for 5 years 35 years ago and wanted any information I could give him on it, I'd probably think he was a crackpot who was after my money, and I'd hang up on him!

Going through state DMVs is also doable depending on the state and how cooperative they are. But expect slowness and dead ends.

 

I actually tracked down the two previous owners of the Road Runner I recently sold. I had receipts with the car then used school reunion sites, facebook and google to track them down. I emailed them photos of the car so they knew I was fair dinkum and they were both really happy to talk about the car. I got a great history (not all good news) back to 1985.

 

Excellent. That's making use of modern methods for sure. I didn't have facebook, email, or google back in 1991.

By the way, what was the not so good news?

 

The car had been rear-ended and left in a field. It was a genuine Petty Blue car which had faded to white,the original 383 and transmission had been removed. I guess the good news was that someone looked in the trunk and saw what colour it was, paid $700 for it, got it retitled and restored it. It wound up with a 440 six pack in it, but the block was out of a motorhome....low compression. I got all kinds of info from the guy who I still keep in touch with.
Cheers

 

Interesting. It looks good now.

 

I was really lucky with my Toro, bought it from the original owner and had every receipt from day 1. I actually picked it up from the address it was delivered to new in 76.

I was not so lucky with my other 2, but I don't care. They are mine now.

I did have a funny thing happen on my way home from my mechanic after replacing the carpet in the convertible.

After a half hour ride on a lovely Saturday afternoon with the top down on the expressway, I pulled into my driveway and felt something at my feet. It was the build sheet that came loose from under the seat during the carpet replacement.

It made it home after half an hour on the expressway with the top down and didn't blow away.

I also found an old gas receipt (well not all that old, it was $1.16 a gallon) from the early 80s I guess.

 

Sounds like this one is going to be harder to track as you have no name of the owner from PA. I don't think you can even find out what dealership originally sold it using the VIN since the car may be too old to do it that way.You can always try to see if they have any info on cars from that era but don't hold your breath.

 

Maybe if you were calling about a 77 Bonneville or an 80 Citation (even though I'd still talk to the guy) But if you recieve a cal about a car that most people would regret selling i.e. Shelbys, Hemis, W's, H/O's, I'm sure that a lively conversation would ensue. After all, if you had one of these cars, you're a car person.