I bought a red ‘71 cutlass supreme convertible at gateway classic cars in Kansas City area and would love to learn more about the history fro any past owners. Gateway won’t disclose that info. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Welcome, post a pic of your new Olds.

 

In the 1990's, Pennsylvania would provide info on previous owners (if the car had been registered in PA) for $30 per owner.
In 1993, South Carolina sent me paperwork on my car all the way back to the GMAC loan agreement when the car was sold new, all for under $10. (Until then, I didn't even know I was only the second owner. I was able to get in contact with the original owner.)
Those days are over.
Most states protect all the information of previous owners now.
Some services (like CarFax) will indicate when and where the car was registered or ownership changed. If it lists anything about a specific dealership, you may find someone at that dealership that will provide you with a lead -- but that's a long-shot.
Look at the owner's manual to see if anything was written in it or on any other documentation included. It sounds like you don't have the Protect-O-Plate.

Others may have some sleuthing tips to add.

 

My '72 was sold new in the Pittsburgh PA area (Bill McCracken Olds when they were still in Homestead) and when I acquired it in 2016, the original dealer docs with the first owner info were still with it. Of course being that far back in time, I came to learn via a cursory Google search that the original owner (and his wife) had passed a number of years before then.

The PA DMV back in 2016 said for a fee, they could provide only a record of the original titled owner (which I already had), not of any subsequent owner if the car had been later sold in PA - so that was a dead end. I know that my car ended up in Delaware at some point in the mid-late 90's, then in Florida by the early 2000's - shockingly, I did find contact info for the Delaware owner via an old Tripod server classified sale ad he had posted for it in the late 90's that was still searchable on the internet, but when I contacted him in 2017 he couldn't remember much about the car except for when he sold it. Trail ended there, with no other history available for the earlier decades leading to that point.

So ultimately, if an old car passed thru one or more states when trading hands, it could be national 'where's Waldo' effort to find any earlier history on it. But as has been stated, most DMV's don't provide much if any past history on them these days sooooo....

 

 

Sharp looking car. My friend sold his 69 Z/28 through Gateway and, if I remember correctly, he gave them permission to share his info with any new buyer. Did you ask them to contact the seller and give them your information so the seller could contact you?

 

I did not ask them specifically but that is a good idea in case the seller did the same. Thanks for the idea.