Hey everyone,

I need some help on looking for my old Cutlass. I have tried to search it by VIN number but all the sites I have tried only take the new 17 digit VIN number. how would I find it by the old 12 digit VIN it had?? Any suggestions would be deeply helpful!

Thank you,
Zac

 

try www.v8cars.hu/oldsvin/decode
you will get most of the basics without option codes
good luck and welcome classic olds forum

 

You cannot find it by the VIN number or by any other systematic way. This question comes up not infrequently, and the answer is always the same. No systematic records were ever kept, and no central database exists with VIN numbers going back that far. Even if there were such a database, privacy considerations would probably restrict your ability to identify the name and address of the actual owner. After all, they may not necessarily want to be bothered by strangers. That's assuming, of course, that your old car even exists anymore. If it was many years ago that you last owned it, it might very well have been wrecked or junked by now.

Your best hope is to start with the person you sold the car to. If it was a private party and not a dealer trade-in, and if that person is still alive, findable, and willing to talk to you, you can ask if they still have the car or if they have the name of the person they sold it to, find THAT person, ask the same questions, and keep going until you either find the person who currently has the car or hit a dead end.


In the end, I would say that, if we're talking about a car you owned many years ago and not one that you sold last year, the odds are very low (less than 10%, more likely less than 1%) that you will ever find your car. I don't mean to dash your hopes or sound so pessimistic. It's just reality.

 

Post pictures, original colors and options and it may pop up on this site where somebody has it.

 

Very unlikely. In the other thread he started on this, he includes a vital piece of information that he left out here, and that is the car was in an accident, back in 1972 or thereabouts we presume, and declared totaled. It is very unlikely that it is anywhere other than long-ago crushed and recycled or buried.