How Many Owners?!?

[willis 18 1 Cars]

A 205 GTi 1.9 has just come up for sale very locally to me. Now, it does need some work, a full respray and it doesn't have any tax or MOT. It's done just over 100k.

 

The thing that is putting me off is how many previous owners it has had. It's not had 5, not 10, not 15 but 17!

 

I may be being a little judgemental and maybe all of it's owners have loved it to bits (though not that much as it's had an average keep of little under 18 months) but something is telling me to forget about it and not pursue it anymore, especially given that it would cost circa £3k to get it where I would be happy with, and only having looked at photos and not the car in the flesh, I know that this might be a different kettle of fish!

 

What do you guys think?

[Rich_p 23]

mine has 13 on the log book which was a shock. I think each of them has bodged something along the way!

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

I would appraise the car on it's own merits and not on the number of owners.

If it's a straight solid thing at the right money then buy it. If it's an overpriced heap of s*ite then don't!

[erbs 42 1 Cars]

mine is a 86 1.6 and only got 4 previous and i thought that was a lot..........17 is a bit steep

[Weser 30]

I'm with Tom on this judge the car on itself.

 

It might have so many owners because its been passed around a family?

[welshpug 1,657]

minimum of 20 years old, anything up to 30 years old, so an average of 1-2 years per owner, not that bad really.

Edited July 18, 2014 by welshpug

[willis 18 1 Cars]

Hmmm, you guys are selling it to me.

 

What would/should a tatty but solid 1.9 be worth if the engine turns out to be ok? I just don't know anymore as values seem to be all over the place. I was thinking about the £1k mark.....

Edited July 18, 2014 by willis

[Roon 29 1 Cars]

Mines had 11 but it's not got a spec of rust or rot very straight and never had a accident in 28 years.

 

Guess its pot luck

[mrfirepro 127 1 Cars]

mine is 89 had 15 previous

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

87 E reg owned it for almost a year with only the green slip then on receiving the logbook found it to have 14 previous registered owners but the car has been marvellous, even before i worked on it.

 

3 years on still happy as larry

 

This car came from swapz so has probably had more unregistered owners that had it for a week or so

[Roon 29 1 Cars]

A point to take is as I know with friends mine the car can be swapped around close family or possibly friends which bumps the owner amount up.

 

If the paint is that bad and it doesent have tax or test I would wonder how well those 17 owners looked after or cared for it.

[AlexRS2782 136 1 Cars]

I bought a Renault 5 GT Turbo in '99 that was only 10 years old and it had already racked up 9 owners in that time, so 17 in 20 odd years isn't that bad especially as some of the hot hatches would have done the rounds with a lot of people way back when.

 

There's a lad on the RSOC whose Fiesta RST had 23 owners, before him, and that is a really decent example / unrestored

[willis 18 1 Cars]

A point to take is as I know with friends mine the car can be swapped around close family or possibly friends which bumps the owner amount up.

 

If the paint is that bad and it doesent have tax or test I would wonder how well those 17 owners looked after or cared for it.

True, but the lacquer peel on the later ones was an issue, especially if ungaraged or in a sunny part of UK.

[nick205 12 5 Cars]

Personally, the "passed around a family" line doesn't wash with me. I've made a point of not doing that when moving cars between family members simply to avoid adding another keeper to the list.

 

That said, Tom's approach is sound for a car of this age - buy the car not the history/paperwork.

[eddie bullit 37]

Depends if you're going to keep it. If you're looking at doing it up and selling on in years to come the amount of owners would really put potential buyers off I reckon. Would me anyway. I'd think that it's been owned for a while until something raises it's head and then its been traded, swapped etc.

[ATK 140 1 Cars]

Mines had 6 but one of those had it for ten years so easily could have been more.

 

if the car is tidy I wouldnt worry about it, its probably been used rather than stuck in a garage in the corner by a long term neglecting owner!

[lewis205cti 12]

I'm owner 14 on my 309. And it's been the most reliable pug I've owned. Over 170k now.

[john-melbourne 6]

My cti is an 88 plate and has 4 owners. I suppose insurance could have been an issue for some people as well as the costs of fuel, as premiums have gone up people have looked at cheaper alternatives and moved on.

 

I remember a few years ago buying a mk2 16v golf from a lad who had it for 1 week, got insurance quotes after the fact and sold it to me when he couldn't afford it!

[gruffa 7]

I just bought an 89/F reg, when the log book came through it had 12 prev owners, but then I only paid £475 for it with the intention of getting it back on the road.

I think these types of cars will have lots of owners because of peoples buying them in the mid 90's when the insurance went through the roof without looking to see if they could afford it.

[Edp 67 3 Cars]

92 205 has had 6 owners, 3 of which in the same family.

 

90 309, I'm the second owner

 

As said the amount of owners means jack all really and wouldn't put me off buying a car.

[willis 18 1 Cars]

Well, I've just been to look at the car and it's not great. The paint is completely gone on every panel like I've never seen before. There is a lot of red paint under the blue in the engine bay, I'm not sure if this was an undercoat on the topaz? The slam panel has been painted black but I think it's original as it looks pretty straight and the HPI I ran was clear (not that it means much as there's always people looking to make a few quid). Interestingly the current "normal" plate isn't the original "normal" plate.

 

Mechanically, despite a huge oil leak from somewhere, the engine sounded quite sweet when it worked as it died after being run for around 5 minutes, just after the auto choke went off. The engine was making a strange hissing noise when it wasn't ticking over, possibly fuel injectors? After that it just wouldn't start and if you tried to start it for longer than around 10 seconds the exhaust popped and loads of smoke came out of the induction kit!

 

There was a small hole in the inner wing and also underneath the rear seat where you could see straight through to the ground. The half leather was also shot and even the instrument panel was faded. Also, I think the sunroof was an aftermarket one.

 

It's all a shame really as the car was structurally quite good except for the bits of rust in the usual places but I could see everything costing around £3k - £4k to put it right and get it back to a good standard. I did take quite a few photos so if anyones interested I'll put a link up.

[Roon 29 1 Cars]

Sounds like a total dog that's probably destined for the scrap yard then. Owner must have been embarrassed at all the above lol

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

Sounds like a total dog that's probably destined for the scrap yard then. Owner must have been embarrassed at all the above lol

For me it depends on how it was priced, but really it sounds like the majority of cheap 205's out there now.

[hexhamstu 9]

16 on mine!

[ALEX 98 1 Cars]

Sounds like its only good for spares. If you can find rot, there will be much more hidden.

The red paint showing through will be an example of a bad respray. Chances are the car was originally red.