Subarus and high number of owners
 

My Scoob is currently for sale, and advetised in the classifieds... I just had the following *brief* call :D

Me : Hello
Caller : Hello, do you still have the Subaru for sale?
Me : Yes I do
Caller : How many owners had it had?
Me : 4
Caller : Oh, ah'm no interested
Me : :D Ok

WTF, why do people pre judge based on number of owners?

The car has been enthusiast maintained from new all by local owners with comprehensive main dealer stamped book. It has 6 stamps and is 4 years old. No dents, dings, scratches, PPP from new.... :rolleyes:

In fact I can guarantee that it is one of the most honest and cleanest examples yet this "buyer" wouldn't even entertain it due to having 4 owners.

Why can't people view the car and allow the metal to influence their decision? Why are they repulsed at 4 owners? In my experience (6 Imprezas) it is certainly a common marque for short term buyers, either through choice or boredom or financial suicide! :D

I remember in the early nineties, it was not uncommon to see Cosworths for sale with 10+ owners :D Does this mean they are a shed? Possibly, but unlikely in most cases.

Oh well, his loss. :)

i think its just ppl think its had problems so the owner sold it. 4 owners in 4 years is high though mate!lol id prefer a one owner car? not essential though!

well that would be me stuffed then. i like to change my car evey year what i bought used, but as im in a new one, it will be every 2 years.

Me, i wouldnt see a problem with it, full history 4 owners and stamps says alot more that 1 owner and a box full of reciepts to me.

but it can go wrong both ways. Fact is, the best chance is to buy new and even thats not a dead cert thatt the cars going to be right. But then we cant all buy new, i wanted the STI, couldnt afford one, so i got the WRX before anyone starts shouting...

a point i have mentioned before, if anyone ask you what members clubs are you users of, what would you tell them????

be careful, because the next question i would be asking would be whats your user name, then i would be looking at all the posts. You would be supprised at the things i have found out by doing this. So be careful on nwhat you post about your car on the BBS.


John

My point exactly! Jumping to (wrong) conclusions from an uninformed standpoint! My pet hate!




Exactly! :thumb:




I bought a 10 month old MY03 STi PPP with 1 previous owner. I then sold it to another SN member due to a house purchase. He didn't take to it and traded it in, so a 2 year old STi PPP now has 4/5 owners on the logbook.

If you want to see if it has been looked after, check out pics that I and Elmer Fudpucker have posted on here of the WR Blue STi ;)

My point is that its unfair to jump to conclusions, there is no better way to decide on a car than to view/drive/inspect it.

I'm the forth owner of my scoob(01 wrx).

With a new car(brand new or new to you) comes a novelty factor. I would imagine this goes hand in hand with looking after it better.

So in theory my car's had its novelty factor re-newed(with its respective owner at the time) four times in four years!

That said, if money were no object, you can't beat being the first owner of a brand new motor.

<Russ>

I woudn't buy a 4 owner car, why? because you get exactly the sort of problems you have experienced when you come to sell it and I would not want the hassle, rightly or wrongly people will just think there is something wrong with it to get through 4 owners in so many years... unless it was hugely under the book value which made up for the fact..

What bollocks!! If the book's stamped, what difference does it make? I think it's a feature of scoobs; people seem to buy them for the novelty, to say they've had one, not for the long haul.

I blame tatty 12-year-old Jap imports, myself. :p

look at this example, the car was traded in as soon as you do that the dealer has to register it to them, so its getting more and more common that newish cars have lots of owners to the name.

u just have to have someone who knows what there looking for with you when u go to by the car...

so that person who called u is a Tosser and prob didnt have the money to buy the car anyhow :razz: lol

Have to agree with the telephone caller. There are so many Scooby's for sale out there and it is only going to get worse, that while such a question would not be my only question, 4 owners in 4 years is a lot and would make you worried that there have been some potential expensive problems looming - why take the risk when there are so many of them?

I agree it doesn't make much of a difference, but if you had the choice of two identical cars, same mileage, colour etc, and one had 1 owner after 4 years, the other 4, which would you choose? Think that says it all - we cannot kid ourselves as some like to do that the Scooby is a collectible car anymore (if it even was) or that they hold their value (they are one of the worst depreciating cars out there), or that they mean much anymore. The over supply, cheap(er) imports and constant changing/modifications by the manufacturer to keep them mainstream has hit everyone, thus its a buyers market!

A lot of people think that if someone is only planning on owning a car for a year then they are going to thrash it as they dont care if the engine gets knackered as long as its OK when they sell it on.

I find it odd when people sell a brand new car after a year, as the depreciation is going to be a killer.

Yes, I think that's about the size of the: the more short-term owners, the greater the chances that one of em will have abused it, even if they did adhere to the servicing. I would have asked for details about the previous owners and if i'd been satisified that they were enthusiasts then it wouldn't be too much cause for concern, but if not.......

Not at all a reflection on you mate, I'm sure you treated it very well and the car is as you describe.

As another poster said: Its a buyers market is all!

Good luck with the sale.

NS04

NS04

My thoughts exactly :thumb:

I've owned 6 Scoobs and each time I've changed is due to boredom, or simply wanting something different......STi/RB5/wagon etc etc




Again, this is perhaps due to lack of knowledge/research on the part of potential Impreza owners. LOADS of Imprezas have had much more than average number of owners, but this makes it a tad unfair to assume they are dogs, doesn't it? :rolleyes:


Well I must be the exception to the rule.......
I sold an 18 month old MY03 STi for £23k
I sold an 5 year old RB5 for £13k
I sold an 6 year old UK Turbo for £9k
I traded a 3 year old UK Turbo for £12k

To name but a few. In fact the above 4 examples lost me £4000 in deprecitation over 6 years (modifications aside), so not exactly the "worst depreciating cars out there" :rolleyes:



There aren't many Imprezas driven by grannies! They are made to drive fast and hard and if looked after should handle this lifestyle just fine.
If you look up 300lb/ft of torque in the dictionary, it doesn't have a picture of a glass case full of coton wool! ;)

Any Impreza/Evo/Cosworth/RS etc etc can safely be assumed that it has been driven as it was intended to be driven.
If the car has a full service history and everything else points towards a well kept machine with a careful owner, it doesn't matter how it's been driven.



Boredom?
Also the fact that they can afford to lost the first hit.

Just people being people i guess....it could have had a million owners in 2 years, if each one had had a full service and cam belt change "just to be safe" when they bought it, it would be in suberb condition, but people would still be put off:rolleyes:

Only ONE OWNER cars get the sales and interest, sorry!!

I simply wouldn't consider a car thats had 4 owners in 4 years ...... put simply, ALL 4 owners didn't want it!! :eek:

WHY??????? and thats the question that buyers don't want to have to ask!!

My car has had 1 owner in 5 1/2 years ..... THATS what buyers want!! Oh, yes, its un-modified - another number 1 PLUS point for buyers.

Pete

Well I've sold loads of cars with multiple owners and it hasn't deterred buyers so I think its a bit of a sweeping generalisation to say that only one owner cars get sales and interest.

i think some people on here need to think about terms that they are using.

IMO

ABUSED... This is a car that generaly has not bee looked after, not had regular oil changes, using second had Cheap no subaru parts to fix and so on. A new car with all the stamps, you at least know its had the bare minimum servicing to keep it in line. That to me does not spell abused.

USED... Driving a car hard is not abuse IMO, its using the car for what it was meant. My engine has just bloen up, its now awaiting a new engine from a dealer. Now, wether its me thats paying or subaru, it doesnt matter, fact is, its going to get sorted within the manufacture recomendations. Yes, i could take it to a specialist who may well be able to do a better job, but this is not the point in concern.

I know of a local lad to me that has a an old import, and its a dog to put it mildly. It has shi** tyres, its a tatty mess, cracked bumper and so on and i dont think its got any kind of service history. Now maybe he just cant be bothered to fix it, maybe he hasnt got the money to fix it, thats an abused car, it cant get the care it needs and deserves to keep it running sweetly on the road.


John

If I knew the owners of the car I was looking at (e.g. guys on scoobynet), and how meticulous they were about theirs, it'd put me in a better position to judge.

That said, I think everyone would prefer a car with fewer owners.

Having been modified, my owned from new six yr old MY99 would be worthless to the secondhand market, and for trade in; which is why it'll probably be always be cheaper to fix mine, and spend a bit of money regularly on MAF and lambda sensors, filters, regular oil changes, uprated pumps, meters, etc.

Generally agree, but some dforms of absue are not quite as obvious from looking at the cars documentation: things like the owner not warming the car up before giving it a bit of stick, not letting it cool down etc.... poor mechanical sympathy. I'd agrgue that the chances of a car having been treated this way at some point that's been through a a number of owners in a short space is greater than one or two long term owners.

That's what makes people nervous I think!

NS04

Boo!!!!!

You can blame them all you want but they are still here!! Hopefully the rest will be crashed/written off etc and then my 11 year old import won't be so tatty!!

Ben

Good luck selling your car :)

io see what your getting at, a very valid point.


a one to also take note of, its what alot of people do, some dont i must add, letting the car warm and cool, not spoken about much but a point that must be drilled in.


John

[QUOTE=pslewis]Only ONE OWNER cars get the sales and interest, sorry!!

I simply wouldn't consider a car thats had 4 owners in 4 years ...... put simply, ALL 4 owners didn't want it!! :eek:

WHY??????? and thats the question that buyers don't want to have to ask!!

My car has had 1 owner in 5 1/2 years ..... THATS what buyers want!! Oh, yes, its un-modified - another number 1 PLUS point for buyers.
thats not always the case ... i get bored with a car every 6 months or so and change them or cos the other half wants something different.. not because ther is anything wrong with them.. had 2 scoobys this year .. one less than year old other less than three years old... only changed because i wanted prodrive car now would like sti prodrive... always spend on car to make better its a hobby.. wheels ect.... i think everyone buys the best they they can for the money they have...everyone has diferent peramaters they look for... better to have 4 carefull owners than 1 who isnot .. lot of 1 owner cars are ex lease or rent..

just put everthing you can in the add .. keep trying ... better to have one genuine prospective buyer than 50 who like to chat and arnt.... dont let it get to you he may have been trying to sell his own and just wanted to know if his car justified the price over yours.. did not want yours anyway...lots of them about