25 captured repliesDiscussion pagination complete · Source accounts, not a confirmed diagnosis
THIS DISCUSSION / SOURCE-DERIVED OVERVIEW
Discussion summary
YOUR RESEARCHWould you buy a car with 8 owners?
Leading reported evidence
Check before i traded it in)
Performed · outcome unconfirmed
No successful repair reported for this finding.
0
Reported fixes
0
Unsuccessful attempts
1
Discussions
Read evidence and context
Explicit resolution reports before identified causes, performed actions and suggestions. Within each level, matching component labels precede direct query mentions and inherited thread context; successful versus unsuccessful discussion counts, owner confirmations and independent discussion support determine order. This is not a probability of success.
Discussions that performed work without a confirmed outcome
1
0 original-poster resolution reports. Counts can overlap; they are not unique people or a success rate.
0 discussions have direct query context; 0 report a fix in that context. Other evidence may inherit the discussion’s subject.
Performed · outcome unconfirmed
By this time, the CarFax already showed the police report filing online (I checked before I traded it in).
Leading evidence: 'Check before i traded it in)' (no explicit attributable resolution; this is a reported action or suggestion). Across 1 matching discussions, the most frequently mentioned possible cause is 'most important thing' (1 discussions; 0 report identifying it and 1 suggest it). The most frequently discussed action is 'Check before i traded it in)' (1 discussions). For that action, 0 discussions report a resolution and 0 report an unsuccessful attempt. No action has an explicit, attributable resolution report under the current rules. These are forum reports and suggestions, not a confirmed diagnosis.
Source reports, not a diagnosis or a success probability. Counts refer to discussions and can overlap.
Explicit resolution reports before identified causes, performed actions and suggestions. Within each level, matching component labels precede direct query mentions and inherited thread context; successful versus unsuccessful discussion counts, owner confirmations and independent discussion support determine order. This is not a probability of success.
Discussions that performed work without a confirmed outcome
1
0 original-poster resolution reports. Counts can overlap; they are not unique people or a success rate.
0 discussions have direct query context; 0 report a fix in that context. Other evidence may inherit the discussion’s subject.
Performed · outcome unconfirmed
The engine was replaced in 2006 (IMS) at a dealer, all paperwork available when I bought it.
Explicit resolution reports before identified causes, performed actions and suggestions. Within each level, matching component labels precede direct query mentions and inherited thread context; successful versus unsuccessful discussion counts, owner confirmations and independent discussion support determine order. This is not a probability of success.
Discussions that performed work without a confirmed outcome
1
0 original-poster resolution reports. Counts can overlap; they are not unique people or a success rate.
0 discussions have direct query context; 0 report a fix in that context. Other evidence may inherit the discussion’s subject.
Use cars" or something and was emailing the photos
Performed · outcome unconfirmed
No successful repair reported for this finding.
0
Reported fixes
0
Unsuccessful attempts
1
Discussions
Read evidence and context
Explicit resolution reports before identified causes, performed actions and suggestions. Within each level, matching component labels precede direct query mentions and inherited thread context; successful versus unsuccessful discussion counts, owner confirmations and independent discussion support determine order. This is not a probability of success.
Discussions that performed work without a confirmed outcome
1
0 original-poster resolution reports. Counts can overlap; they are not unique people or a success rate.
0 discussions have direct query context; 0 report a fix in that context. Other evidence may inherit the discussion’s subject.
Performed · outcome unconfirmed
I thought it was odd at the time but just assumed they wanted to farm out the trade to "Uncle Al's Used Cars" or something and was emailing the photos.
Explicit resolution reports before identified causes, performed actions and suggestions. Within each level, matching component labels precede direct query mentions and inherited thread context; successful versus unsuccessful discussion counts, owner confirmations and independent discussion support determine order. This is not a probability of success.
Discussions that suspect a cause
1
0 original-poster resolution reports. Counts can overlap; they are not unique people or a success rate.
0 discussions have direct query context; 0 report a fix in that context. Other evidence may inherit the discussion’s subject.
Suspected cause
That is probably the most important thing to look for.
Use cars" or something and was emailing the photos
No successful repair reported for this finding.
0
Reported fixes
0
Unsuccessful attempts
1
Discussions
Read evidence and context
Discussions that performed work without a confirmed outcome
1
0 original-poster resolution reports. Counts can overlap; they are not unique people or a success rate.
0 discussions have direct query context; 0 report a fix in that context. Other evidence may inherit the discussion’s subject.
Performed · outcome unconfirmed
I thought it was odd at the time but just assumed they wanted to farm out the trade to "Uncle Al's Used Cars" or something and was emailing the photos.
0 original-poster resolution reports. Counts can overlap; they are not unique people or a success rate.
0 discussions have direct query context; 0 report a fix in that context. Other evidence may inherit the discussion’s subject.
Suspected cause
If someone originally leased the car and then bought it at lease end, that counts as 2 owners (leasing company and individual) even though in reality it was the same owner.
Counts describe captured discussions, not unique people or a diagnosis. Author identities are not reliably stored. Exact duplicate evidence is counted once across matching discussions; one discussion counts at most once per action/state. Multiple repairs reported together remain a combination. Suggestions and failed attempts do not establish a fix. Matches cover whole discussions and can include related faults, model variants and incomplete threads.
25 eligible posts · 0 unverified posts · 1 discussions match the subject in their title or opening post.
Rennlist: 1 discussions
0 evidence records excluded for query context · 0 excluded by outcome qualification · 0 adjusted by outcome qualification.
0 acknowledgements have no verified action link; they do not establish a repair result.
Generation: 20261026T142254Z · outcome-qualification-6. Deterministic extraction; no AI model inference. How we use sources
Looking at getting back into a 996 and am thinking of getting a cab versus a coupe as I can always pick up a hardtop. Found a nice low milage 2000 cab with low miles but it has had eight owners. Nicely optioned but will need to have the top replaced. What do you guys think of 8 owners...
Hard to say. I think it would depend on the car and on whether I had the history on each owner. Sometimes the owner information is misleading - a car that was taken in on a trade and then sold at auction might show an additional owner. If this happened several times over the life of the car, then it might be inflated by 2 or 3.
That being said, in the absence of any information about the previous owners along with proper books and records, I'd walk away from this one. Anything over 3 owners makes me a little nervous on a car of this age. There should be plenty of cabs out there for sale with 1 or 2 owners that are nice.
8 owners sounds scary, but sometimes the carfax reports can be a bit misleading in that regard. These cars are sometimes leased in company names and then transferred to the owner (purely a paperwork exercise), state to state relocation, or quickly pass through an auction house, etc... I did some research on a vehicle that appeared to have had 8 owners and found it truly had 3. That said, it's all about the records and what a complete PPI tells you...
I'd read the report in detail....I've seen where carfax or was it the other one....anyways listed as 5 owners but you can see that owners 1-4 were the same....lease....bought/financed.....refinanced....paid off/owned....each were listed as separated owners in reality it was 1 person...
There are lots of great deals out there... I faced a similar decision 6 months ago during my search. I found an '06 C2S at a great price but it had 5 prior owners... had been thru two auctions between CA and AZ so I counted 3 real owners. I liked the price but all the turnovers in ownership and the fact that it had to go to auction made me suspicious. Decided against it and spent another painfully long month or two shopping to only find an '08 C2S of my dreams for $2k more... One owner, CPO + 1 yr of original warranty.
BTW, don't trust carfax for reliable accident and/or flood damage reports. My prior m3 had both... the accident(resulting in frame damage) was even reported by LEO. Insurance covered both incidents... still nothing ever showed up on carfax. I did have her professionally restored after each even and she drove like a dream for 10 years... but I thought for all those 10 years that I'd have to keep her forever as surely these skeleton's would show on some report and I wouldn't be able to part with her for anything worthwhile... Imagine my surprise when nothing showed up... so I had to sell her and get a p-car.
Enjoy the search... half the fun is in the hunt and by all means get a PPI on whatever you decide on.
In a few years when you put the car on the market, potentials buyers will be asking, should I buy a car with 9 owners? I would walk away as would most.
Yeah - 8 sounds too high adn even if it is really 5 - that is a sale every 2 years - so unless there is full maintenance history there is a good chance that there are some hidden problems or maintenance neglect.
There are lots of 996;s out there. For a 2000 model you should be able to find something with 2 or 3 owners and service history - then get PPI - and even if you pay a few $K more - probbaly worth it for piece of mind.
My '02 had 3 owners - and most of the service records - so far no major issues .....
I don't believe it is possible to tell much of anything from the number of owners. I would rely more on a personal inspection of the car and the service records, along with a PPI.
I have to disagree. I'm going to guess that 2-4 owners treated the car very well and 2-4 owners treated it very poorly, with the remainder treating it about average. When you subtract out the amount of time that it probably spent on the market for each sale, each owner kept the car for about a year before deciding that they should get rid of it. Does that sound reasonable to anyone? It doesn't to me.
I would rather buy a well maintained 8 previous owner's car than a one owner car that's been totally neglected... If the service history adds up then I wouldn't worry too much....
What year? 8 owners in 6-7 years is more a concern perhaps than 8 owners in 10-11 years.
I also think this might concern me more if the car was a coupe. Cabs are purchased sometimes on a whim by someone perhaps less Porsche-focused, but looking for that fun and sun thing. The car sits in the garage for a year, not being driven nearly as originally imagined and so gets sold. A possible scenario that could also aco**** for the low mileage.
If someone originally leased the car and then bought it at lease end, that counts as 2 owners (leasing company and individual) even though in reality it was the same owner.
Also, if you change registrations, license plates, etc. that counts as multiple owners when it really isn't.
The only concern I would have with that many owner would be service records. Number of owners should not matter if you have service records from day one but that would be very unlikely with the that many owners.
I bought my p-car from the original owner and I have all his service records. When I eventually sell the car, I have all the records from day one.
In my opinion there are way too many P-cars out there to be impatient. I know with my last used car search I was extremely patient and found an incredible car that was 3 years old with 12,000 miles on it, exact colors I wanted, in perfect condition, and I paid less than comparable cars with 3 times the mileage. BE PATIENT! When you find the car you will know and it will be easy to pull the trigger!
I agree with the comment that one owner may be showing up as multiple owners. Had a car I bought new in PA from a dealer friend of mine while I lived in Ohio. Registered in Ohio. Later moved back to PA, re-registered in PA. So, my carfax on my one owner car turned up 2 owners PA (dealership, than me), another owner when I registered it in Ohio, and another when I registered it again when I moved back to PA. 4 Owners in one year.
Someone just glancing at this would think the car was a lemon just being passed from owner to owner. Thankfully, I traded it in on another car, so no worries about questions from an off the street buyer.
Ethan
I think a detailed look at the Carfax for ownership and timelines is needed. I know some people have pointed out the title changes when a leased car is purchased at the end of the lease. However, the other contributing factor are curbers. People who buy cars at auction or otherwise and flip them for profit. If you see ownerships for less than 4 or 5 months that could be a flipper and not really a true owner.
Having said that, it's not actually a good thing. These guys typically put no money into the car and drive it around knowing it'll be gone in a few months. It also means that they probably got it at a steep enough discount to flip for a profit.
Now that could be just an owner in financial distress, or it could be something wrong with the vehicle.
And yes, CarFax is useless for accident identification. If it SHOWS an accident, then it's useful information. If it does NOT show an accident, that does not mean it's accident free.
Let me tell you my story with Carfax:
I had an older 2006 BMW a couple of years back. I got hit by a guy who ran the light. About $10K in damage to the rear driver side area. By the way, it sounds like a lot but if you looked at it, you'd barely see the damage. I guess it's the cost of BMW parts.
Regardless, after it got fixed, the car never did drive the same at speed so I traded it in. By this time, the CarFax already showed the police report filing online (I checked before I traded it in). Looked at a few cars from Lexus, Audi and BMW dealerships. They saw the incident on my CarFax as well.
Now, here's where it gets interesting:
I finally pick a car and trade in the old BMW. I recall when they evaluated my trade, they took a lot of photos of the side which was hit. I thought it was odd at the time but just assumed they wanted to farm out the trade to "Uncle Al's Used Cars" or something and was emailing the photos.
Two days after, I see the car advertised on their own website. The Carfax is clean. No entry for the Police Report at all. I couldn't believe it. I guess I know where the photos were sent now.
You can't go by the owner count alone. Look at the Carfax and see what it tells you. The bottom line is to review the maintenance records and get a good PPI. You can have a very well maintained and solid 8 owner car and you can have a real lemon with just a couple previous owners. My 99 C2 had 8 previous owners. It is solid and tight. The engine was replaced in 2006 (IMS) at a dealer, all paperwork available when I bought it. The previous owner was a fanatic and really took care of things. That is probably the most important thing to look for. Buy it from someone who had it for a while and took care of it. I had a thorough PPI and the tech couldn't believe how great the car was. I love it, its really a fantastic car and I still can't believe what I paid for it.
As with any used car purchase, make sure you have enough left in your piggy bank to do the repairs that it will require. Doesn't matter how many people owned it, you will be dealing with repairs.
If its solid and strong then buy it.
my carfax on a recent car I owned said it had 3 owners when I purchased it myself and was the sole owner. It was exactly as stated, when I moved to another state it counted as a different owner.
