I am looking at a 63 for sale in PA. The dealer tells me it has 55k original miles. I have seen the title of the previous owner with this number on it. How can this be substantiated, or can it? How can I determine how many previous owners this vehichle has had? I have tried some websites for title search but they do not apply to classic cars. I would appreciate any help or suggestions. I am located in CA. Thanks.
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Re: C2 Mileage Verification
Since you have seen the title and it has the name of the previous owner,whynot contact the previous owner on the title and talk to him or her and go from there. Perhaps the previous owner still has information on the owner the 63 was purchased from.
A friend had a 65 327/365 convertible back in 67-70. Having owned the 65 for a few years and driving it a lot it accumulated a lot of mileage. He traded it in on a new family car. A few years later he was at a dealearship in another town looking for a deal on a new truck and he saw a 65 convetible drive to the service department that looked like his. He looked at it and identified it as his and was talking to the owner. The owner told him about the low milage on the car. My friend look at the mileage and assured the owner it had a lot more mileage on it than what was showning on the odometer. -
Re: C2 Mileage Verification
The book written on "Low Mileage on Old Corvettes" is filed in the library under "Fiction".
Why worry about it if the car has been restored to like new condition or even close.
Mileage is only one facet of the car. It is used as an abitrary indicator of condition.
But it is arbitrary and subject to flaws. Make your decision based on the present condition of the car. If you continue to focus on "low mileage" of a 40 year old Corvette some one is going to see you coming down the road ! The original owner was 25 - 30 years old when he bought the car, drove it like a Corvette because it was a "Chick magnet" . Hill and dale chasing girls, racing his buddies and just plain "driving". Today you run into some Corvette salesman who tells you that this 1963 split window Z06 FI was purchased by a
retired school marm who only drove it to church on sunny days when the temperature was 85 degrees. And it was bought and owned in Bangor, ME. Like I said , concentrating on low mileage as opposed to the real condition is misleading. I would suggest you find some one in the Pa. area who can provide you with a real assessment of the vehicle's present condition. I always assume the odometer reading is wrong and immeadiately through it out of the equation. Then begin collecting and assessing raw data on the cars condition.Comment
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Re: C2 Mileage Verification
Unless you can verify the mileage all the way back to the original owner, assume that it is not correct.
When I purchased my '64 it was advertised as having original mileage, which was about 79K at the time. I was able to trace the title back to '78 with the mileage indicated on each new title after a sale. Based on this document trail, the 79K is correct. I actually spoke with the owner in '78. He had the car behind his house in a field from 1978 to 1990 when someone purchased it. He had bought the car at a swap meet. It was a basket case without a title. The seller at the swap meet had lost the title. The guy who bought it in '78 applied for and received a new title after he had the police verify the VIN.
I have no idea if the car really had 170K miles or even more miles in '78 since this happened in Michigan and the state does not keep records for more than 10 years. It really does not matter as the car is now restored. The point of the story is that a lot can happen to a car over all those years. The buyer may believe the car really has the original mileage but unless you have all the records, the claim cannot be substantiated.Comment
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