COPO cars

[Ric N.]

Has anyone ever seen a mid year with the trim tag saying COPO and no other ECL's stamped on it ??? I am looking at buying one and have never seen that type of tag before. There is no other paperwork with the car to explain it's history.
Thanks,
Ric

[John M.]

Re: COPO cars

Are the trim colors standard per the tag?

[Ric N.]

Re: COPO cars

Yes they are, 974 Rally Red, 408 Red leather.

[David G.]

Re: COPO cars

Is this tag on a 66?

Dave

[Ric N.]

Re: COPO cars

Yes it is, do you know the car ?????

[David G.]

Re: COPO cars

I have not seen the car, but a friend of mine called me about it several months ago to ask me about it. Apparently he was looking to buy the car at that time. He said that the tag looked very real.
Dave

[Ric N.]

Re: COPO cars

I bought the car from a good friend of mine and we are trying to find out if anyone knows the history of it. We draw blanks after the mid 70's.

[James G.]

Re: COPO cars

With a little effort Rick, NICB can supply the original selling dealer. That might give you a heads up where life began for the car.

What is so unique about the car ?

[Ric N.]

Re: COPO cars

Jim, what is NICB ???? I'm trying to find out what was so unique about the car. So far all we can determine is it must have been ordered by some exec. Your right if I could find the selling dealer and their still in business that might be the key.

[Richard S.]

Re: COPO cars

[quote=James Gessner (943);429719]With a little effort Rick, NICB can supply the original selling dealer.

Jim,

This is a very interesting statement and I'm sure many who visit this Discussion Board would like to know more. Most of us have been under the impression, for quite some time now, that NICB would no longer release any information to anyone other than law enforsement.

May I ask:
Have you recently had occasion to receive NICB information? If so,
can you explain what we must do to obtain the original selling dealer information from the NICB?

Thanks ....

Rick.

[James G.]

Re: COPO cars

NICB is the NATIONAL INSURANCE CRIME BUREAU. Founded in 1963, they are the database keeper for lots of stuff about automobiles. Since 911, it is just about impossible to get access to any of their records (Privacy issues, etc.)

When you think about it, the INSURANCE world has "all" the owners records since the MSO was issued on a new car.

So if you can find your way around a criminal attorney, ....a friend in your DMV.........a FBI Agent........, history may appear.

I found a 63 Z0-6 TANKER in 2004 back in Illinois, that we were told came from California when new. With help from a DMV friend, we discovered the car was sold new at ERNIE PORTER CHEVROLET in Pasadena when new. Today, we have a name of the original owner, but have not found him yet.

Google NICB. You will be surprised what you may find.

Would it be possible to post a picture of the trim tag ? AL GRENNING may have some comment about it.

[James G.]

Re: COPO cars

[quote=Richard Snow (25372);429732]

With a little effort Rick, NICB can supply the original selling dealer.

Jim,

This is a very interesting statement and I'm sure many who visit this Discussion Board would like to know more. Most of us have been under the impression, for quite some time now, that NICB would no longer release any information to anyone other than law enforsement.

May I ask:
Have you recently had occasion to receive NICB information? If so,
can you explain what we must do to obtain the original selling dealer information from the NICB?

Thanks ....

Rick.

Sorry Rick,
You are correct. Information is still locked up. We just got lucky with selling dealer info. And sorry again, I have been sworn to not reveal my source. I have been told a $50000 fine can be imposed. 25 years ago, my local Sheriff provided me with a past owner info's on cars. No more today

[Jack H.]

Re: COPO cars

NICB is the NATIONAL INSURANCE CRIME BUREAU. Founded in 1963, they are the database keeper for lots of stuff about automobiles. Since 911, it is just about impossible to get access to any of their records (Privacy issues, etc.)

"When you think about it, the INSURANCE world has 'all' the owners records since the MSO was issued on a new car.

I think there's some mis-information here... My understanding is the NCIB is a privately owned data base that exists to support insurance company actuaries. It is NOT available to the general public and NCIB provides data to bona fide law enforcement officials who are working on a real McCoy investigative case.

Expect them to contact/verify the legitimacy of a law enforcement officer's request though his/her chain of command if/when you can convince a police friend of yours to submit a request!!!

Last, the data base only covers those cars that were covered by in-transit insurance. Remember the terms of vehicle sale by GM were FOB origin, so once the car left the factory and was placed in the production plant's holding yard, title (and risk of loss) officially transferred to the purchasing dealer.

Not every shipment was insured! Those dealers (plus GM-GM sales) who were big enough to self-insure didn't purchase insurance. So, those vehicles won't be in the data base.

Last, about the only thing the data base gives you is VIN number, date of shipment, and destination. There was no reason to record a car's physical configuration because both the seller (GM) and the buyer (dealer) had supporting paperwork to document the vehicle and its particular option configuration...

[William C.]

Re: COPO cars

COPO, is simply Central Office Purchase Order, meaning the order came from Central office rather than an individual dealership and was used for a variety of reasons, including fleet purchases. If you do a search of the archives, I believe Art Armstrong went over the system in some detail, used for occasional "fleet orders" of 427 camaros and the like, but normally for much more mundane activities. Delivery could have been to almost anywhere.

[Jack H.]

Re: COPO cars

Caution here...exterior and trim colors...

It's always been Chevy policy (true even today) to build/deliver a car, on request, that deviates from the then current 'recommended' color combination list. The caveat is these 'special' cars can't be truly 'special'. The colors/materials have to be among those released to production.

In this case, the car is NOT a COPO candidate. To get there, it'd have to be a bona fide 'special' like the special paint used on the Shriner's cars, Etc. So, just being outside the recommended list/matrix doen't necessarily trigger a COPO order situation.