How to find the original dealer, or any history for my car Options

[turk22]

All,

I've been doing a lot of searching in old threads (honest Andy!). But I'm not finding any details. I'm looking to find some history of my car. I believe it was a Palm Springs car for most of its life, and I emailed a couple current dealers in the area, asking if they had any records for the VIN number... but no luck

I was hoping there was a way to trace back to which dealer originally sold the car, or possibly find some history or records for the car. (When I bought the car, there was no maintenance book, and the history story was not able to be verified).
I have the original Cali Blue Plates, but not sure if they provide any value to getting some history for the car.

Do any of you Cali guys have any tricks to find some history via the VIN or Blue Plate?

Turk

[draganc]

All,

I've been doing a lot of searching in old threads (honest Andy!). But I'm not finding any details. I'm looking to find some history of my car. I believe it was a Palm Springs car for most of its life, and I emailed a couple current dealers in the area, asking if they had any records for the VIN number... but no luck

I was hoping there was a way to trace back to which dealer originally sold the car, or possibly find some history or records for the car. (When I bought the car, there was no maintenance book, and the history story was not able to be verified).
I have the original Cali Blue Plates, but not sure if they provide any value to getting some history for the car.

Do any of you Cali guys have any tricks to find some history via the VIN or Blue Plate?

Turk

I think if you request a CoA from Porsche it will also list when and where the car was sold - 100% sure. Try google-ing CoA.

[Tom_T]

Steve,

The Cal DMV website has an info request form in pdf that you can download & send in with the CA plate numbers etc., & if it's still in their system &/or microfilm records, then they'll send you copies back as far as they have. Being that it's currently registered in OH now, then they should have it in their computer system at least, and if it's been out of CA less than 5-7 years, then there's a good chance that the microfilms weren't purged due to no active registration - but they may still consider out of state active too.

You'll need to have or estimate the number of PO's & request a record for each & the check totals $20/record IIRC.

From the oldest, you can track down the closest P+A dealer to the buyer/1st owner, by using the pix of the dealerships booklet on Jeff Bowlsby's website (in Tech Docs IIRC).

If you know for sure it was first sold in Palm Springs, then you could go straight to Jeff's info.

Don't expect those dealers to have any records of cars they sold 40+/- years ago, and most of the staff wasn't born then & couldn't care less about stuff us old car types find important. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

There are also DMV research services who will do the research for you, but it will cost $200-300 last I heard.

[dlkawashima]

Do you have any paperwork that shows a dealership number? Here is an example:



In the image above, the dealer is Anderson/Behel and the dealer number is 426 A07. I know you don't have
the service record book, but if you can find any document that might have a dealer number printed or
hand written on it, it might help you narrow your search.

[turk22]

Thanks Guys, I've been thinking of getting a COA, so I may pull the trigger on that.

This was the story that came with the car:
"The story is I purchased the porsche from a contractor that in part took the porsche in trade for tile work on a residential job in Palm Springs California. The resident in Palm Springs was a women that purchased the porsche new and remained the original owner until the trade for tile work in 05. I had her name and address but included it with the sale to Fabien. I do know that the porsche was serviced in Palm Springs but have no history the contractor could not find any of it"

I've contacted a couple of Dealers in the Palm Springs area, and got a response from one, that they had no records of the car. I don't know how long the car was un-registered in Cali, but I think it was for quite a while. It appears that it would have only been titled to 3 owners, but possibly one registered to the first two.

I'll keep digging.

[ConeDodger]

Mine came from Sierra Porsche Audi in Riverside. Harvey and I think Al Wiedman were working there at the time. Palm Springs was a pretty small place back then. You might need to widen your search...

[carr914]

I think if you request a CoA from Porsche it will also list when and where the car was sold - 100% sure. Try google-ing CoA.

Incorrect, the CoA will Not state when & where the car was Sold. Back in the 90's sometimes they would state what Distributer the car went through.

The CoA will give you the Color Code, Interior Code, Motor Number & Options & that is if you are Lucky. I've gotten CoA's with the wrong Interior & Options, one didn't even identify my car as a Carrera

CoA's are an expensive piece of paper

[bembry]

I think if you request a CoA from Porsche it will also list when and where the car was sold - 100% sure. Try google-ing CoA.

Incorrect, the CoA will Not state when & where the car was Sold. Back in the 90's sometimes they would state what Distributer the car went through.

The CoA will give you the Color Code, Interior Code, Motor Number & Options & that is if you are Lucky. I've gotten CoA's with the wrong Interior & Options, one didn't even identify my car as a Carrera

CoA's are an expensive piece of paper

This^^^^^^

I'm fairly disappointed with my COA.

[turk22]

Well, after looking at some recent COA's online, and seeing what the contain, and reading about some of the mistakes, I'm wavering on getting one. I'll probably get one at some point, since I have so little documentation for the car as it is, it will be worth something if I ever sell it on.

Its really disappointing that so little information can be gleaned from the VIN in the public space, but giving that there were no electronic records in the early 70's I guess its understandable.

I can only imagine how much more valuable the car would be with the original maintenance book and/or window sticker.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/hissyfit.gif)

[StratPlayer]

I got lucky when I bought the car. Paper work inside the car told me the car was bought from Eddy's German Import in stockton, ca.

[914Eric]

As Dave said...Just look in the service book. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[toolguy]

Porsche had that info once upon a time. . . when a new car was purchased, the dealer submitted the Warranty Registration Card to Porsche, it included the dealers stamp and dealership code numberl. . . here is a blank one. . it came as part of the Maintenance Log Book

[carr914]

Well, after looking at some recent COA's online, and seeing what the contain, and reading about some of the mistakes, I'm wavering on getting one. I'll probably get one at some point, since I have so little documentation for the car as it is, it will be worth something if I ever sell it on.

If you buy one, make sure they give you a Satisfaction or Money Back guarentee - I did that on my last one. It came back with the wrong interior code. They would not correct it even though I proved what I had. I made a copy of the CoA, sent the original back & my money was returned.

Porsche had that info once upon a time. . . when a new car was purchased, the dealer submitted the Warranty Registration Card to Porsche, it included the dealers stamp and dealership code numberl. . . here is a blank one. . it came as part of the Maintenance Log Book

I believe it is now illegal for them to give out Dealer, Original Owner, etc info