Mershons -Looking for recent prior owner of my '67 Coupe- Lynndale Blue

[Gary C.]

Re: Mershons -Looking for recent prior owner of my '67 Coupe- Lynndale Blue

Garry,

Email the New Jersey and LI Metro Chapters and see if anyone recalls that '67. Perhaps you could place an ad in the Chapter newletters.

The TDB at best, is used by a small percentage of members.

Gary
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[Garry B.]

Re: Mershons -Looking for recent prior owner of my '67 Coupe- Lynndale Blue

Gary, as always, very sage advice. Thanks. Happy Holidays!

[Thomas B.]

Re: Mershons -Looking for recent prior owner of my '67 Coupe- Lynndale Blue

Gary,

I recently bought a '63 from Mershon's this summer and also was provided no history on the car. Only that the car was owned by the same person for many years. I asked Mershon's to pass my contact info on to the previous owner but nothing yet. Mershon's is also unable to reach previous owner. I did receive a report from Hagerty Insurance going back 25 years indicating registration renewals within the same Indiana zip code. No individual's names were provided of course. Makes sense since the zip code is Richmond Indiana which is not far from Mershon's location in Springfield Ohio.

My question to you is which search service(s) on NMVTIS website did you uses? I believe you have to choose one to do the search, right?

Thanks
Tom

[Garry B.]

Re: Mershons -Looking for recent prior owner of my '67 Coupe- Lynndale Blue

Tom, I randomly selected this one because they used the word "title" in their brand name. Cost about $10 and figured that all reports regardless of source would be about the same. Good Luck. Titlecheck.us

[William G.]

Re: Mershons -Looking for recent prior owner of my '67 Coupe- Lynndale Blue

Garry, Ohio is one of a very few states that puts info online. They will reveal the name of any dealer but will only provide rudimentary info if any owner was a private individual. The website will provide dates, counties, etc .Try https://bmvonline.dps.ohio.gov/Search/Title . If Mershon's bought the car from a dealer that name will be listed and you might stand a better chance getting info from that dealer. As far as privacy laws, after having researched Corvette history for 10 years I have come to believe that the only reason the dealers will not reveal former owners is to protect themselves. Obviously if they told you who sold the car to them it would reveal what they paid, and also any monkey business done to the car. Over the years I have contacted hundreds of friendly dealers who were more than happy to help. A few will not for their own reasons and strict company policy.

[Garry B.]

Re: Mershons -Looking for recent prior owner of my '67 Coupe- Lynndale Blue

William, Mershons bought it from an individual prior to my purchase, but the purchase in Ohio back in 2000 is unknown. I assumed that because of the quick turn around that it may have been a dealer to private owner. Thanks for the link. I will certainly look into seeing what information I can garner from the site. Thank you!!

[Garry B.]

Re: Mershons -Looking for recent prior owner of my '67 Coupe- Lynndale Blue

William, I used your link to get some additional information on my car. As suspected the earliest (latest) title information is from September of 2000 where I guessed that a dealer sold it to the next owner based on the short period of time between transactions. Sure enough, Proteam owned the car and sold it to its new New Jersey owner in October of 2000. I had heard that Terry had a lot of documents on cars that passed through his dealership so I decided to send him an email asking for his help to check my VIN and see if he had anything information. I know it is another long shot, but what have I got to lose? Great lead William. Thank you. Any other suggestions on how to approach New Jersey? The last two owners lived in New Jersey so 21 years of ownership in that state should produce something.

[Thomas B.]

Re: Mershons -Looking for recent prior owner of my '67 Coupe- Lynndale Blue

I take it you never heard back from the previous owner that sold your car to Mershon's. I have the same issue with my car purchased from Mershon's. For whatever reasons I've still not heard from the previous owner. My understanding when I bought the car was that they would give the previous owner my contact info. Never heard from previous owner. Mershon's never call me back either. It was always me calling them to ask about it. Bottom line is that I don't know if Mershon's is being honest with me or if the previous owner is just not willing to share 35 years of ownership history.

As you said cars you buy at Mershon's are first titled in Ohio in Mershon's name and then upon your purchase the car is re-titled in Ohio in your name. Don't know if you tried this but I called Ohio BMV and it turned out they had a copy of an Indiana title which was signed over to Mershon's by the previous owner. They were willing to verbally give me the Title number, issue date of Feb 1985, zip code for the previous owner and the odometer reading on the date of title issue. The title was issued in 1985 so same owner for 35 years.

Have you tried VinData yet? Seems to accept my VIN and says there is a report but I went no further.

Tom

[Garry B.]

Re: Mershons -Looking for recent prior owner of my '67 Coupe- Lynndale Blue

Tom, I actually was able to track the previous owner down through the exact same process you took with the state of OH. I got there a little differently by learning that OH won't tell give you the name of an individual title holder, but will give you any dealers names that had the title previously. Through that process I was able to get information from the dealer which in turn led me to the person that had sold it to my prior owner. In a nut shell, I have now been able to trace the car back to the early 90's and am waiting to hear from my last contact to continue to historical dig. It just takes time and persistence.

One thing that I don't have but would like to have is a copy of the title issued in NJ to the prior owner. Mershons would have had that and most likely have a photo copy of it in their files. I have reached out to Bob, the sales manager three time now letting him know that I have uncovered the prior owner, have gotten photos of the car and other documents from him and would now appreciate his help in getting a copy of that title for my historical records. He hasn't even bothered to respond to any of the three, so I think I am dead in the water. I may however be able to get something from NJ, I just haven't tried yet. Bob knows how important documents are to these cars, but I suspect the liability / privacy factor overrides any and all requests. I was never promised anything, but was hopeful. Thanks for your response and glad to hear you had some success.

[Thomas B.]

Re: Mershons -Looking for recent prior owner of my '67 Coupe- Lynndale Blue

Gary,

What info did the dealer give you that got you to the second prior owner? Just curious in case I run into the same situation.