Post by Volktales on Dec 23, 2015 22:56:00 GMT -8
Do you ever wonder about the history of your latest VW purchase? Who once owned it? How much did it sell for originally? How many owners did it have? These are all questions that can be very difficult to find, even with the internet today. However it was not always like this...
Twenty-five years ago, things were a little different... I had recently bought my second car, which was a 1966 Pearl White Beetle. It was very original at the time including mostly original paint and interior. I was curious of its history, and in those days you could do a vehicle history check on a car you owned. So I did. The first thing was the charge was $20 down payment for this procedure, the final cost dependent on how many owners the car went through, as this would increase the paperwork generated. That was a lot of cash back then, but I assumed there would not likely be many owners, so I went for it!
This was not a while you wait procedure. I paid the $20, and waited for a phone call... Finally after a couple of weeks, I went back to the office and the file was ready for me. I had to fork out another $30 plus $7 service fee!!! Then they handed me a huge stack of papers and very old school prints made from a special copier that could scan microfilm. It turns out the motor vehicle branch staff had to do a LOT of work for me...
It seems my "low mileage, few owner VW" had some adventures after all... The first owner, Sidney Jean MacPhail, purchased the car on July 21, 1966 for the sum of $2048. The engine number was listed on this document, and proves the car still contained the original 1300, which was nice. The document unfortunately does not say who the selling dealer was however. The original owner probably took advantage of clearance sales before the new 12 volt 1500 1967 models were to arrive...
Sydney kept the car for over two years then likely traded it in for a new Ford at Mclennan Motors Limited of New Westminster. This dealership is long gone, and so it that address. That road is still full of car dealers however. On November 8, 1968 the VW was sold to William Cartwright of Victoria, who must have went to the mainland to get a good deal. No price was on this document.
William kept the car for some time and passed it on to his son on July 7, 1980. It was gifted to Alan Cartwright who kept it for just over one year. Interestingly there is a note on the transfer form saying the car was in storage and not driven for six years! I would assume the dad stopped driving but kept the car until he knew he would never drive it again.
On August 7, 1981 the car was sold to Fiona Rumney of Port Alberni for the amount of $2200. Notice that was more than the original selling price... Fiona kept the car for quite some time and it cost her $351 for insurance for one year in those days. She kept the car until April 9, 1987 and traded it for something at C & R Motors, the former Toyota dealership in Nanaimo. Or did she? The next paperwork states the customer (Fiona) cancelled the deal after the paperwork was sent through. So yet more documents as the car moved back into her name on April 16. By April 29 she had traded it in at Meyers Holland Ford in Nanaimo and the very same day, Ford resold it to Verner Nielsen for $1035. I first saw this car shortly after that as Verner was a customer at the Co-op gas station I worked at. I liked it then, but had no money to buy it and it was not for sale anyway at that time. Late in 1987, a friend of mine, Kevin Brown of Nanaimo, wanted to buy a Beetle. I went with him to look at a few, but we were not impressed. Then Verner put his up for sale...
He was OK with me giving it a good check over, and we soon realized that this was the car to buy. On Jan 20 1988, Kevin became the proud owner of the '66, or at least his mom did. That was normal in that era for new drivers in order to get cheaper insurance. The transfer form says the price was $1000, not sure if that was 100% accurate 
. Kevin kept the car just under one year. In that year he dropped the front end, added the Empi style five spoke rims in GOLD, and put a four megaphone header on it. Pretty sure he had no problems with the car, but he decided he needed to travel to Mexico, and the car came up for sale. By this time I had some cash saved up, so on December 2 1988, I had an early Christmas present! I paid $2000 for the car, which might seem like a lot, but Kevin had just blown $800 on the new wheels and tires as well as some other parts too. Dad figured I wasted my money on another "stupid" Volkswagen, but what did he know??? So I drove it the summer of 1989 and then took it apart that winter in preparation for restoration. It still has not been put back together some, TWENTY-SEVEN years later!!! But at least it still exists..
So there you have it. A bunch of history that you unfortunately cannot find nowadays. The Motor Vehicle Branch does NOT do this service anymore, for the usual reason of invasion of privacy. The documents did give all the previous owner's full names and addresses. In those pre cell phone days, all you had to do was look in the phone book and give them a call. I never did unfortunately, even though the long term second owner still lived at the same house in Victoria in 1990... Today not one of the previous owners seem to exist on the internet either... Oh well...
I didn't know that it used to be something one could do. Thanks for sharing.