Car history service

[240z70]

Question:  Is there a free/paid service where a currently REGISTERED Z owner can obtain all the history on on his/her own 240z down to the point of when it was first sold in the USA?

Info:

When it was first sold

State/City

Owner (maybe not due to privacy concerns-understandable)

Every other time it was sold/bought/registered along with city/state.

 

I don't think DMV in California provides that info. Or does it?  Does any agency in any state do that? 

[heyitsrama]

If there’s not a little book in the glove box that has that information it might be hard to get. My car was a Cali car but it was “out of the system” as they say.

Great time to make a book that has this information in it. I keep service records and general information about how the car drives.

 

[psdenno]

With the current privacy laws, it's almost too difficult to trace ownership history without finding receipts, registration forms, or the original service and maintenance record book under the front seat or in the glove box as "heyitsrama" mentioned.  

Another group I belong to is the Porsche 914-6 Club USA.  We have the original source document from VW of America for every 914-6 they imported to the USA.  It lists date sold, original buyer's name and address,  and a few other bits of nice to have information reported by dealers as each car was sold.

Unfortunately, a record like the probably doesn't exist at Nissan.  It might be worth checking to see if it does, however.

[dutchzcarguy]

I do remember a site where i could put in my 12 digit (old) chassis nr from my 1979 280zx and got the complete nissan factory data about color exterior and what kind of upholstery was standard in my car!  I only wish i knew what site that was!  BUT.. search for it.. at least for my 1979 year car it's out there!

EDIT.. i had 17 digit up here but it's the old vin nr and that is 12 digits..  the new one has 17 digits.

 

Edited May 30, 2021 by dutchzcarguy

[KenFirch]

My experience with CA DMV INF 70 requests for info before the late 80's has been futile. Having worked in the IT/database world for 40+ years, since the MS DOS 2.1 and DBase II days and multiple database upgrades, with the DMV having gone through several OS/database/software upgrades over the decades, sometimes a decision is made "we can't migrate that old data, we've got it on microfiche, right? And who's going to want to look at that useless old data anyway!"  

And even though the form says they will look at microfilm, I'm not so sure those state workers will that for $20.  Or what tools they have available to them. Searching microfilm is not fun, and unless they've scanned the microfilm into a searchable database or document, almost impossible.  

But maybe worth a shot.  Just remember it's California you're dealing with.  

[240z70]

Maybe if all the different forums got together and created a virtual HISTORICAL DATSUN 240 Ƶ SOCIETY they might have enough weight to make a formal request to each state's DMV to provide them with maybe just the basic information for each HLS30: 

• First Sold, City/State
• Each Subsequent Sale, City/State
• If destroyed City/State

This would be done for the public historical interest with no personal/confidential information required from DMV.  If such a virtual Historical Society was created, then perhaps it could be headed by someone who is very much into the history of the  Ƶ.  I think that perhaps someone like Carl Beck would probably be a good candidate for its directorship, and then have a senior member from each  Ƶ Club Forums to represent its Club as a Board Member of the Historical Society.  Each club would select its Board Member, and the Board Members would select its Director. 

I think this would give a lot of cohesion and centralization to all the available information that each club seems to hold but is almost impossible to find without becoming a member of each club (us/ca/uk/eu/au/jp) which is a horrendous if not impossible task.

The society would operate virtually, have links to all member clubs, have a glossary that could search all clubs at once (if possible) and a repository of historical information that would be linked to the respective club that owns or provides the material.

Anyway, I know its a crazy idea, but perhaps someone has a better one for how the history on the z can be compiled and kept updated by all the clubs to ensure that anyone interested can easily find historical, important and  pertinent information to the entire 240 Ƶ community worldwide.  These cars are a treasure to most owners and are fast becoming a very expensive endeavor due to financial cost rise, parts availability, age, and scrap.  It seems that almost half the people that own one either are parting or buying parts from others that are being parted and scrapped.  The inventory is dwindling.  Will the  Ƶ last another 50 years?

Edited June 4, 2021 by 240z70
typos

[Patcon]

I believe the older records have probably been discarded. I dont believe SC has any records over 30 years

[240z70]

1 minute ago, Patcon said:

I believe the older records have probably been discarded. I dont believe SC has any records over 30 years

Perhaps only archived instead of discarded??  That would be ideal, but you never know.  Thanks Patcon.

[psdenno]

1 hour ago, 240z70 said:

Maybe if all the different forums got together and created a virtual HISTORICAL DATSUN 240 Ƶ SOCIETY they might have enough weight to make a formal request to each state's DMV to provide them with maybe just the basic information for each HLS30: 

• First Sold, City/State
• Each Subsequent Sale, City/State
• If destroyed City/State

    ........SNIP........

The inventory is dwindling.  Will the  Ƶ last another 50 years?

Great, well thought out, ideas and goals.  Unfortunately, the next sound you hear will be me bursting your bubble.  As I mentioned earlier, I have access to initial sales and owner data for all of the 1,785 Porsche 914-6 cars imported to the USA in 1970 and 1971.  We provide some of that information to club members in the form of a certificate.  No owners' names or street addresses.  It was a huge time consuming effort to get permission to release even limited information.

There is no way one could get 50 state governments, the District of Columbia, and assorted US territorial governments to agree to cooperate in maintaining and sharing vehicle historical information, even if the 50 year old records even still existed.  You may have noticed there are a few issues of procedural disagreement between the nation's elected officials currently.

Establishing a baseline by encouraging club members to maintain records and historical data on their cars with the intent of passing it on to subsequent owners is probably the best one can hope for.  Remind folks that a well documented car will generally be worth more than one without a historical record.  Our Porsche club has a booklet for recording the car's historical information and storing receipts and maintenance records.

As I said, great idea.  Keep brainstorming alternatives. 

[Tweeds]

Came across this thread a while ago - hope it helps: 

 

Also, s30.org might be a resource, too. Though, I've never checked it out before.