It Does Not Matter How Many Owners a Car Has Had 

If its a sports car convertible. Someone drives it for a year, enjoys it then passes it on. Could have five owners and its ok. If its a Nissan Quest, why are there five owners and everyone just keeps it for a year?

It absolutely matters. At least to me, I can only speak for myself. On any type of car. You make a lot of good points about used car buying in general though.

As a buyer I do care about the amount of owners. If I can get a one owner car for the same price/ condition as one with 4 owners I’m definitely going with the one owner.

Never trust a car salesman

I've always agreed this has never made much sense. The overall condition and maintenance is all that matters. I will day that their are exceptions as with everything. Generally the lower amount of owners the cars are in better shape. I view cars in an equation and number of owners is just part of the calculation to determine what kind of car it is. Overall condition, mileage, service history and how it drives are far more important than owner amount.

Really depends on the car, if it’s a commuter car like a civic, Corolla, or fusion then # of owners doesn’t matter. But if you’re talking an s2000, 350/370z, G35 or anything sporty, then it definitely matters lol Just from personal experience.

I wanted a B8 RS5 when they were new. Ten years later I got one, a single owner, service records etc. It's as close to a new one as I'm going to get. That's kinda nice.

It’s like a super model, who cares if she’s had 10+ previous

Theres a lot of variables to this. If the car is cheap and low mileage that had three owners within the first 40k miles, i would stay away from it, cuz that would tell me theres probably issues with it. if its a high end performance car im not too concerned about the amount of owners. If it has more than 50k miles and has multiple owners i would feel okay buying as long as the records show that it was bought and sold from reputable dealers. I would not buy the higher mileage multiple owner car if it had a history of being sold to shady dealerships or was privately sold and bought with no proof of maintenance, and had a lot of engine or suspension mods. I also would never buy a one owner car with over 50k miles that isnt CPO or again no proof of basic maintenance.

I will personally trust a high mileage one owner car over a lower mileage car that has been passed around a lot. Generally the one owner car has been taken care of better.

I think the real issue is ultimately that all that stuff is considered prestigious. The idea that every owner wants an encyclopedia of Britannica sized document showing every little thing that was done to it, coupled with the fact that some people actually do want that stuff, has caused people to take the wrong things into consideration when buying the car. Those people should really just start with making sure they look underneath it to make sure it hasn't been eaten by rock salt.

It seems 1 owners still command a premium price at a dealership over multiple owners

How do you bring up to spec a car that never had an oil change for 50,000 mi? Having run a Jiffylube for a while that sort of thing absolutely happens. And skipping every other change was basically the norm for consumer cars. Used Dealers don’t fix anything. They spit polish everything. Clean the engine bay and voila, perfect maintenance! You’re applying the service mentality of an exotic car owner and dealer to a Bob’s used cars dealer that bought a dog at auction. $10k in service for a Camry is a write off. Don’t buy the car, buy the service log. Every time.

I bought a car recently with 18 owners in 22 years. So … I hope Doug is right.

Couldn't agree more with you. And I argue this all the time. My Lamborghini had 6 previous owners. Every single owner took care of the car - it's gated and a rare color. I've bought a 1 owner car and the paint was awful, maintenance was lacking, etc. There are always exceptions, but I agree with ignoring owners and looking at the overall condition of the car.

It doesn't matter

Who wants they’er daily driver, their own ‘private’ vehicle to have had lots of owners? It’s second only to buying an ex taxi.