The new owner of my old Tacoma tracked me down today, 2 years later.

i received a call this morning from a gentleman in a neighboring state asking if I was the former owner of a 2006 Tacoma, which I was 2 years ago. I made it a point to keep all maintenance records for that truck and the dealer throws them all away. Anything with a name on it goes, but he left the receipt from the LEER cap which is how he tracked me down.

I traded it with 175,000 miles on it and now has 205,000. Apparently there was an owner in between us. It has a broken rear spring and a blown seal in the steering rack, other than that he says it still looks and runs great. I think it's pretty cool when you get a call like that, especially when you took such good care of something for 6 years and now someone else is excited to get it.

 

Not for a Tacoma, but I sold a 331 built fox body Mustang to a guy who had a 68 fastback and 71 Mach 1. For a while he would text me update photos of things he did. He took much better care of the car than I could on my budget at the time. Was nice to see her go to a good home.

 

That's cool. Closest thing to that for me was finding the original owners manual and warranty book in the 1964 Corvair I owned, and discovering that I registered it here in Kentucky 50 years to the day from the date it was originally sold in Pennsylvania!

 

Yep, that's pretty cool. I'm sure he feels much better now knowing that you took such good care of it.

 

I traded in my first car, a a 2003 VW 20th AE GTI, and the guy who bought it wrecked it, drunk, running from the police..so I can totally relate.

 

I was coming out of Walmart recently and my old 08 Tacoma was coming right up the parking lot, I ran over and introduced myself to the guy.

 

Good thing you're open-minded. A call like that could've easily gone a different direction, such as... "I don't care who you are. How the f*** did you get my number and why are you calling me?!". lol

 

I would be pretty freaked, to be honest.

 

Since I have never traded anything in, I never get a call like that.

I give the new owner all my records / receipts, and they have my # if they have questions.

Out of dozens of vehicles over a few decades, only one person has ever contacted me. And that was to tell me how much he was digging the car, and that the new rain rail I'd installed just prior to sale worked like a champ.

There are, however, 3 or 4 of them I'd enjoy knowing what their final fate was, assuming they're not still rolling.

 

I guess I can relate because I've been on the other end. I have a 1953 Ford F100 that I bought in Tenn and was told that it was originally from KY. I tried to track down the original owner only to find out that VIN numbers before a certain date in the 80s can only be searched by hand in boxes stored somewhere. I also realized that on some classic vehicles, people will sell the VIN plate and title to people building vehicles so even if I found the owner of the VIN, it may not have been his truck so I gave up. I just thought that it would be cool to find some old farmer who purchased the truck in 1953 and show him that it's still on the road and in the condition that it's in.

My first car was a 1972 Buick Skylark with all GS parts. I found it 2 owners later and had a long talk. I was able to answer a lot of motor questions that they couldn't figure out. I also found one of my old Chevy half tons years later and one of my Jeep Cherokees.

 

Just like my story. Just sold my built 86gt and I told the guy to keep me posted on progress. It needed time and money spent on it to be really nice. I have neither...

 

I wish the guy that bought my 69 Dart GT convertible would give me a ding.

 

I just joined the Taco cult last week with the purchase of a 2007 DCSB with 85k miles. When I found it at a used car lot all of the maintenance records were in the glove box. I snapped a pic of the previous owners info and went home a sent them a nice email inquiring about the truck. 24 hours later a little old lady called me and told me all about her husbands truck that he bought new, serviced and trade in at the same dealer. The next day he called me to clarify a few things that she had told me but didn't have quite right.

Needless to say I bought the truck and it is absolutely pristine. I might not have bought it from the jerks at the lot except for the fact that I knew the vehicles background. The maintenance records matched the car fax and I have every receipt from the dealer.

The guy did trade it in with shot tires and the dealer or used car lot must have put some cheap, half worn out tires on it. I'm not sure they even balanced them. Getting some Cooper AT/3s this week and we, my son and I, will be in business!

 

I have never seen any of my old vehicles...

I manage a ski shop, and do alot of work on customer's, and my own ski boots for fitting. I had a guy come in this fall with some boots he had bought. As I was taking them apart to make some modifications for him, I started laughing when I realized that they were my own personal boots from 2 years ago.

 

That's awesome. I've gotten many calls on various vehicles I owned but the one that surprises me the most is I get a call *every* year (updates..) on my old '86 Toyota 4X4 4-cyl. 5-spd. 335K miles on it and it's still going?! I don't know how other than the fact that I always used Mobil 1 and maintained it to death. A Father and Son bought it and they still call me with what they've done to it, sent me pictures a while ago, etc. Cracks me up as my housemate at the time *hated* foreign vehicles and repeatedly told me i'd never be able to sell it with those miles and it went within 4 hours of me putting a "For Sale" sign on it at the end of the driveway. Three people stopped. The first to drive it bought it. I drove it from a Town north of Boston to Portland ME every weekend as that's where my girlfriend was. Never a problem other than an alternator that was slowing going (and the usual brakes and exhaust/tires) and I finally put a new one in. 4" lift kit, 33" BF Goodrich tires, black on black, bucket seats from a Scirocco, Rancho shocks, Rancho steering stabilizer and a new bed from Toyota that my buddy's Dad worked at a dealership and got me a deal on a new one for cost as mine was rotting away to nothing being in New England. Then I painted it (black). I taught auto-body at night and had the kids paint it, wet-sand and buff it LOL. Tons of people gave me the "thumbs up" when they saw it. The best part was the stereo (late 80's early 90's). Alpine removable stereo, Blaupunkt amps under both buckets (bridged), upgraded speakers in the dash, door panels, and MTX sub-woofer and big MTX speakers behind the seats that look like they were carpeted and had handles on them. Camping we used to put them on the roof. Added a leaf to the rear suspension as well and had a newer style rear bumper on it. I kept a notebook and wrote down everything I did and what miles were on it when I did it (I bought it used with 55K on the odometer around '88-89'?) and gave the notebook to them. Every oil change, everything. My old housemate tells me he *still* sees it riding around Town LOL.

 

Never had a call like that, but when I first bought my 2nd Gen pre-owned, all I knew from the CarFax was that it was leased somewhere in New York State. I've lived in Kentucky for 19 years now but grew up in central New York. Fast forward a few days and when I'm going through the owner's manual and other paperwork I find the original lease paperwork with the name and address of the former lessee (oops on the dealer). The lessee lived in the town I grew up in. And it's not like it was a big town. Maybe 10,000 people. Come to find out, I actually went to elementary school with the guy for a year (he was a few years older). Small world.

No, I didn't try to contact him. Unless he had been a close friend or anything, I'm sure he would just think I was some sort of creeper...

 

I find it creepy.

 

I sold my 2007 mustang to some rich lady who was trying to spoil her 16 year old kid. Contract said "as is" on it. And it was in perfect condition. That was my baby. She didn't have my number but somehow got it from paperwork she found in the car. She wanted to take me to court because the alternator and the transmission where shot. I reminded her of the contract and she backed off. I saw the car about 3 months later. The drivers side was all dented up on the door. Looks like he hit anything and everything when he opened his door. And the passenger side was all scratched up. Kid didn't know me (I never met him during the sale) but I asked him what happened. He decided to drive it in the snow and took out a fence.... So sad to see her go like that :-/

 

25 -30 years ago bought a 77 Camaro off want ad press (what we used before craigs list). Few months later some when I was parked at college some guy tells me it used to be his car. While checking it out he tells me the dash was switched and the mileage is way lower than actual.
Had a lawer write a letter to the guy I bought it from and got back 1/2 the money I paid for it.
Car was in great shape and I put a ton of miles on it, sold it a few years later for what I paid.

 

You have a stalker!