Ask an expert

Hi team. I'm interested in buying a used car from a Toyota dealer, but the salesman claimed to not know if it was formerly in private hands or leased/rented - and he said they don't have to give this information. This seems a basic question which is quite important as a potential buyer trying to decide how hard a life the car has had. It's not a Signature Class or SBT car, which are normally former rental/lease cars. So...

Q1. Does AA's ownership check list whether the car was previously owned by Joe Blogg, then Freda Smith (ie. name private owners)? A rival service called Motoweb says it can't name former private owners in its report.

Q2. The salesman also said the front of the car had been re-sprayed by the dealership due to stone chip damage, which seems a little odd given that it's not that old, a 2009 Corolla. Any issues to worry about there?

Thanks very much.

Hello AustinA55 (that was my first car, by the way!).
A1. The AA History report (like Motorweb and others) retrieves the information from the NZTA Land data base. Previous owner information is no longer able to be sourced due to privacy laws. This used to be available but due to privace law changes, it changed a year or two ago.
Generally speaking, the stigma that used to surround company and rental vehicles is long gone, and no longer relevant. The only vital information a dealer is obligated to divulge is if the vehicle was an Import or NZ New, or if the car has been re-registered. However, for your own information, by doing a history report you can see if a vehicle had WoFs or CoFs in the past. A vehicle that has CoFs is highly likely to have been a rental.
A2. Car dealers will usually take care of any cosmetic issues before offering a car for sale. A 4 year old car will almost always have some stone chips on the bonnet, particularly if it has been used in rural areas or on the open road. Therefore, it's not unusual to find a car of this age to have had the front re-sprayed, however if it has been done properly, you should not be able to tell.
Perhaps a pre-purchase inspection would be advisable, as this should detect whether or not the vehicle has sustained major accident damage.

Thanks a lot for the speedy reply.

I learned to drive on my late grandfather's 1957 A55, and did my driving test on it in about 1985. The examiner didn't quite know what to say when we walked out to the car for the test. A cool car to drive as a student, though not the swiftest car on the road!

Very interesting re the ownership and privacy laws now. I had no idea. Good tip re the CoFs. I guess my instinct (maybe wrongly) is that a lease car is likely to have had a harder life than one which has been privately owned - more likely to have been garaged some of the time rather than sitting in an airport or company carpark; perhaps not driven as hard; and more care taken with the interior than by a renter/leasee.

Interesting also re the stone chip respray. It looked like a tidy job, I must admit.

Really appreciate the expert advice.

Haha.. My A55 was a 1957 too, but it had the rego BC4000, and my mates all reckoned that must have been the year it was made!

Regarding lease and rental cars, they've generally been serviced and maintained really well and on time, so there can be advantages too.