That didn't work out so well for Michael Jackson ...

 

Interesting as I read this. I bought my current car from West Palm Beach Jaguar. They denied Richard records back in 2013 per this thread and there's no reason to doubt him certainly.

The same dealership gave me the complete history as they serviced the car I subsequently bought from them nearly it's entire life. Everything was emailed to me. There was no specific customer info on the paperwork. This could simply be a case of urban legend wafting around.

I've never had anyone site privacy concerns when I've requested history personally, but you can simply ask the dealer to de-identify the previous owner from the paperwork, one would think.

 

If you are buying a pedigree jaguar, here is a top tip!
Forget car fax and such nonsense, those only tell part of the story...you have something way more powerful at your disposal.....

I was buying a XKR out of Chicago, it had unusually low miles and the numbers were right. But I had a gut feeling of unease, I know Chicago roads and traffic. And its part of the rust belt.

Called up the service manager at the Jag dealer where the car was sold. These service managers really get to know the cars better than even the owners. Particularly if its the best of breed Jag. I.e its top of the line and rare. I told him I was a loyal Jaguar owner and was considering that car. He knew it well, told me it was a solid car. Then I asked him the million dollar question that CarFax would never tell. Was this a daily driver, was it driven in winter. Most in Chicago put up their sports cars for the winter. Not this one. He confirmed it was used all year long. I dodged a bullet.

 

 

In the early 70s as a Public Defender in Minnesota I represented a man accused of rolling back speedometers. He claimed that almost all used cars offered for sale by dealers at that time had "roll backs." He was amused by the commonly-held belief that cars wear out at 100K miles. He believed that in fact, with the roll backs, actual mileage was in excess of 200K miles.

My experience in trading in cars to dealers is that they were completely disinterested in passing on the meticulous records I kept of each vehicle. They mumbled that they do not want to violate privacy laws etc. The result is that it is almost impossible to obtain vehicle histories before Carfax and Autocheck. This is very important with collector autos from before OBD. Local DMVs have, in my experience, been uncooperative in doing record checks of vehicle ownership.

Contrasted with real estate, I was able to do a public record check back to the time of the original land grants, which included names of prior owners together with records of mortages/trust deed, foreclosures, probates, divorces, etc. These records were contained in "abstracts of title". With the advent of title insurance, abstracts of title are disappearing; and real property owners must rely upon a title insurance policy, which does not disclose anything about prior ownership.

 

A trustworthy used car dealer is like
1. a T. Rex
2. a jumbo shrimp
3. an honest politician
4. all of the above