Finding Your Old Car.

don's 37

don's 37

Senior Member
Morning Guy's! Back in the early 1960's my Dad owned a 1958 Chevy Biscayne. After he met my mother and got married he had to sell it to buy a washer and dryer. My question is: if they still have the VIN number can you track the car? I was told the DMV can do it. My understanding is the car needs to be registered and on the road to show up. If it's laying upside down in a farmers field they can't help. True?
 
Good luck on your search. In my case my wife sold my 1941 Ford after I was drafted in the Army in the 1950s. In 2003 my on found one like the one I had in the 50s and I have restored it. It would have been neat to find my original. (We have been married now for 58 years so I did get over it)
 
another idea is to "google" the VIN # - I did this with my 1966 Corvette and found some neat info back from the 80's to add to its ownership history
 
I find it highly unlikely anyone at the DMV would be motivated to attempt to find your old car. Also, at least is Illinois, they would not release information about ownership due to concerns over privacy / stalkers / etc.

If any state was willing to do it the most they would be able to do is pull up their last known record of it. They might be able to say it was last registered in 19** and that's probably about it.
 
I would think if you could get friendly with a clerk in the DMV that they could possible find out something for you in their spare time, kind of under the table because its probably illegal to openly do it.
IF you have the VIN, report it stolen and see what happens. Some of us may even write to you in jail...:D
 
" ... in the system."

A 1958 vehicle ... maybe ... last registered in the 1960's is still (good news) in the system.

Somewhere.

Probably in a cardboard file box in a dusty warehouse in Albany (bad news).

The car may have lived its entire life in the age of paper documents. If it made it to NY's early computer base, unless it remained registered with a tag, it eventually was purged from any conversion update to the digital system.

Either contact whatever tag agency (DMV) and simply tell them you're trying to locate your folk's old car. Sometimes being truthful works better than BS. Or, most police officers can trace a current vin on a laptop in their cruiser.

This all opens a related subject. If you have an untagged, old title, whether or not you have the matching vehicle, that title could be purged from the system and leave you with a lot of red tape to contend with if you wanted to register the car/title.
 
Some states have a way to track older VIN's also that are not currently in the system. Nebraska can look them up on the old fish files for a modest fee. All it will show is the last registered owner and not if the vehicle still exists or is even still in the same state. That will require more footwork on your part. Rod
 
In New Jersey, they can't look up anything unless it has to do with a crime or something. (Several years ago, there was an article in the paper about a guy who saw a pretty girl in a car. He asked his buddy the cop to find out who she was and sent her flowers. The state clamped down hard on that kind of stuff!)
 
I sold my 40 sedan back in 1996 to finance a new shop when I moved. I have the vin# and have tried to locate it to no avail . So if any of you fellow Barners out there knows of a Maroon 40 STD Fordor with an older armature restoration I would appreciate a lead. I sold it to a fellow here who has sinced passed away and I have no idea who he sold it to .I have a friend who works for the DOT here and all he could tell me that it's not registered in Alabama.
 
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