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| Number of ownership changes per vehicle |
Some 22,181 owners are driving cars that have had 10 owners, or more, over the course of the lifetime of the vehicle. There are 177 cars with 17 owners, 45 with 19 owners, and five have 25 or more owners.
Of the 22,181 vehicles with 10 or more owners, 5,385 are located in Dublin; 2,579 in Cork; 1,080 in Galway, and 1,042 in Limerick.
But one car has had 34 owners! This record is held by a 1979, 1.6 petrol Opel Manta. (We presume it's still on the road).
However, some 868,003 vehicles have had just one owner.
Vehicle history check company Cartell.ie say it's important to establish the number of owners when buying a used vehicle. People, they found, don't change their vehicle on a whim as the bulk of vehicles are still on their first, second, or third owner.
The average age of a vehicle in the Irish fleet (all vehicle types) is currently 9.38 years and the average number of owners is 2.64 owners per vehicle. This means Irish car owners change their cars every 3.5 years.
When buying a vehicle, the consumer should use this rule of thumb. Any less than three years between owner changes and a higher number of owners than three owners should impact on the selling price when buying a vehicle.
Cartell.ie say "the higher the number of owners, the more important a car history check becomes. If the car has a higher number of owners, and if it changed hands recently, then you have to question whether the vehicle has mechanical issues."
Consumers can check the number of previous owners using a car history check company. If a car already has three owners, then it's above average and this should impact on the selling price.
LOCATION BY COUNTY OF VEHICLES WITH 10 OR MORE OWNERS:
DUBLIN 5,385
CORK 2,579
GALWAY 1,080
LIMERICK 1,042
TIPPERARY 891
WATERFORD 843
KILDARE 834
WEXFORD 814
LOUTH 758
WESTMEATH 735
MEATH 663
DONEGAL 651
WICKLOW 621
LAOIS 601
KERRY 578
KILKENNY 566
MAYO 562
CARLOW 558
CLARE 511
OFFALY 438
CAVAN 308
LONGFORD 291
ROSCOMMON 279
SLIGO 236
MONAGHAN 181
LEITRIM 176
