How do I find previous owners & original dealer of my car?

[rbouch8828]

My title only goes back to 1993 and I would like to find out who owned the car before then and who the original owner was. I am also wondering is there is a way to obtain a copy of the original dealer invoice for the car? Any advice would be appreciated.

Best,
Roland

[zoegrlh]

What you have wished for might be an impossible task.  State motor vehicle departments seem to not have cross reference records that date back before the age of computers.  The VIN number is a starting place to do any investigations.  Titles are hard to track particularly if car was transferred to your state.  Also I know you can get the Data Card (now for a fee from MBNA), it might tell you where the car was imported to.  I have a european spec SL and the data card tells which MB owned dealer in Germany it was delivered to.  As for the dealer invoice, again would be hard to locate this.  If in fact you find out who the dealer was, could be in a archive at that dealer.  Bottom line, Mercedes Benz North America will have no info.

[Pawel66]

What you can find fairly easily is the geography where your car was originally delivered (except some cases where it was ordered in tax/duty easier places and delivered somewhere else). You can decode it from the paint code plate and cecking it there: https://www.sl113.org/wiki/DataCard/DealerandCountryCodes

I think it will be quite difficult task to trace down what you intend. Search the forum - maybe you will find hints from people who tried.

[rbouch8828]

What my data card shows in that block is: 9704 1836. So, if I understand correctly, it was ordered in '69 and 704 indicates the US. Then 1836 is the dealer code. I wonder if there is a list of those codes  and the dealers they represented anywhere?

[TheEngineer]

Years ago I asked for a data card and MB sent me one and in the attachment wrote what all the codes signified. production date was given as 01.69 They also wrote that the car was sold on 03/28/69 by the Mercedes Dealer South Bay Autohaus, Torrance, CA 310-534-3333.
This info came from Manfred Straehle@mbusa.com on 10. Nov. 2003

[49er]

Years ago I asked for a data card and MB sent me one and in the attachment wrote what all the codes signified. production date was given as 01.69 They also wrote that the car was sold on 03/28/69 by the Mercedes Dealer South Bay Autohaus, Torrance, CA 310-534-3333.
This info came from Manfred Straehle@mbusa.com on 10. Nov. 2003

 If your car was sold near Torrance in 1969, the only dealer at that time near Torrance (wnere I lived at the time) was Carwell Mercedes located in nearby Hermosa Beach which is where I bought mine  in Sept ‘68. It no longer exists and my guess is South Bay Autohaus is the current MB dealership serving the South Bay Area.   https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=RHH19620830.2.49&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1

John

[TheEngineer]

John: Attached please find a copy of the e-mail received as evidence of my statements you did challenge.

[49er]

John: Attached please find a copy of the e-mail received as evidence of my statements you did challenge.

No Challenge intended. I lived in the south bay area until 1977 and the only Mercedes dealership at that time was Carwell Corp which also serviced my car during that time. There were dealerships in Santa Monica, Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley as well. Perhaps the Classic Center only had information for the current dealership based on the zip code from the original sales invoice?

John

[Cees Klumper]

South Bay Autohaus these days appears to be no longer a Mercedes dealer but a repair shop.