21,000 miles, 5 years old, 4 owners. Red Flag?

[jurbie]

Does a car having multiple owners in a relatively short space of time put you off? I'm guessing they've all kept it for a year and done 5000 miles each and either decided it wasn't for them, they like to change regulary or it's full of annoying little faults. The car is also for sale a little below market value which is why it caught my eye.

The price possibly reflects the amount of previous owners and to be honest 4 of them is making me a bit jumpy but maybe I'm being over cautious?

[esuuv]

Depends entirely on what the car is - if it's a run of the mill 320d then yes that's a red flag.

if it's an Aston or a Ferrari then that's much more normal - actually it won't be a Ferrari as that's considered space ship milage!!

[Cambs_Stuart]

Also depends who they are. If it was first pre-registered, then used as a demo car at a dealer for example it could have had a couple of owners very early.

[jurbie]

Oops, I didn't mention the car. It's a run of the mill Jeep Cherokee which at the price it is would be ideal for the small amount of off-roading I have to do.

[Bone Rat]

Hi, just bought a Wrangler, same age, similar miles, 5 owners. May be worth paying for a detailed history. I found that there was a 3 year owner who did most of the miles, an obvious lease /pcp, the next kept it for 18/12 and only did 9k miles. The other keepers were administration type with only 50 to 100 miles being done as it moved dealers.
Have found with jeeps that they are moved on frequently, people buy into the image but then find the day to day use compromised. Poor economy, a bit agricultural to drive. We see lots of fully spec'd Rubicons (diff locks, disconnectable anti roll bars etc) with really low mileages on London plates. OK in rural Wales but not Kensington.

[jurbie]

Thanks, I think that's probably about right. I'd be doing a combination of long mileage on motorways leading to a rutted old farm track so I think it would work for me but if just wombling around town I would imagine it would get uncomfortable very quickly.

[Drive Blind]

if you do a vcheck on the car then that will detail how long each owner had the car.

I changed car earlier this year and walked away from a young car with so many owners. It was a red flag to me.