Cartell.ie, the car history checking site, says that, out of Ireland's national car park of some two million vehicles, 17,166 of them have ten or more owners recorded in their logbooks.
Honda Civic with 43 owners
The car with the highest number of owners is a Honda Civic, registered in County Carlow, which has a whopping 43 previous owners in its history. There are eight vehicles with 24 owners, another eight vehicles have 25 owners, two vehicles have 35 owners and one vehicle has 36 owners.
Of those 17,166 vehicles with ten or more owners, 3,598 are located in Dublin, 1,883 in Cork, 988 in Galway and 856 in Limerick.
Most cars on their second owner
Most vehicles in Ireland, statistically, are on their first, second, or third owners right now, with two-owner cars actually making up the majority - 781,524 are on their second owners, compared to 755,835 on their first.
Third-owner cars number 452,351 while a substantial 237,471 cars are on their fourth owner. Some 123,341 cars have had five owners, 66,370 are on six, while 37,273 have passed through seven sets of hands. Amazingly, 20,876 cars have had eight owners, and 12,071 have had nine.
Impact on resale value
According to Cartell.ie, the average age of a vehicle in the Irish fleet (including all vehicle types) is currently 8.6 years and the average number of owners is 2.54 owners per vehicle. This means the average sales cycle in Ireland is 3.39 years between ownership changes. The history-checkers are warning that any less than three years between owner changes and a higher number of owners than three should impact on the selling price when buying a vehicle.
"Obviously counting the number of previous owners and the dates of sale are a very important part of the history of a vehicle. 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 with us as part of the many checks we provide. If a car already has three owners then it is above average and this should impact on the selling price" said Cartell's Jeff Aherne.