That's a good idea. I didn't know about the ebay trick. I'll see if I can find an old insurance bill or some paperwork. Sad thing is, I just shredded some old papers from it a couple of months ago. It was about 5 years ago when it got totalled.

 

You might be able to log into your insurance account or call your agent and see if they still have it on file anywhere.

For the ebay trick, you might need to search for "VIN lookup" or something if it doesn't come up right away, since eBay usually shuts down the listings once they notice (it's usually just used car dealers who have premium Carfax accounts and are selling extra reports on the side and breaking their terms of service with Carfax). This is how I buy reports when I'm looking at cars to buy.

 

Well, maybe some good news - we'll see. Yesterday, I found the ad for my old Disco was back up online. I did some more investigating and tracked down the sellers business partner! Got in touch with that person, and they gave me a little background. Apparently, it's in my state (Oklahoma) at an ex-husband's place. I passed along my contact info and am now waiting to see if they will contact me. Fingers crossed!

 

Talked the seller, briefly. Apparently, they are going through a divorce and everything is tied up in that battle. The D2 is in her name, but in his possession (hopefully). She said he's apparently "washed" the title, but since she left and went back to Texas, she doesn't know the current situation, as they are not talking. GRRR!!

I told her I want to buy it as soon as they can figure things out, but she's quit responding to my FB messages - or doesn't check them to respond.

I'm doing my best to get this thing back!

 

After months and months of trying to track it down, I've lost contact with the person and the listing was finally marked sold/removed from FaceBook Marketplace. I was SO CLOSE! Man, I wanted that thing back!

I still need to see if I can find some old paperwork with the VIN on it and maybe track it that way.

 

Bummer! Just read your thread and was getting excited for you. I went through a similar thing with an 87 Fiero GT. Was the first car I bought wit my own money in 1997 for $2k. I sold it in 2005 for $3k to a kid whose dad was a mechanic and owned a pretty good shop in the area. He promised to baby it, so at least it was in good hands. I always regretted the sale, but I needed the money. About 10 years later I randomly happened across pictures of the car online. It had been beautifully restored and the pics were of it at a car show. I managed to track down the owner and it was the same kid, now grown up a bit. I offered him any price to sell it but he declined. Every few years, I email him and he still won’t sell. Most recently, jus a couple months ago I offered $20k and he laughed and said $200k. Lol. Funny how we get attached to certain cars.

Maybe your Disco will turn up again. Good luck!

 

I'm going to bring this back to the top. Does anyone know how to track down an old vehicle? I went searching again for our old one, but nothing came up. I did find the VIN number for it, so maybe that will help. I've searched the VIN on Google, but the only thing I can find is an old auction listing for it.

 

You can put the VIN in mycarfax.com and it will show you where it was last registered, if you are lucky the local tax authority will show who owns it. Or, you might be able to sweet talk the last serviced shop to tell you who the owner is. I have done that when I owned a vehicle and the service history was ambiguous

 

Well, I found a way to run the VIN on a website without paying the $45 carfax fee. (vincheck.info). I even have a PDF copy of the report that I got as an email within a minute or two. That's the good news. The bad news... the title check on it, shows the last ownership was a salvage yard, U-Pull type place in March of 2021. States the damage type: "Junk and Salvage", Disposition - "Crush". There was a contact person listed on the status of the place with an email address and a phone number. I sent an email giving a brief rundown and asked if they kept any records of past vehicles. I also called and left a voicemail for the person. Hopefully, I'll get a response.

It doesn't look very promising, but it's a shot in the dark.

 

If the price is right it may still be worth it, even if it’s only as a parts vehicle.