Does anyone know of a way to do a VIN search on a pre-1981 car (14 digit VIN) in order to confirm mileage and ownership history? Or is the data simply inaccessible?

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14 E250 Bluetec "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 153k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 171k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

add WDB into the front of info, see if that helps.

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

That was my first thought....doesn't help.

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14 E250 Bluetec "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 153k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 171k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

Try MBUSA Customer Relations in Montvale, NJ. They helped me with a VIN number. They will not have mileage documentation or service history.

Well, I can pull it up on the EPC....so I know it's a valid VIN and can see the options the car came with, etc... Maybe my best bet is a local dealer on the chance that that's where the car was serviced.

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14 E250 Bluetec "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 153k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 171k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

Something must have changed since I was not able to pull up anything on my 240D or 280E in the EPC last time I tried.

I highly doubt you will be able to get any accurate info thru carfax on a car that old.

Send me VIN and I will try to give you a data card!

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Mercedes W140, S350TD, 95.
Mercedes W140, S350, 92.
Porsche 944, 86 N/A.
Porsche 944, 85 N/A automatic.
Porsche 944, 84 N/A.
Porsche 944, 83 N/A.
Opel GT, 73.
Toyota Supra MA61,84.

I was able to see the data card....as I say, I can access it on the EPC.

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14 E250 Bluetec "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 153k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 171k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

There is no source of Carfax-like info for cars prior to the standardized VIN system, other than paper records or access to previous owners. That rarely happens except for collector vehicles.

I was using Carfax when it first started and at that time (when there were way more of those era cars on the roads), that lack of info was a huge headache. However, the info on cars even close to the other side of the 1981 cutoff tended to be very sketchy as I think less information was held in the databases Carfax gets its info from (some states were much worse than others in that respect).

Honestly I find Carfax hit and miss at best. I have had two cars that were pronounced clean and tidy by Carfax that were anything but. Luckily I bought them on seen condition and the Carfax was run later for ___ and giggles. But I was kind of put off playing the long-distance buying game* as a result, given how easily I could see that I could have tarted one of those cars up and put it on eBay and advertised a "clean Carfax report!".

Perhaps if you tell us what you are trying to establish....

*: In terms of dealing with unknown entities with cars for sale

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Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

I would love to find a place to look up the options on my 78....but i haven't found anyplace to do so yet...

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Have you tried the EPC?

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14 E250 Bluetec "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 153k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 171k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

You can get some data from the MB Classic center.

There are a few antique car concierge / detectives that specialize in digging up full vehicle history regardless of time, effort, money, but the ones I know are priced for people like "Jay Leno", "Bill Gates", etc.


.

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