Team-BHP - How to determine number of owners in smart card RC

Folks, I bought a Honda City in Dec 2010 and sold my car to my wife before Mar 2011 in order to avail of some income tax benefit (for folks who get Form 16A).

While the new RC smart card that the agent gave me, has my wife's name as the new owner, the date of vehicle registration remains in Dec 2010. Also, there is no mention of the previous owner's details. The agent told me that all these details are available in electronic form only i.e. within the smart card and that the m/c to read the smart card is only available with the traffic police and the RTO(according to him, even insurance companies do not have this m/c).

This leads me to the concern i.e. how would one be able to determine who is the 1st and the 2nd owner of the car after transferring the car to the new owner? What other document should I get from the RTO? A vehicle buyer/seller certainly needs some record of the history of the car and I find this explanation given by the agent absurd. Kindly provide your thoughts on this matter.

Atleast on the Mumbai-RTO issued Smart Card RCs, you will see an OSL No. field on the top right. Translated Owner-Serial-Number. If you are the second registered owner of the car, the OSL No. field will read 02. Check your RC again, this information has to be there.

True, checked my Smart Card RC, it displays OSL No as 01. I didn't knew till came across this post. The other day one of my friend was asking about this, now will be able to clear his doubt to :)

Cheers!!!

All, thanks for sharing this information. I'm surprised at the AP RTO issued smart card. I wonder how AP folks will get their vehicle's history.

I have currently given the smart card RC back to the agent for correction in spelling of my wife's name on the card at the Indiranagar RTO. I will check and update about this field once my smart card RC is back with me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neilguy (Post 2303387)

These are front and back pics of my Smart Card RC issued by AP RTO (identifying details changed). I do not see any identifier to let me know the number of owners.

hello,

on the new smart cards issued by the AP RTAs, there is no way of making out the previous number of owners. and this has worked out as a huge advantage with the used car dealers here to make a quick buck with unsuspecting clients by claiming cars which are on their 2nd or 3rd owners as single owner ones.

the one way would be to check with the service centers for any probable history, the other way would be to palm off any broker to get the details from the concerned rta even though i don't recommend or suggest it.

The Karnataka RTO website's Vehicle search feature displays the current Owner Serial Number.
It does not however display the date of ownership transfer. Any way to get this information online ?

Also, is there any way to see details of previous owners ?