As a car culture we are becoming brilliant at appreciating our cars in the moment. We have social media, camera phones that take amazing photos, incredible onboard diagnostics, and endless opportunities to use and enjoy such a prized possession. What about looking beyond that? Where did my car come from? What happened after I sold it?

When we broadened the focus of inquiry, the image of our cars gets hazier rather than building in clarity. That is what we endeavored to solve. For most people, a car is the second most expensive purchase of their lives. With the average person buying a new (at least new to them) car every 3.5 years, it certainly qualifies as an item that owners want to understand before hand. They can also appreciate the novelty of knowing what happens down the road.

5 years ago I launched a personal blog site. My person is inextricably linked to cars and driving so most of the material revolved around cars. One of the first posts that I made was a list of “Ed’s Car History.” It was a YEAR/MAKE/MODEL list of each of the cars I had owned over the years that I included the VINs to. I knew that finding out who owned them down the road was a “wish upon a star” idea but I put the VIN numbers out there to be a bi-directional lifeline to anyone who also felt like looking into the history of one of those cars moving forward.

VINwiki 1.0 was formed. I quickly started to hear about what was happening to my cars. I found out that the mods to my Audi S4 had never stopped and that it has become a track monster. I found out that my first exotic car, a Lamborghini Gallardo had been exported from California and was in Hong Kong. I learned that a Land Rover Discovery I owned had found its way through a Miami auction and down to Puerto Rico. It was leaking just as much oil on foreign soil as it was in my garage. I found out another car went to Russia. Another sold 3 times in a year after it left my hands. The information streams in still to this day and I continue to find more value in my connection to each car.

The world gets smaller every day and that disrupts industry after industry. We are here to bring a sledgehammer to the pinhole that the car world looks through toward the beautiful stage that is the life of our cars. We appreciate you coming along for the ride as we change automotive history.

-ed