So what your looking for is a One owner car!
For some reason this is vital to you so please bear in mind.
The UK V55 known generally to be the car log book is used as a guide to confirm the number of Registered keepers and not owners.
Consider even a brand new car cannot be a one owner.
For example buying a car direct from a manufacturer.
The car when assembled has title belong to the manufacturer. Which qualifies as the first owner and then the person who purchases then becomes the second.
In many circumstances it may be typical for a car to be sold down a chain hence:
1st Car owner Manufacturer
2nd Car owner Car then sold to a franchise outlet for retail
3rd Car owner Car then sold to a leasing company
4th Car owner Car used on lease and then sold through a car auction, Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each individual allocated the car on lease or each re-lease
5th Car owner Car bought by a Car Trader
6th Car owner Car sold to another Car Trader
7th Car owner Car retailed to an individual on finance the finance company become the owner
8th Car owner Car is paid for . The title then passes on the car to the private individual
So at this point the V55 shows ONE former keeper or roughly translated as TWO Owners
The car log book will record the leasing company as the first owner and the person who financed it as the second.
So when you see a car advertisement for only one owner or one former keeper beware.
Car users are the more important factor but this is almost impossible to calculate or track.
If the car is sold to an individual there is likely to be more than one user husband, wife, son, daughter etc.
If it is sold to a leasing company it may be leased several times hence multiplying the users.
If its a company fleet car it could have had dozens of users.
Of course if it belonged to the Armed Services or the Police it may have had Hundreds if not thousands of Drivers.
There is of course also the well known dodge of not registering the Car at all, and maybe saving yourself a few parking tickets, camera speeding fines, etc.
on the opposite end of the scale
If a person moves address this may add another keeper in the car log book negating the benefit of using a log book for sales enhancement.
So there you go if you want a one owner car, pay no attention to the cars general condition its baggy clutch and crunchy gearbox, as long as its Log book says one preferably careful lady owner you will be fine,
NB: If its white the one previous owner is called Liz Windsor, and it has holes in the roof its probably a collectors item not to be missed.