2 1 AUGUST 2019 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 55
FULL SERVICE HISTORY INVESTIGATION
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It had no service history so
he reduced his off er by £1750
a
26,000 miles, both services carried
out by an independent garage in
- There were no invoices to show
what work had been done.
“They’ll probably have been oil
changes,” said the salesman. “In any
case, the Captur can go for 40,000
miles without one.”
In fact, the model’s oil change
i nt e r v a l i s 18, 0 0 0 m i le s or t w o y e a r s.
I asked the National Franchised
Dealers Association (NFDA) what it
thinks about dealers glossing over
the fine detail of service histories in
this way. Sue Robinson, its director,
said: “It is essential that franchised
retailers provide their customers
with clear and accurate information
about the service history of a vehicle.
Transparency and integrity are vital
to our sector.”
Was the motor trader that the
Renault salesman mentioned right
to penalise the four-year-old Zafira
without service history to the tune
of £1750? Derren Martin, head ofvaluations at Cap HPI, says the cost
o discover how lightly
a full service history
is treated, I visited a
used car dealer and
a franchise dealer in
search of a couple of used cars out
of warranty. I hoped they’d have
poor service histories and wondered
how the sales staff would handle
the situation.
At the used car dealer, I quickly
identified my target motor: a 2011-
reg Audi A3 Sportback 2.0 TDI S
line with 135,000 miles, priced at
£4395. The salesman produced its
s e r v ic e b o ok , w h ic h show e d on l y fou r
services had been carried out: one
at 21,000 miles in 2012, another at
44,000 miles at the end of the same
year and a third in 2013 at 67,000
miles, all by Audi dealers, and then
nothing until early 2019 when, at
130,000 miles, it was serviced by an
independent garage.
Unfazed by this revelation, the
salesman said he had the previous
owner’s word that the car had
been serviced regularly during the
intervening six years and 63,000
miles. So that was all right then...
I left, pondering the meaning of
service history. The Audi had some
but by no means could it be described
as full. In any case, I wondered,
w h at i s f u l l s e r v ic e h i s t or y? I s it a n
unbroken line of services performed
e v e r y y e a r or 1 2 , 0 0 0 m i le s , or at
the manufacturer’s recommended
i nt e r v a l s? I s it f u l l on l y w he n a l l
the minor and major services have
been carried out, in addition to
other periodic work? If that was the
case, you’d have to scrutinise all the
workshop invoices to find out exactly
what was done. Amazingly, some
dealers do, which is why they put a
higher value on full invoice history as
d i s t i nc t f r om f u l l s e r v ic e h i s t or y.
O n t h at p oi nt , a f r ie nd r e c e nt l y h a d
his 2016-reg Volkswagen Scirocco
TDI, which had done 33,000 miles,
serviced at a VW dealership.
It was due a major service, but
because he’s planning to sell
it in February 2020, he opted
for a minor. In doing so, his
vehicle missed, among other
things, a change of air, fuel
and pollen filters, and
a thorough, wheels-off
brake check.
Not that the car’s next
owner will know. They will
see from the service book
that the Scirocco has a full
service history, yet on one
occasion, it had a minor
service when it should
have had a major.
Webuyanycar.com is
one company that takes
service history rather more
seriously. It defines a full
one as conforming to the
manufacturer’s schedule. It
also advises that car buyers
If you’re lucky, the used car you’re
considering buying may come with
a service book. Assuming it’s not aforgery or taken from the glovebox
of another car, it should contain
official service stamps, dated and
with mileage readings.
However, things are changing.
More car makers are adopting
electronic or digital service
histories stored remotely from the
car but able to be accessed by the
owner when necessary.
I discovered this when I visited
a BMW dealer in search of an
approved used BMW with a poor
service history or even no service
book. As it turned out, the service
history was full, but of a service
book there was no sign.
Instead, the salesman
simply inserted the ignition
key into the car – a 2015-reg
318d M Sport with 35,000miles and a screen price of
£14,995 – and in a flash up
popped its service history
on the dashboard screen,
complete with details of the
types of services carried out.
The system isn’t exclusive
to BMW dealers, but an
independent garage wishing
to access it must buy the
necessary diagnostic software
and pay a charge each time
it updates it with a service.
Only services carried out by
BMW dealers or independents
with the approved software
and an account with BMW are
recorded in this way.
DIGITAL RECORDS
find out what service the car is
due t o h av e ne x t si nc e , i f it ’s a
major, for example, it could be
expensive.
From the dealer with the
Audi A3, I popped into a
franchise dealer, a Renault
agent. My attention was caught
by a Captur Dynamique S Nav
TCe, a 2015-reg model that had
done 35,000 miles and was
priced at £8295.
The salesman agreed that
service history was important andrecounted a story concerning one
of his customers who, on the day he
was due to collect his new Renault,
handed over the service book for
his part-exchange, a four-year-old
Vauxhall Zafira.
“It had no service stamps in it,”
said the salesman. “I couldn’t give
him what I’d offered for his car, and
when I told the trader who had agreed
to buy it that it had no service history,
he reduced his offer by £1750. My
customer ended up selling his Zafira
to a car buying company for £1000
less than I’d originally offered him.”
He now entered the Captur’s
details on Renault’s ICM online
workshop database, intending
to show me its service history. It
recorded the car as having its PDI
(pre-delivery inspection) in August
2015 – and then nothing.
He hurried off in search of the car’s
service book. When he eventually
returned, it showed the car had been
serviced just twice, at 22,000 andof having no service history
depends on factors including
current vehicle supply and
demand, the make of the
car and whether it’s still
in warranty.
“It’s a complex picture,”
he said. “At the moment, the
s uppl y of u s e d c a r s i s h i g h but
de m a nd i s low, s o a ny t h i n g
less than perfect – for
example, a car with little or
no service history – has to be
priced to sell.
“In a normal period, the cost of
no service history is about £500
on a £10, 0 0 0 c a r. It ’s mor e s e r iou son prestige and performance cars,
where buyers expect to see a full
service history.”
Meanwhile, on lower-value
vehicles, it seems that, for some
dealers, service history is something
to be taken very seriously when
buying a car but less so when selling
it. To avoid trouble later down the
road, when you’re next buying a car,
don’t let full service history become
fool’s service history. L
Dealers^ should^ provide^ ‘cl
ear and^ accurate^ info’It has stamps, but
are they for (^) major
or minor services?