New car - discovered wrong service book?

[AudiSport]

Neither invoice match the service book. 'See invoice' was written in the service book where it should have been stamped by the guy we bought the car from. The following stamp in the book is from the garage we bought the car from.

Could be a genuine mix-up, however it is clear the service history is now missing for the car - which I'm pretty sure was advertised as having full service history. I will call AT in the morning and see if they can confirm this.

[AudiSport]

edc said:

You are worrying over something or such little consequence. I have a 2004 car and no service book and no invoices. I have on a scrap of paper from the Porsche dealer dates, mileage and services completed. I've kept my own invoices. It's worth no more or less than what else is out there on the market.

I'm afraid I completely disagree.

[Pit Pony]

I keep my cars so long that the service history becomes irrelevant. I keep a little note book in the garage, to remind me, what I've done, to which car, and when, but by the time I'm flogging it, it's a stter anyway.

[johnnyBv8]

edc said:

You are worrying over something or such little consequence. I have a 2004 car and no service book and no invoices. I have on a scrap of paper from the Porsche dealer dates, mileage and services completed. I've kept my own invoices. It's worth no more or less than what else is out there on the market.

No, your car is worth less, or at the very least your car would have a more limited market than one with a nice folder of receipts and service stamps...and a limited market often comes to the same thing in terms of lower value.

Edited by johnnyBv8 on Wednesday 1st October 06:50

[roddyp]

AudiSport said:

I'm afraid I completely disagree.

Well, it depends on the make, model and condition of course. If you're talking some hyper-exotic then it's important. If it's a 10-year old repmobile or shopping car then I really don't see it making a difference.

Unless you're planning to immediately sell the car then how YOU treat it is much more important than how previous owners have.

Edited by roddyp on Wednesday 1st October 16:25

[AudiSport]

roddyp said:

Well, it depends on the make, model and condition of course. If you're talking some hyper-exotic then it's important. If it's a 10-year old repmobile or shopping car then I really don't see it making a difference.

Unless you're planning to immediately sell the car then how YOU treat it is much more important than how previous owners have.

Are you trying to tell me that the average car with poor and incomplete service history will have the same demand in the market place as its equal with a fully documented history and stamped service book?

[Torquey]

Agree with AudiSport here.

I just walked away from a car when both the dealer and I realised it had no service book (although a few receipts)!
I'd personally want the car for £2000 less than its advertised at. That's not to say someone else might come along and pay full price.

[JamesL]

Do people consider a stamped service book as FSH?

Personally I'd look for supporting invoices and receipts to consider it FULL service history.

OP, maybe contact the customer service dept for the manufacturer. If its been serviced at main dealers then some history may be recoverable.

[steveo3002]

book doesnt mean alot these days , you (or dodgy seller) could if you wished buy one from ebay along with a stamp and fill it out as you wish

matching invoices back to when it was new are harder to fake and nicer proof its been looked after

[roddyp]

AudiSport said:

Are you trying to tell me that the average car with poor and incomplete service history will have the same demand in the market place as its equal with a fully documented history and stamped service book?

OK, I should have written "significant difference": Based on the dreaded "webuyanycar.com", my 5-year old 60,000 mile A4 would be worth £100 less if it only had a partial service history. That's a little over 1% of it's value.

[CarlT]

What make of car is it, as others have said - some manufacturers have linked systems so you will be able to find out what was done previously.

[anonymous-user]

If it matters that much to you I have an old stamp from a garage that closed down you can use to stamp up a book you bought from eBay? It's about what a "full service history" is worth if you're relying on stamps in a book anyway.

I am always of the opinion that without an invoice to back up the work (and sometimes even then) any stamp or claim of servicing is nice to have but not really valuable. I've known enough people in the trade to fake service history when selling on a car to buy entirely on condition when you're looking at the decade old end of the market

[LotusOmega375D]

Why not track down the car to which your service book really belongs and just buy that one instead?

You should get it at a good price, since it won't have a service book...

[uncinquesei]

If you PM me reg / chassis I can check history and spec for you.

[Mr2Mike]

AudiSport said:

Are you trying to tell me that the average car with poor and incomplete service history will have the same demand in the market place as its equal with a fully documented history and stamped service book?

If it's an older example of a common (i.e. non exotic) car then that is exactly what he is telling you. Once a car has suffered the glut of it's depreciation, trivial things like service books have minimal impact on the price.

If you are talking about a car that is still pretty valuable then the service book will be of more relevance to it's value.

[Rick1.8t]

Mr2Mike said:

If it's an older example of a common (i.e. non exotic) car then that is exactly what he is telling you. Once a car has suffered the glut of it's depreciation, trivial things like service books have minimal impact on the price.

If you are talking about a car that is still pretty valuable then the service book will be of more relevance to it's value.

What is your idea of valuable? It would have to be an extremely cheap / boring car for me to be interested without history.

No wonder some people spend so much of their time and money getting cars repaired - they buy shoddy junk with no history because its 'trivial'. If I was in the OP's position I would be rather annoyed too.

[anonymous-user]

Mr2Mike said:

If it's an older example of a common (i.e. non exotic) car then that is exactly what he is telling you. Once a car has suffered the glut of it's depreciation, trivial things like service books have minimal impact on the price.

If you are talking about a car that is still pretty valuable then the service book will be of more relevance to it's value.

Very much this. If you have a 10 year old car car that might be worth £3000 with a FSH and a big pile of invoices then how much do you think it's worth with no history at all? Maybe £2500? How about with invoices for parts from being home serviced?

If you are running an older car and have the ability to change oil and filters and the other trivial tasks they carry out for your £200 service then you're a fool if you believe it's worth spending the money on getting a garage to service it anyway as you'll get it back due to the "stamps in the book".

[Rick1.8t]

dme123 said:

Mr2Mike said:

If it's an older example of a common (i.e. non exotic) car then that is exactly what he is telling you. Once a car has suffered the glut of it's depreciation, trivial things like service books have minimal impact on the price.

If you are talking about a car that is still pretty valuable then the service book will be of more relevance to it's value.

Very much this. If you have a 10 year old car car that might be worth £3000 with a FSH and a big pile of invoices then how much do you think it's worth with no history at all? Maybe £2500? How about with invoices for parts from being home serviced?

If you are running an older car and have the ability to change oil and filters and the other trivial tasks they carry out for your £200 service then you're a fool if you believe it's worth spending the money on getting a garage to service it anyway as you'll get it back due to the "stamps in the book".

I am really quite surprised by this attitude in honesty and thought the value at which it would be considered irrelevant would be much less than £3k.

As above, no wonder so many people spend so much repairing the junk they bought with no history!

[edc]

Rick1.8t said:

Mr2Mike said:

If it's an older example of a common (i.e. non exotic) car then that is exactly what he is telling you. Once a car has suffered the glut of it's depreciation, trivial things like service books have minimal impact on the price.

If you are talking about a car that is still pretty valuable then the service book will be of more relevance to it's value.

What is your idea of valuable? It would have to be an extremely cheap / boring car for me to be interested without history.

No wonder some people spend so much of their time and money getting cars repaired - they buy shoddy junk with no history because its 'trivial'. If I was in the OP's position I would be rather annoyed too.

I have bought such shoddy junk as an L322 Range Rover with no history. However, just because it has no paper history it does not mean the car has not been serviced or maintained. Others have suggested tracking it down. In my case I could have paid £25 to the Porsche dealer to have a re-issued and re-stamped service book. There would still be no invoices. However, I have done way more than the average servicing since I have had it for a year so any previous history adds negligible value. The real value is in what has been OTT done in the last 12 months. You could also look up the old MOTs for the old MOT stations as it may well have been serviced at a specialist close by or at that garage.

[anonymous-user]

Rick1.8t said:

I am really quite surprised by this attitude in honesty and thought the value at which it would be considered irrelevant would be much less than £3k.

As above, no wonder so many people spend so much repairing the junk they bought with no history!

You can almost always tell from actually examining and driving the car if it's been cared for and serviced. The physical condition of the car is a far more reliable indicator than an easily forged service book. I have seen and test driven some absolute nails that are one owner with a full service history. It's not totally meaningless but it is only one piece of the puzzle when you're trying to work out if a 2nd hand car is any good or not.