Fake Service History - How common is this
Discussion
Ive been in the market to buy a used Subaru BRZ, ive had money down on one recently on the condition that service history was provided as it wasnt available to hand. Apparently theyre stored digitally.
I waited a few days to receive these, only to find a document that had clearly been doctored with spelling mistakes and no invoices etc. I even called the dealerships that supposedly carried these out only to find theyd never seen the car unsurprisingly. This was for a car for sale on this platform of all places.
Thankfully the document was so obviously manufactured that it was quite easy to spot. Almost hilariously so.
Is this commonplace now and something to look out for? Im looking in the regions of £11-13k so isnt the bottom of the barrel of the used market. At around this amount is a full service history much of an ask!?
I waited a few days to receive these, only to find a document that had clearly been doctored with spelling mistakes and no invoices etc. I even called the dealerships that supposedly carried these out only to find theyd never seen the car unsurprisingly. This was for a car for sale on this platform of all places.
Thankfully the document was so obviously manufactured that it was quite easy to spot. Almost hilariously so.
Is this commonplace now and something to look out for? Im looking in the regions of £11-13k so isnt the bottom of the barrel of the used market. At around this amount is a full service history much of an ask!?
E82_125i said:
Ive been in the market to buy a used Subaru BRZ, ive had money down on one recently on the condition that service history was provided as it wasnt available to hand. Apparently theyre stored digitally.
I waited a few days to receive these, only to find a document that had clearly been doctored with spelling mistakes and no invoices etc. I even called the dealerships that supposedly carried these out only to find theyd never seen the car unsurprisingly. This was for a car for sale on this platform of all places.
Thankfully the document was so obviously manufactured that it was quite easy to spot. Almost hilariously so.
Is this commonplace now and something to look out for? Im looking in the regions of £11-13k so isnt the bottom of the barrel of the used market. At around this amount is a full service history much of an ask!?
No, it’s not much of an ask. Two of my cars (a 2012 Alfa Mito used by my daughter and owned by us since it was 3 and a 2011 Jaguar XF 3.0 used by me as a 2nd car) have day 1 extremely thick history files. Quentin Wilson was said something on the lines of rough people and rough cars go together. I waited a few days to receive these, only to find a document that had clearly been doctored with spelling mistakes and no invoices etc. I even called the dealerships that supposedly carried these out only to find theyd never seen the car unsurprisingly. This was for a car for sale on this platform of all places.
Thankfully the document was so obviously manufactured that it was quite easy to spot. Almost hilariously so.
Is this commonplace now and something to look out for? Im looking in the regions of £11-13k so isnt the bottom of the barrel of the used market. At around this amount is a full service history much of an ask!?
A car should always have a proper history.
Yeah, really easy to fake it. But also easy to suss out, calling dealers to check takes a few minutes - if they're not helpful then plenty more cars for sale. I don't know about anyone else but I try to build an overall picture of a car before making a buying decision, service/MOT history but also how I feel about the seller and their credentials, can I find anything on line about the car prior to the point of sale etc.
Not bought a shonky one since I was a naive teenager.
Not bought a shonky one since I was a naive teenager.
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