Full Service History

corblimey

As I go out looking for a new old car, I find the same bit of advice over and over, check the service history. Now I bought my current car in 2011, and have had it serviced 3 times since then (once just before the 6 month warranty ran out) and most recently about a month ago. I don't know what the service history was like before that, and I don't know if the 3 services I've had are recorded somewhere.

I've always that the fsh was an English thing, and you had to use something like cartell to get one over here, but is that really the case? Does my garage have a fsh for the car? Am I going to be asked for it when I go to trade in? All I know of that proves the servicing is a little sticker on the windscreen telling me my next service is due @ xx km.

Bpmull

Look in the service book in the glove box if there is a service written at every interval and it is stamped every time by the garage that's a full service history. If there's large gaps in mileage with nothing written in the book then the car doesn't have full service history. Doesn't mean the car wasn't serviced just means that it wasn't done by a garage or they didn't stamp the book. The sticker on your window wouldn't count as service history. Ideally a car should have receipts to prove the services were done. Some garage record the services on there computer others don't. But you have to know where the car was serviced in order to ring to enquire about its history. Many cars don't have full service histories for whatever reason. The history helps to back up the mileage on the car and insures it was maintained well. Hope this helps.

jimmyw

I dont quite get what you mean by saying that full service history is an English thing? Are you saying that only people in the UK ask for it?

No matter what country you are in all cars need to be serviced so everyone should be looking for it in all countries.If you got the servicing done in the main dealer, then you should have got a receipt.Even if you didnt all the service records should be on their computer systems.

If you got it done in an independent then they probably wont keep records although you still should have got receipts.

The next buyer will look for SH.

corblimey

Pretty much, jimmy, always thought that sort of thing (and the log book and whatnot) was just an English thing, and it was something the buyer over here had to seek out (through cartell or ringing the main dealers). I'll take a look in my car this evening to see if there's anything, I do get receipts for services, but I've pretty much always just thrown them away as soon as I get them. :pac:

Henry Ford III

To my mind a fsh is a fully stamped service booklet, supported by the corresponding original invoices.

corblimey

Thing is, and this supported my idiotic opinion, I've never been asked to supply any sort of service history when trading in a car either. I figured that if someone bought my trade-in down the line, it'd be on them to figure out the history. Perhaps the fact that I reckon most of my trade-ins have not been sold on, but scrapped (or whatever becomes of old cars) has meant they don't care