Are some service historys now kept electronically?

NIMAN

When viewing some cars recently, had a couple of dealers tell me that they would get a print out of the cars service history.

They said that they were kept electronically now for some cars. Anyone else come across this yet?

Alun

It's been like that for a while now I believe if the car has been serviced through the dealer network. I bought a 2006 MX-5 recently with, shall we say, a pretty patchy service history and the Mazda dealer I took it to was able to pull up what they had on the car with no problem.

Mind you that didn't really help much, it was just one dealer service after 12 months, and after that it seems to have been left to the mercy of various fastfit type franchises if the grubby pile of receipts is anything to go by.

bazz26

Most of the big dealer networks keep a database and have done so for years. BMW, Audi, etc all do this presuming the car was serviced by one of their dealers.

corktina

i enquired at our Main Dealer for our Corolla we're selling and they were able to bring up the history on their PC. But then it's been serviced there since new, don't know if the history would be available in other Toyota dealers. (it's on Adverts.ie btw)

NIMAN

One example I seen was a Ford, bought from the Ford Direct scheme.

So I'm guessing its all legit so.

Sometimes nice to see the old style service books with stamps, but I suppose thats as open to forgery as anything.

dieselbug

Afaik Independent garages can register and log on to the manufacturer sites to register service work to their customers cars such as Mazda, VAG and Ford.

This way the service work will be registered as official service history.

bucketybuck

I have worked for a number of main dealers, including Ford and Land Rover on the car end of things.

I have never, ever been able to access another dealers service records. Its proprietary information.

Main dealers can access a vehicles warranty history, as that work is paid for and then made available by the manufacturer. The servicing is paid for by the customer and so a garage does not have to make that information available to the wider public, even should they want to incur the admin cost of doing so.

I could see a situation where if two Ford dealerships are both owned by the same parent company they could have a networked dealer management system that would allow one to look at the other's records, that can and does happen I imagine. But most dealerships are independently owned and its not the case that any Ford dealer can access the records of every Ford dealer.

If certain manufacturers have developed a records sharing system for sharing service records on their brand I personally have not seen it. It would be interesting to use it.

Alun

bucketybuck wrote: »

If certain manufacturers have developed a records sharing system for sharing service records on their brand I personally have not seen it. It would be interesting to use it.

Well, certainly in my case, the Mazda dealer I took the car to was able to access the service history on the car that had been carried out at another, totally unconnected, Mazda dealer.

dieselbug

I think mazda may have been one of the first, but afaik Mercedes, Audi, landrover also have this system.

You have to pay to register and also each time you log on. To register you have to supply your vat no and God knows what else.

I presume the work has to be of a certain standard to be logged, ie oe parts etc. I dont know how this can be confirmed.

DSR = Digital Service Record. I'm sure someone will be along who can give more accurate detail.

bucketybuck

dieselbug wrote: »

You have to pay to register and also each time you log on. To register you have to supply your vat no and God knows what else.

I presume the work has to be of a certain standard to be logged, ie oe parts etc. I dont know how this can be confirmed.

Knowing workshops as I do, they would not pay for this unless they were forced to by the manufacturer. . Its actually of limited value to a dealer, there's not really an excessive number of service history queries that would justify the cost, and even if there were consider that the majority of queries would relate to cars that the dealer is not selling! They would be helping the customer buy a car from somewhere else, not a great business decision.

Don't dismiss the admin side of this either. Dealers aren't known for overstaffing on the admin side, so when a service advisor has a hundred things to do the last thing he wants is to double up the work like this. Draw up an invoice for the customer and then do it again to input the info into the DSR, I wouldn't be certain that information is going to be complete, and if it isn't complete then it isn't all that valuable really.

It would work better if the DSR had access to a common DMS, but even in our network alone I know of 4 different DMS's, each dealer would have to input this information manually.

I'd love to see somebody pitch this for our brand, he would get quite a reception! :pac:

dieselbug

I think the idea is to replace the service book and the main dealer stamp with this system.

For any independent garage serviceing relatively new cars (still under manufacturer warranty) they will have no choice.
I imagine the server is the manufacturers and the main dealer for that make will have free access, indeed will be obliged to record any services on the system.

For the independent garage it is an extra expense and makes the job less profitable (remember, they have no choice if the customer wants the service recorded) this in turn makes the main dealer more competitive and more attractive to the customer.

bucketybuck

dieselbug wrote: »

I think the idea is to replace the service book and the main dealer stamp with this system.

For any independent garage serviceing relatively new cars (still under manufacturer warranty) they will have no choice.
I imagine the server is the manufacturers and the main dealer for that make will have free access, indeed will be obliged to record any services on the system.

For the independent garage it is an extra expense and makes the job less profitable (remember, they have no choice if the customer wants the service recorded) this in turn makes the main dealer more competitive and more attractive to the customer.

But who is this adding value for? Like the service books, this only matters when it comes to buying and selling. People who want to buy a used car would like this info, but as I said thats not much use to a car dealer who would rather that person buy from them! 2nd hand car dealers would find it useful for honest sales, but again, thats not much use to the manufacturer! And there will be people selling who would like it to help their sale. And the only way that sale is useful is if the seller then goes to replace their car with a new car from the manufacturer.

Its a cost to the garage without a payoff, except in an indirect, long term brand loyalty way, something the manufacturer is far more concerned about than the independent dealer. Clearly there are dealers out there making use of it, but I would be very surprised if every service was being recorded on it.

As I said, I've been involved in running workshops for a while now, and this would get short thrift in my garage, its just extra work for little added value. Even a simple system of inputting reg, mileage and service date would be last on my to-do list, if I also had to input every brake pad, bush or track rod changed I simply wouldn't bother.

dieselbug

I think you are missing a very important point. It's not meant to offer any advantage to second hand car dealers, far from it.
It puts everyone outside the main dealer network at a disadvantage and any disadvantage here is an advantage to the main dealer.
It's not designed to be of help to anyone but the manufacturer and his agents.
The manufacturer will call it progress and anyone outside the main dealer network who wants to carry on serviceing these cars up to main dealer standard and wants that work recorded (as the customer will want) will have to partake.

It's not extra work for the main dealer as such as any garage will record all work carried out for their customers anyway, it's just good practice.

But for the independent repairer it will cost extra making him less competitive and is that not to the main dealers advantage.

bucketybuck

dieselbug wrote: »

It's not designed to be of help to anyone but the manufacturer and his agents.

What value does it add for the main dealer? They invest in maintaining a DSR, what is the added value to the dealer? What does it give them that they didn't already have?

It's not extra work for the main dealer as such as any garage will record all work carried out for their customers anyway, it's just good practice.

It is extra work for the main dealer. The recording of this stuff is work, I should know, I do enough of it. Unless every dealer is linked to the same DMS it is extra work.

dieselbug

bucketybuck wrote: »

What value does it add for the main dealer? They invest in maintaining a DSR, what is the added value to the dealer? What does it give them that they didn't already have?


It is extra work for the main dealer. The recording of this stuff is work, I should know, I do enough of it. Unless every dealer is linked to the same DMS it is extra work.

It gives them an advantage over the competition. The main dealer will have free access to the system as it's theirs whereas any independent repairer will have to pay to register and pay each time they need to access the system.

I dont see where the extra work will come in to it for the main dealer.
All work is already recorded so this system will replace the present one I expect and probably like all these things will be more efficent if anything.

bucketybuck

dieselbug wrote: »

It gives them an advantage over the competition. The main dealer will have free access to the system as it's theirs whereas any independent repairer will have to pay to register and pay each time they need to access the system.

You haven't answered the question. The dealer can access the system for free, so what? What will they do with the information thats on there?

I dont see where the extra work will come in to it for the main dealer.
All work is already recorded so this system will replace the present one I expect and probably like all these things will be more efficent if anything.

I mean this in the best possible way, but there are a lot of aspects you seem not to be aware off relating to this type of admin work, especially relating to a how a good DMS works. You certainly don't just replace it just like that.

Maybe a small independent working out of a notepad an easily switch, but our licensed DMS costs in the tens of thousands, does a hell of a lot more than record services and needs constant IT support. I do this for a living and I can see exactly where the extra work is.

Satanta

I'm the third owner of my volvo. Full main dealer service record. My local dealer was able to pull up its history. Including some stuff that the previous owners hadn't got receipts for. The actual service book only had stamps for the services. I thought it was pretty neat.

dingus12

As far as I know BMW can give you a copy of the cars service history from day one if the car was serviced at any BMW dealership in the UK or Ireland.

The service history and mileage, are also stored in the key of the car, if you present the key of the BMW to a dealership, they can view any service or warranty record for that car, this only works on modern bmw's 2004 upwards.