That Guy

Macster hit it on the nose - it's all about information privacy laws, and how strict the dealer principle is with his employees on enforcing them. Frankly, from a liability perspective, you just can't be too careful about who you tell what nowadays.

PCNA maintains a database of all Warranty claims to which all dealers have access; however, they do not monitor customer pay operations (yet). Those records are maintained in the individual Dealer Management Systems, and contain the personal information of the owner or customer who presented the car for service at each visit.

Most stores will provide verbal confirmation of service records, dates, and mileages (often only the Service Manager will be authorized to do so, so you may have to leave a message and wait for a callback), but printed documents are another story entirely. Some will release doc's only with written permission from the previous owner, others not at all.

Ideally the car in question has an updated and comprehensive Maintenance Booklet. In the pre-digital era this booklet was considered gold, and even now should be a source of added value, IMO. Always bring it with you when going in for scheduled maintenance, and make sure your Service Advisor stamps all the appropriate areas (incl brake flushes, airbag maint, etc.).

To the OP, best of luck in your purchase quest - enjoy the hunt!

cbzzoom

When I got my car used the maintenance booklet had a bunch of dealer stamps, but no indication of what they had done exactly. I called that dealer 3 or 4 times trying to get info about what had been done, and they always gave me the run-around, like the supervisor would have to call me back which he never did. Eventually I gave up and just redid all the regular service myself.

Macster

Call PCNA with the car's VIN and see what PCNA will tell you, can tell you about the car.

IIRC it can tell you which dealer the car was initiallly sold to, what options it came with, what recalls have been done, or what recalls need doing.

At some point what services the car had 5+ years ago is less material than what the car's current condition is.

If you are comfortable with the car's condition, but are unable to learn what services are current or due, then assume the worst and budget for all vital fluid services (and an alignment) as part of your car purchase.

What you can do is get estimates for the work and then subtract this from whatever valuation you have assigned to the vehicle and this is what you attempt to the buy the car for.

What you want to do is you want to avoid paying excellent money for a car that is not in excellent condition. By this I means a car that needs or is suspecting of needing services to bring its service history up to date.

You get a nice car, and you bring it up to date on its services. Then while you own the car you keep it current on its services.

Sincerely,

Macster.

911FM

Sounds BS. Tell them to use the "PrtSc" (Print Screen) key on the keyboard and copy to a word document...

FM

Optical TDI

Yes, I feel service history is important. My 996 is a 2002 and I have all records from new from the same dealer. That's a good selling point when the time comes for the next owner as all service will documented from new.

How many times do many of us say to walk with no service records, especially the older the car gets?