tstafford

Wife was in an accident in the minivan (with the twin four year olds) a few weeks ago. Thankfully everyone is just fine but it's time for a new car.

Local dealer has a 2014 base Cayenne Platinum that the wife really likes. 45K miles, single owner, clean Carfax, CPO. Warranty is good thru Feb 2020 and we'll never hit the 100K miles. Happy with the price, so all good.

Not so fast - I've now asked four different times for the service records. All I want to see is that the car got regular oil changes. The Carfax shows one at 40K miles so that's encouraging but I'd like to see that a dealer did the earlier ones. They haven't refused to give me the records, they just keep sidestepping the question.

I think I'm going to pass if the dealer can't produce any records. Or am I being too picky at ~$40K and CPO. Should I just roll with it knowing the high likelihood is we trade the car in a few years?

deilenberger

If the dealer wasn't the servicing dealer they may not have access to the oil change records. Repairs/warranty-claims are reported to a central database Porsche Cars NA keeps. Things like normal service are only kept on the local dealers computer. So unless this dealer was the servicing dealership (or part of a chain dealership including the servicing dealership) those records aren't available to them.

I'm also sure that the servicing dealership may have a policy giving former owners a level of privacy - so they don't want to reveal who owned it by printing out the service records. Usually they can be convinced to release the service data if they can remove any owner ID from the printouts.

Since it's a 2014 - at most in service for 3.5 years, and it has 45k miles - the most it would have in regular oil services is 4x. One is accounted for by Carfax. I can't imagine they ignored the ones prior to that and then only did one as they were about to trade the vehicle in.

I wouldn't let it concern me a lot. It would be nice to have the records, but with the CPO - not mandatory. CPO is an excellent warranty program.

skiahh

DIYers don't file CARFAX reports, either. A maintenance book entry might be all that exists. Even a DIYer has to keep some type of record to maintain warranty coverage, so it's out there, I bet.

cdog533

As mentioned, dealers don't share service records all the time. And at 40K, the car has probably only had a few oil changes and that's it. The dealer should have any major work in the system, like if a transfer case was replaced, etc.

If it's a CPO, THEORETICALLY they are guaranteeing a certain current condition level on the vehicle and promising to fix anything that breaks...

That being said, it's been my experience that dealers (such as the Caddy place that sold me a CPO Escalade) don't inspect the 172 points as stated. Instead, they just call it a CPO vehicle and hope for the best. So, when I took it in because it needed new brake pads like 4,000 miles after buying it, they really didn't have an explanation of how a CPO vehicle (which is supposed to have a minimum of 50% pad life) needed new brake pads.

They did cover the costs, but it still made me understand that for some dealers, calling a car a 'CPO' is more of a warranty promise/bet than an actual inspection and condition guarantee of that particular vehicle.

CarGuyNVA

When I purchased my CTT from the Porsche dealer that originally sold it new to the first owner, I received the full service records. I think most P dealers would gladly do that, for whatever service records they have on the vehicle.

However as has already been mentioned, the vehicle may not have always been serviced at the dealer, so the records they have may be limited for this reason.

tstafford

Got full records from Porsche system. Everything done as I would have hoped. Car is hers now and she loves it. Happy ending.

mikeearly

Congrats ... I've always been a sucker for a happy ending !!!

deilenberger

Good deal. Congrats. Pics or it didn't happen..

Wisconsin Joe

Just out of curiosity, what happened between "sidestepping the question" and "Got full records from Porsche system"?

Oh yeah, congrats to your wife on the car.
And post some pics (of the car).