Any other ways of sourcing a lost service history? C43 UK Press Car

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Tom Newton

Active Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2011
Messages
158
Location
South Wales
Car
190d + C43 AMG
Evening all,

Some of you might remember my thread a couple of weeks ago introducing a C43 i'd recently bought.

16726266543_18421d6aed_h.jpg


For those that missed the other thread, the car is the ex-Mercedes UK press car from 1998. I bought it from a traders private collection at the start of May.

The car was advertised with full service history up until 86k, and is well documented in THIS old for sale advert, and is mentioned when the car was featured in the February 2010 issue of Mercedes Enthusiast magazine.

Unfortunately I now have an issue trying to source that service history. When I collected the car the seller ensured me he had it stored away and would send it on. It's now been a month and I haven't had anything, but the seller has informed me that he is continuing to look for it. Now I know what the response is likely to be to this, "It's my fault for not physically seeing the service book" which is obvious in hindsight, but I had no reason to doubt the seller, he's part of the family that runs a big car sales franchise in Newport, has his own large collection of classics, went over and above to make sure the car was sorted for me when i collected it, new MOT etc and came across and a genuine car guy. And the fact that the service history obviously does exist as it's been mentioned in the above articles.

Normally a lost service book wouldn't be too much of an issue as from doing abit of searching online i found out that replacements can be ordered from MB directly. However this is where I have another issue, i've been to three dealers and not one of them is able to find any service details on the car from anywhere in the UK. Two put this down to the age, and the other said as it was a press car initially, the majority of the work would have been done at Mercedes Milton Keynes HQ, rather than a dealer. I've also emailed Mercedes UK who were pretty useless to be fair and just came back with a generic 'No history showing' response even when i explained that the car was a Mercedes UK press / owned car for the first couple of years of its life.

So so far i've had no luck trying to source replacement history, so hoping someone would be able to shed some light on any other ways I might be able to source it?

Likewise where do i stand with the seller of the car if he can't find the history? The car was advertised with the history and I bought it expecting it to have it, so do i have any grounds to claim any money back etc? Apologies not had an issue like this before so don't know how to proceed.

It's a shame because the car is everything I thought it would be, but with the history of the car sourcing the service history is a vital part of it. :doh:

Thanks in advance for any help / assistance!
 
Go more public with a request on their Twitter/Facebook pages- they won't like negative comments there!
I've in the past requested Service History from Citroen and Peugeot Dealers - both were exceptionally helpful.
 
I had a similar problem with the W124 300TE I bought recently,however the Dealer did obtain a duplicate service book which covered 1992- 1995!

I also have all the MOT's up to this year and receipts for other service work carried out during the cars life. I have accepted that it's the best I'm going to get on a car that is 23 years old.
 
Very difficult as they have had various system changes in that period.

There is a HQ in Maastricht where they will be able to tell you every time the car visited a dealer. Then it will be up to you to pester those dealers to stamp your book.

Also its very likely work was done outside of dealer network?

I would keep pressure on the seller.
 

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