Buying used from main dealer

[uumode]

Has any one bought a used car from a main dealer and got full documentation of service receipts/invoices, old MOTs, tyres, repairs etc?

From what I've heard so far, dealers only sell cars just with the stamped service book.

 

[230K]

Hi

When i bought my previous 202 Kompressor from dealer it came with fully stamped up book but it was one of the conditions of the sale that i got a full print out of all the work that had ever been done on the car. This was helped by the fact that the same dealer had sold and serviced the car from new.
Everything was listed including the AMG back box that was fitted at delivery the fact that the diff seal was changed etc etc.

Make it a condition of the sale that this information is supplied.

230K

 

[stwat]

When i was younger i used to work as a valeter at a nissan main dealer and they used to throw all bills, service receips old mots the lot away All i could think was that if i was buying a car from them or anyone id like to have all the documentation i could just so id know that the car had been looked after. When i asked why they did this, i was told that they didnt want it to look like the car was a lemmon that had needed lots of money spent on it to keep it running by its previouse owner

Utter madnes but many peeps probably would be put of at the sight of lots of bills

My 190 came to me with no bills at all, just the service book. Its only had two previous owners and i managed to contact the first owner and he told me when he traded the car in it had all the bills of what he spent on the car over the 5 years he owned it!! So somwhere down the line all this has been lost(or thrown away!!) What id give to have all them bills!!

Stu.

Oh yes, i've just remembered another thing the salesman told me. They did'nt like to have any bills from from any other franchise or dealer, "the less info they can get about the cars history before they buy it the better" i seem to remember him saying

 

[mark.t]

dealers smhelers

look at all this below make sure it has a bloody good warrenty mine includes wear tear bloody good job thank god i only paid the 124.00 quid for the oil cAR PURCHASED FROM MAIN DEALER the good point is i have all the bills documented in a folder for the car and a letter from the body shop on the work carrid out :bannana:






mercedes benz 200th post

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so after 10 months of ownership

1,02/01/04...flat battery...jump started.

2,04/01/04...flat battery...jump started.

3,05/01/04... new battery fitted...£95.00

4,19/01/04...engine mounts (both)at front replace...stablelizer link.n/s.o/s..replace...£306.18

5, 06/07/04 rust warrenty new boot...nrw bonnett..4 new doors 2 new wings total £7000.00 pounds worth of work.

6,27/06/04 exhaust pipe £415.80 only for half including back box..

so in 10 months ownership have been without car for 8 weeks and to a total cost not to me of £7816.18p not counting the £124.00 for the oil change on the gearbox..£7940.18...should these faults been checked out by a fully trained tech as stated in the web site , mags ,,etc because thats what i was lead to be true by mbuk i payed premium to them buying a mercedes approved used


has it been worth the hassle yes it has for all the the trouble i have had the car makes up for it

 

[stwat]

look at all this below make sure it has a bloody good warrenty mine includes wear tear bloody good job thank god i only paid the 124.00 quid for the oil cAR PURCHASED FROM MAIN DEALER the good point is i have all the bills documented in a folder for the car and a letter from the body shop on the work carrid out :bannana:






mercedes benz 200th post

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

so after 10 months of ownership

1,02/01/04...flat battery...jump started.

2,04/01/04...flat battery...jump started.

3,05/01/04... new battery fitted...£95.00

4,19/01/04...engine mounts (both)at front replace...stablelizer link.n/s.o/s..replace...£306.18

5, 06/07/04 rust warrenty new boot...nrw bonnett..4 new doors 2 new wings total £7000.00 pounds worth of work.

6,27/06/04 exhaust pipe £415.80 only for half including back box..

so in 10 months ownership have been without car for 8 weeks and to a total cost not to me of £7816.18p not counting the £124.00 for the oil change on the gearbox..£7940.18...should these faults been checked out by a fully trained tech as stated in the web site , mags ,,etc because thats what i was lead to be true by mbuk i payed premium to them buying a mercedes approved used


has it been worth the hassle yes it has for all the the trouble i have had the car makes up for it

And i think thats why a lot of dealers like to get rid of bills and history like that. Not that im saying yours is a bad car in any way mark but you can see why many cars histories apart from the service books, go missing.

 

[mark.t]

used

anything comes with baggage.....new or used... could a good documented history be A GOOD THING i think so...so what dose it tell us...why do we always look in the glove box for the service book...dose this tell us anything ...do we prefer one owner private, or fleet cars ... personally i think one or two owner mercS are on the whole a good buy from a dealer you get the same treatment if you buy NEW OR USED an ...Aclass or Sclass...and after sales is the same for everyone as well CRAPPPPPPPP

 

[First_Benz]

No receipts but good service...

We bought our c-class from the dealer... he did not mention about any receipts etc but we did get a list of checks they had done on the car - outstanding finance, damage report and service stamps.. all came clear

Our C-class is only finishing its 3rd year (this month ) so I guess we will now start collecting all those receipts ourselves from here on...

 

[First_Benz]

Better get receipts for this lot !!!!

so in 10 months ownership have been without car for 8 weeks and to a total cost not to me of £7816.18p not counting the £124.00 for the oil change on the gearbox..£7940.18...should these faults been checked out by a fully trained tech as stated in the web site , mags ,,etc because thats what i was lead to be true by mbuk i payed premium to them buying a mercedes approved used

Mark, can you tell me how old this car is ... how did they manage to sell you a car with all this work to be done to it? And who reported all these problems to you? The dealer... man, hope they gave receipts for all of this too !!!

 

[stwat]

We bought our c-class from the dealer... he did not mention about any receipts etc but we did get a list of checks they had done on the car - outstanding finance, damage report and service stamps.. all came clear

Our C-class is only finishing its 3rd year (this month ) so I guess we will now start collecting all those receipts ourselves from here on...

So the first three years worth of bills have been thrown in the bin And every time the car gets traded in, or traded on to another dealer, the same thing will happen it seems doesnt matter how regisously you keep your reciepts and records, they will just get thrown in the bin at some stage by a dealer

 

[nickmann]

I got an Signature Approved Used car this year, obviously from a main dealer. The only paperwork I got was a receipt, service-book and a photocopy of the warranty. Not even their own checklist. They didn't know much about it "...just came in Sir, now buy it or **** off"

I once traded a bike I'd had from new back to a dealer, PX for the next bike. Now, I am quite good a collecting a file on a vehicle, and I had one an inch thick on this one which included recall data, plus all the usual servce, tyres, chain etc. So I passed that over to the dealer, along with various accessories I'd picked up, including paddock-stand, GPS mount etc.

I happened to talk to the new owner a few weeks later, guess how much of that got passed on. NONE! And the salesman didn't know a thing about it - "...just came in Sir, now buy it or **** off".

I think that salesmen (plural) are looking for the easiest life. They know that most cars sell themselves, so all they need is the keys and a coffee-machine. The rest is clutter. Yes, I know that's a huge generalisation but I believe it's fair comment.

 

[mickl]

this seems to be more prevalent with franchise dealers. With general used car dealers I find that they do keep the previous lot of paperwork and such. When I was looking for my cars I was consideringd BMW M3's as well and the 2 that I looked at that were non franchise dealers all had lots of paperwork. One of them had a 2inch thick boxfile full of receipts that he happily let me go through. Franchise dealers seem to think the warranty offered by them will suffice in enticing the customer.

 

[uumode]

from the feedback so far, it's pointing to the fact main dealers don't give the paperwork/receipts etc.

A. as suggested already, they don't want to disclose the amount of work the car has seen, incase it puts off a prospective car buyer

B. maybe it's the data protection act, and any receipt/invoice etc will have name and address on it?

C. could they add their own official dealer stamp to the service book to fully furnish the history (in the blank spaces) as one or two of mine look unusually similar for them to be stamped at different times (the service tick boxes look too similar) or maybe I'm paranoid

 

[mark.t]

Mark, can you tell me how old this car is ... how did they manage to sell you a car with all this work to be done to it? And who reported all these problems to you? The dealer... man, hope they gave receipts for all of this too !!!

6 years old had a check list and service book stamped,the upshot is a fully trained tech checked out the car B******S i am no tech but i\ found all these fault and had them put right at the dealer expence ....BUT BUYERS BEWARE they will weedle out of anything they can dealers shmellers

and as for service book stamps which manufacturers do you want

 

[stwat]

from the feedback so far, it's pointing to the fact main dealers don't give the paperwork/receipts etc.

A. as suggested already, they don't want to disclose the amount of work the car has seen, incase it puts off a prospective car buyer

B. maybe it's the data protection act, and any receipt/invoice etc will have name and address on it?

C. could they add their own official dealer stamp to the service book to fully furnish the history (in the blank spaces) as one or two of mine look unusually similar for them to be stamped at different times (the service tick boxes look too similar) or maybe I'm paranoid

No your not being paranoid uumode. Its a very dodgey trade indeed the motor trade.
This is not related but i remember once on the day a customer was going to pick up her shiney new 200sx the salesman opened a car door into the side of the 200sx 5 mins before she was due to arive. To hide what he'd done he soaked the car with the steam cleaner so it would hide the damage!! He then made sure he stood by the damage while he handed the car over. The next day she brought the car right back to complain about the damage but the salesman and sales manager told her the car was fine when it left the fourcourt and that she had signed the delivery sheet so there was nothing they could do, thankyou for your custom now f**k off. She came back a hour later with her husband, a rarther large and very angry chap!!! After a lot of shouting and some very red faces and just to shut the chap up as he was telling other customers not to do buisness with these cowboys, they relented and agreed to have the damage repaired.

But just imagine if this lady didnt have a rarther large and angry husband, they would have most likely got away with it!! I witnesed all kinds of dodgey stuff while i worked at that garage

Stu.

 

[uumode]

No your not being paranoid uumode. Its a very dodgey trade indeed the motor trade.
This is not related but i remember once on the day a customer was going to pick up her shiney new 200sx the salesman opened a car door into the side of the 200sx 5 mins before she was due to arive. To hide what he'd done he soaked the car with the steam cleaner so it would hide the damage!! He then made sure he stood by the damage while he handed the car over. The next day she brought the car right back to complain about the damage but the salesman and sales manager told her the car was fine when it left the fourcourt and that she had signed the delivery sheet so there was nothing they could do, thankyou for your custom now f**k off. She came back a hour later with her husband, a rarther large and very angry chap!!! After a lot of shouting and some very red faces and just to shut the chap up as he was telling other customers not to do buisness with these cowboys, they relented and agreed to have the damage repaired.

But just imagine if this lady didnt have a rarther large and angry husband, they would have most likely got away with it!! I witnesed all kinds of dodgey stuff while i worked at that garage

Stu.

Was that MAIN dealer?

 

[splang]

My main dealer in Weston-super-mare told me a few months ago that if i wanted the personal collection i would only get 2 yrs warranty .... i didnt know any better until recently - when challenged he just denied it - what could i prove? nothing.....

Never trust em.....

 

[splang]

I wonder if i should post on this site: (although its USA)

http://www.mercedes-benz-usa.com/index.php

 

[mark.t]

dcuk

we could hold a g.t.c. at milton keynes near dcuk maybe there car park with lists of our grumbles

 

[stwat]

Was that MAIN dealer?

Yep, certainly was uumode


Stu