Is servicing important to you?

How important is service history on a second hand car?

  • Dealer history only no matter the car.

    Votes: 7 6.3%
  • Dealer or indy as long as it's full no matter the car.

    Votes: 73 65.8%
  • Dealer if its a high end/complex car.

    Votes: 13 11.7%
  • Service history not important once car is older.

    Votes: 18 16.2%

  • Total voters
    111
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Although Bangernomics still makes a case for buying a £1000 vehicle and deliberately not spending anything on it, until it's scrapped. (The "Dog's car," for example)

You are joking of course - if that is the dogs car. Those W124 estates are a national treasure.

I recently heard of a relatively low mileage Range Rover that needs a new replacement engine because the oil wasn't change for 15,000 miles. The reason for missing the service was lock down which is fair enough but a diy oil change could have been done for £20. Using the 20L container of genuine MB oil I bought a few years back for £48 I'm changing mine at £15 a time.
 
There must be something more to the story.


It's my brother in laws car and all I know is the crank was wrecked. The good news is the supplying dealer is paying 70% of the cost to fit a new engine. I don't understand why 15,000 mile oil should wreck an engine, it might gum it up a bit if the additives were depleted but only oil starvation should have wrecked the crank. Perhaps that's why the dealer is paying 70%. Do Range Rover diesels have a bad reputation for reliability ?

God knows what a new engine costs, I guess it will be 30% of 5 figure sum. I don't suppose dealers entertain the idea of re-building an engine these days. I once had a crank re-ground with with new bearing shells and a conrod face and re-bore all for £25, Mind that was 1985.
 
You are joking of course - if that is the dogs car. Those W124 estates are a national treasure.
S124’s were once as worthless an S210’s are now, which is how an S210 can end up as the family dog’s car, or the gardening van.

Point remains: not every car “has” to be maintained to new standard, scrapped at nine years old as being uneconomic to maintain at a main dealer.
 
Ahhhh, thank you. So from the bulletin it doesn’t appear to be directly as a consequence of a slightly late oil change.
That's a relief, might still leave my oil change for bit longer then.
 
It's my brother in laws car and all I know is the crank was wrecked. The good news is the supplying dealer is paying 70% of the cost to fit a new engine. I don't understand why 15,000 mile oil should wreck an engine, it might gum it up a bit if the additives were depleted but only oil starvation should have wrecked the crank. Perhaps that's why the dealer is paying 70%. Do Range Rover diesels have a bad reputation for reliability ?

God knows what a new engine costs, I guess it will be 30% of 5 figure sum. I don't suppose dealers entertain the idea of re-building an engine these days. I once had a crank re-ground with with new bearing shells and a conrod face and re-bore all for £25, Mind that was 1985.
Jaguar Land rover will not sell parts to rebuild the bottom end its always a new engine the engines were absolute garbage 2.7 the later 3.0 was not much better in the disco-Rrs same thing you will find out its nothing to do with not servicing it
 
It is my considered opinion that MoT history is equally as important/as relevant as a service record and receipts that show the advisories have been done.
Repeated advisories being ignored can and often will lead to other issues developing that often will result in car being sold-on and the unsuspecting buyer inheriting a nightmare requiring very deep pockets and possibly hours of frustration sorting neglected issues out.
Dealers that wax lyrical over the cars that they are selling and so many times have not checked the previous MoT history - the most often used one is maintained regardless of expense !!
 
It is my considered opinion that MoT history is equally as important/as relevant as a service record and receipts that show the advisories have been done.
Repeated advisories being ignored can and often will lead to other issues developing that often will result in car being sold-on and the unsuspecting buyer inheriting a nightmare requiring very deep pockets and possibly hours of frustration sorting neglected issues out.
Dealers that wax lyrical over the cars that they are selling and so many times have not checked the previous MoT history - the most often used one is maintained regardless of expense !!
All depends ,as a dealer he is now not allowed to give you receipts for work done by the previous owner's stupid i know but apparently its a recent law when i bought my M3 all i got was a print out from bmw stating dates of service history ,nothing to say what had been done repaired etc for instance rod bearings, actuators
 
All depends ,as a dealer he is now not allowed to give you receipts for work done by the previous owner's stupid i know but apparently its a recent law when i bought my M3 all i got was a print out from bmw stating dates of service history ,nothing to say what had been done repaired etc for instance rod bearings, actuators
I’m pretty sure dealers of all kinds could redact the customer-specific parts of those invoices if they really wanted. In the real world, the shredder is the easier option and less hassle.

Even the digital records could show the dates/mileage/parts used - wouldn’t be that difficult to have those records amended to remove customers names/addresses etc if required (and the dealer wanted to!)
 
I’m pretty sure dealers of all kinds could redact the customer-specific parts of those invoices if they really wanted. In the real world, the shredder is the easier option and less hassle.

Even the digital records could show the dates/mileage/parts used - wouldn’t be that difficult to have those records amended to remove customers names/addresses etc if required (and the dealer wanted to!)
To much like hard work for most and it was from a reputable London dealership
 
Less than two grand, on 100k miles: a dog-eared E Class estate suitable for use as the family “dog car,” and dump / DIY / station runs etc.
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Off at a tangent but the heyday of bangernomics was when you could find page after page of beautiful 90’s era beasts like the Primera, Avensis, Carina, Volvo 850 for a few hundred each on gumtree/ebay!
 
For me it's about how comfortable you are as a buyer. Second hand cars are always a little unknown and the more you buy, the more you learn. Regardless of who is selling too. I generally avoid traders/ dealers as the 2 cars I have ever had actual problems with were from a traders forecourt.

I once bought an Audi A8 with 'no service history' based on a call and walk around video. Because the price was right. Plus I called Audi UK and provided them the details and they very kindly shared the history which was decent in the end! Was a faultless car and I sold it for £150 more than I paid.

I guess it's that some cars need paperwork to warrant their value as service/ repairs can be expensive. But there is floor to that value where it reaches a 'screw it, drives fine' situation. I have definitely bought a few of those!
 
I think for me the most important thing is that the car has been owned by a proper petrol head - preferably one as anal as me about things. A service history only really shows the bare minimum of maintenance to keep the car roadworthy has been carried out, it's a good start but not ideal.

My CL has no dealer/indy service history since I've owned it but it has had 4 oil + filter changes in the last 2 years, 2 air + pollen filter changes and I have a stack of parts receipts showing everything that I have been replaced. I only have literally only 2 or 3 invoices from an indy for work I didn't feel like doing myself.

Is it a bad/unloved car because of this lack of history? Quite the opposite I'd say. Would a prospective buyer thing that? No idea to be honest, but it at least goes to show that a full service history isn't entirely indicative of how much a car has been looked after.
 
A question? 👿
And this is coming from a former technical zone rep for two well known Brit car /truck bus manufactures and one Dutch.
What are appointed franchise dealers purposes, and what is their their main functional activity?
Tuercas viejas
 

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