service history missing

[vaibhavk]

I would except front bumper,bonnet due to stone chips etc but i can't see any sence in having both quarters and doors done only thing that springs to mind is that it may have been keyed buy some jealous git what colour is it ? some colours are very hard to match .
It could be coincidence but both rear quarters and the knocking from the rear

Unless you can negotiate a big discount, I would be inclined to walk away.

It may sound odd, but personally I would always prefer to buy a car with paint damage - or even dents - over buying a car that had a full or partial respray.

If you buy a car still with its original paintwork, you know what the car looks like before any remedial work is done. With a resprayed car, it is impossible to assess the scale of the original damage, the scale of the repair, or the quality of the work. And you won't have a warranty for the repair, either.

I would suggest walking away from this car.

Thanks, folks. Decision made. NOT BUYING this one.

I forgot to mention that the seller was livid after the inspection when told about these issues. He admitted to the mechanic that the rear quarter had a dent when he bought it and had it fixed as who would buy a dented car. I suspect he bought a cosmetically abused car for dirt cheap at the auction and spent a grand or so getting it all nicely dressed up. After the inspection, he asked me to decide then and there else he wouldn't sell it to me even if I paid 100 grand later. I sought time until tomorrow and I now see he has raised the price on AutoTrader.

Definitely walking away with the following lessons:

1). If not a motorhead, buy a pre-purchase inspection when spending that kind of money
2). MB Approved Used CAN'T be blindly trusted --> to be honest, this disappointed me more than anything else as this was my safe Plan B
3). Ring up dealers, companies, garages that you see in any printed service history but not in DSB --> more often than not most of them will happily verify the service history (if they have a record of it) and, if produced with V5C, can also email the history to you
4). Always check with the amazing people on this forum

 

[Cmonyoureds]

Sounds like you had a narrow escape mate. Something better will come up, good luck with the search.

 

[raspy]

Thanks, folks. Decision made. NOT BUYING this one.

I forgot to mention that the seller was livid after the inspection when told about these issues. He admitted to the mechanic that the rear quarter had a dent when he bought it and had it fixed as who would buy a dented car. I suspect he bought a cosmetically abused car for dirt cheap at the auction and spent a grand or so getting it all nicely dressed up. After the inspection, he asked me to decide then and there else he wouldn't sell it to me even if I paid 100 grand later. I sought time until tomorrow and I now see he has raised the price on AutoTrader.

Definitely walking away with the following lessons:

1). If not a motorhead, buy a pre-purchase inspection when spending that kind of money
2). MB Approved Used CAN'T be blindly trusted --> to be honest, this disappointed me more than anything else as this was my safe Plan B
3). Ring up dealers, companies, garages that you see in any printed service history but not in DSB --> more often than not most of them will happily verify the service history (if they have a record of it) and, if produced with V5C, can also email the history to you
4). Always check with the amazing people on this forum

@vaibhavk Good call. It sounds to me like perhaps you are over thinking here and things are unnecessarily stressful for you during your search. At the end of the day, buying a used car involves a level of risk (which is why some choose to get a brand new car even if it's something ordinary that just gets chopped in every 3 years on pcp or lease) - Now, even if you found the most immaculate used MB, did lots of due diligence on service history, got an inspection, and thought, this car is in amazing condition right now, and you buy it, you could find that something expensive goes wrong 1 week after buying it, simply down to chance because cars are full of moving parts and they can go wrong at any time. I'm not judging you btw, and I want you to get a car you're happy with with as minimum stress as possible.

The other thing to note is that due to a number of factors, used car prices are actually rising (my 2015 C class has gone up £1,200 since the start of 2021), and some say are set to keep rising for several more months (which is really bizarre but it's happening) as there continues to be a shortage of used cars, at a number of price levels. It's a great time to be a seller, but not a fun time to be a buyer. Hence, you may be forced to widen your search (geographically) in order to find a car and a seller that you can trust and to consider that finding the right car for you might take longer than it would in previous years, because of this current shortage of used cars coming onto the market.

 

[Spider10]

Glad you decided to walk as you say not our call you will find 1

 

[Fastcar155]

Hi , why do people buy cars with little or no service history ?

Would also suggest that the these cars when new are thrashed town inch of their life.

I worked for a company that had a large of VW cars , cars taken of the delivery transporter and run flat out !

The best cars to buy in general are hire cars !

 

[A.J.]

Hi , why do people buy cars with little or no service history ?

Would also suggest that the these cars when new are thrashed town inch of their life.

I worked for a company that had a large of VW cars , cars taken of the delivery transporter and run flat out !

The best cars to buy in general are hire cars !

I don't consider hire cars are the best cars to buy at all, assuming you are talking about daily rental cars. They would have been thrashed relentlessly by many drivers good and bad.

A far better bet would be an ex contract hire car as they generally, hopefully, would have been regularly serviced and repaired. I would be very careful about a privately owned car as generally it would be serviced and repaired as economically as they can get away with.

 

[markjay]

Purchased C220d (2017 model)cabriolet from MB dealer, at hand over said can not give me any paper work and will email me, now have an email with 1 service showing - A service done the day before I picked car up.

Questioned sales rep and said that's all service dept gave him, yet hes saying it has full service history car has done 39K miles, so would assume it has had more than just this one service.

Cant log onto Mercedes me as they still not done change of keeper online with DVLA,

Does this seem a bit strange or is there a way I can get/check the service history, it is a 1 owner car, again I've got seen the log book as only got the green slip to tax it.
MOT was emailed to me

1. You can walk into any MB dealer with the V5C/2 new keeper supplement and a photo ID and they will print-out the full service history for you.

2. I wouldn't rely on access to the DSB via Mercedes me. It used to show the car's full service history, but this has recently changed and it is now showing only the services done since I registered the car with Mercedes me. The print-out that I get from the MB dealer every year when the car is bring serviced does show the full service history including services carried-out under previous ownership, though.

3. It's paramount that you get the service history... if it turns-out that the car was serviced outside of the MB dealer network and no proof of servicing can be obtained, you'll take a hit on price come resell time.

4. Some members here have access to the DSB and may be willing to help if they chance upon this thread.

Good luck.

 

[markjay]

I don't consider hire cars are the best cars to buy at all, assuming you are talking about daily rental cars. They would have been thrashed relentlessly by many drivers good and bad.

A far better bet would be an ex contract hire car as they generally, hopefully, would have been regularly serviced and repaired. I would be very careful about a privately owned car as generally it would be serviced and repaired as economically as they can get away with.

The issue is that it very difficult to tell who was the first user and how the car was being used and driven when new.

In most cases the previous owner will simply show as 'Mercedes Benz Fleet Management' or any other bank of finance provider.

The salesperson will then tell you it was the CEO'S private car, or an ex-demonstrator, or a press car, or whatever other porkies they can think of, while the reality is that they don't have a clue where the car was beforehand.

Ex-lease cars are usually either sorted centrally at MB, or auctioned by the finance provider and then purchased by MB dealers.

With privately owned cars, the salesperson might know the previous owner, especially if they sold them a new car when the old car was traded-in. But with ex-lease cars there's just no telling where the car has been.

And, add to that the fact that recently you no longer get to see the name of the previous owner......

So it can be very difficult to know how the car actually started its life.

Nothing wrong with ex-lease cars, mind. Both my previous W203 and my current W204 are 'ex-lease', and fine cars they are. But I am not speculating on who leased them when new... they were both in spectacular condition when I bought them, and that's all that matters to me.

 

[A.J.]

The issue is that it very difficult to tell who was the first user and how the car was being used and driven when new.

In most cases the previous owner will simply show as 'Mercedes Benz Fleet Management' or any other bank of finance provider.

The salesperson will then tell you it was the CEO'S private car, or an ex-demonstrator, or a press car, or whatever other porkies they can think of, while the reality is that they don't have a clue where the car was beforehand.

Ex-lease cars are usually either sorted centrally at MB, or auctioned by the finance provider and then purchased by MB dealers.

With privately owned cars, the salesperson might know the previous owner, especially if they sold them a new car when the old car was traded-in. But with ex-lease cars there's just no telling where the car has been.

And, add to that the fact that recently you no longer get to see the name of the previous owner......

So it can be very difficult to know how the car actually started its life.

Nothing wrong with ex-lease cars, mind. Both my previous W203 and my current W204 are 'ex-lease', and fine cars they are. But I am not speculating on who leased them when new... they were both in spectacular condition when I bought them, and that's all that matters to me.

Hi Mark, my comments were made from experience. I spent 42 years of my life as Fleet disposals Manager with the UK's third largest Contract Hire Co. Lessee's were contractually obliged to keep he car properly maintained at a cost that was included in the rental so there was no excuse for it not to be properly maintained.

On the very rare occasion when a vehicle was returned un-maintained or poorly maintained as per their contract they would receive an invoice for the shortfall in the expected disposal income. This was a pretty rare occasion as they would have paid for the servicing in their contract rentals and would be foolish not to keep the vehicle properly maintained.

 

[Fastcar155]

I don't consider hire cars are the best cars to buy at all, assuming you are talking about daily rental cars. They would have been thrashed relentlessly by many drivers good and bad.

A far better bet would be an ex contract hire car as they generally, hopefully, would have been regularly serviced and repaired. I would be very careful about a privately owned car as generally it would be serviced and repaired as economically as they can get away with.

Hi AJ , from my motor trade experience every hire car is checked to make sure the car is in the same condition it went out in.Oil levels checked when off hire etc etc.You may have had different experience from me but I have purchased an ex hire car that have behave impeccably up to over 200,000 miles (Volvo V90).

I suppose all cars are a risk / new / second hand but it's the luck of the draw.

I agree totally about private owners of new cars , complain about every thing and when the warranty runs out down to the cheapest garage they can find.

 

[markjay]

Hi Mark, my comments were made from experience. I spent 42 years of my life as Fleet disposals Manager with the UK's third largest Contract Hire Co. Lessee's were contractually obliged to keep he car properly maintained at a cost that was included in the rental so there was no excuse for it not to be properly maintained.

On the very rare occasion when a vehicle was returned un-maintained or poorly maintained as per their contract they would receive an invoice for the shortfall in the expected disposal income. This was a pretty rare occasion as they would have paid for the servicing in their contract rentals and would be foolish not to keep the vehicle properly maintained.

I wasn't disagreeing with your post, my comment was to highlight that as a second-hand car buyer you have very little information regarding how a car actually started its life when the first registered keeper is a finance provider (apart from the stories that the salesperson tells). This does not mean that the cars were badly treated.

And, as I said, I bought two ex-lease MB cars myself and they were both well-maintained (full MB service history) and in very good ccondition.

 

[Cmonyoureds]

Hi AJ , from my motor trade experience every hire car is checked to make sure the car is in the same condition it went out in.Oil levels checked when off hire etc etc.You may have had different experience from me but I have purchased an ex hire car that have behave impeccably up to over 200,000 miles (Volvo V90).

I suppose all cars are a risk / new / second hand but it's the luck of the draw.

I agree totally about private owners of new cars , complain about every thing and when the warranty runs out down to the cheapest garage they can find.

That bottom paragraph is bit of a generalisation is it not? There are plenty private owners out there who take pride in their vehicles, especially when it comes to the more expensive marques. There’s one thing for sure, hire cars will get a quick once over by someone on minimum wage when being washed, they won’t be washed using the 2 bucket method, the paintwork will never have been polished and unless you like the look of swirl marks will probably need a paint correction.