No service history on car. Would this put you off buying?

[RubynRita]

DS, 20 has money saved and wants to buy his first car. He asked me to come with him to look at one he liked.
It was from a well known large car dealer.
The car was just over 3 years old and the cost was £9800, so quite a bit of money.
It had a few scratches but seemed to drive ok on the test drive.

Everything was looking good until we asked about its service history. The sales man said it hadn't come with a book/service history and they had given a new book which had their own service stamp.
The salesman said the missing service log wasn't a big deal as they had spent £400 on any necessary service maintenance/repairs. The car is out of manufacturer's warranty.

Would this be a reason to walk away or would you be satisfied knowing the dealer had made any necessary repairs?

For that age, no it wouldn’t put me off but others may have better advice.

It would put me off, especially as it’s also outside manufacturing warranty , it may never have been serviced. How many miles has it done? Did the selling garage do a full service etc expected for the mileage, I would always being wondering what are they hiding.

What’s the mileage and how many owners has it had? The previous owner’s name and address will be on the V5 document which the dealer will have. You or the dealer could contact the previous owner and ask where it’s been serviced and when and then contact the servicing garage for details of its history. If the dealer doesn’t cooperate, I’d be a bit suspicious.

Also ask what warranty the dealership offers on the car. This needs to be their own warranty not a 3rd party warranty which would cost you and is practically worthless. For peace of mind, you can get the AA or RAC to do an independent inspection of the car, which costs approx £100.

Out of interest, what model car is it?

I should have mentioned it has 35,500 miles on the clock and is due for MOT in February 2026.
It was actually the manager who got involved in the conversation that said the missing service book wasn't a big deal as they had inspected the car and did £400 work. There were no details of the work carried out just the dealer's stamp.
Edited to say it's a Vauxhall Corsa 1.2L with one owner. The only warranty they offered was one we would have to pay for ourselves. £459 for 1 year, £679 2 years.

Sounds like they are hiding something. It's a no from me.

Yup.... Hard agree. DEFINITELY one to avoid. Whereisthesun99 has it. I would add that £400 of repairs at dealer prices means that they have probably just changed the oil, coolant and filter (£200), 1 new tyre (£100) and gave it a valet (£100.)

Also £10k is A LOT.... for a first car. It really is. What type of car is it? Whats the engine size? Whats the mileage? Whats the insurance group?

Yes, £400 could be any number of bits and pieces needing doing at £100 an hour labour + VAT. Saying it’s not a big deal makes it likely to be a big deal IMO.

Also note that they didn’t bother to do anything about the scratches, which would be an easy job for them.

The other indicator to look up as well as a service history would be the MOT history, but the first MOT will be at 3 years, so there will be only one to see. You can look it up online to see for advisory’s

https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

For some vehicles the service history can be found online, either through the manufacturers website or other sites at a cost, so it could be possible to track down.

The lack of the history book could mean that it was not serviced, but the original warranty would have been affected if not serviced so for a 3 year old car it would have been expected to have been done while the warranty was in place - or a lack of maintenance !

There is a degree of price negotiation for the lack of a history

You are all fantastic. Thank you all so much for your advice.
I've checked and the car hasn't been MOTd. It was due in February 2025 and is now overdue meaning we couldn't get insurance on it.

Mumsnet to the rescue.

No MOT? That should knock about £9k off the price! Could be a bargain. :-)

Sorry I have to make a correction. We are in N.I and here a car's first MOT is 4 years, not 3 like in GB. So I think, I hope checker made a mistake.

There is nothing stop you getting insurance of a car without an MOT. The no MOT invalidates insurance thing is an urban myth.

In any case it would have an MOT when you picked it up. The garage are probably planning to put a fresh MOT on it when they have a buyer.

We got a newish car that was a year old and was told they no longer go service books and we could buy if we wanted but it’s all electronic now days.

is there any chance it’s on an electronic system?

It's three years old, it has some scratches, there's no service history... this should be screaming "Avoid!" at you!

I'd also avoid. For a car of 3 years old not to have a service history would worry me, I'd keep looking. Don't forget it is the sales reps job to get it off the forecourt, its probably a Px car and they want rid of it

@Doris86 I made a correction regarding the MOT. Here in N.I the first MOT is due when the car is 4 years old so it wouldn't be due until 2026.

@Hotandbotheredflower I didn't know about it all being electronic. The manager told me they had put a new service history book in the car as there was none given by the previous owner but he didn't mention it could be recorded electronically.

We decided not to buy the car and have another few cars to view at the weekend.