Buying a car with partial service history

Simmy

Simmy

Simmy

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We're going to test drive a Seat Ibiza FR for the girlfriend tonight. Spec as follows:

2004 Reg
2 Registered Owners
65000 Miles
Full seat service history up until 44,000 miles
£3995

Having looked over the car yesterday it looks tidy. The only issue is that the service booklet has only been stamped up until 44,000 miles back in June 2007. So that's 2.5 years and 20,000miles without any service history (and potentially not being serviced). The garage have said they will give it a service and replace the cambelt as that needs doing too. It also comes with a 12 month "premium" warranty although I'm all too aware that this won't cover the stuff likely to go wrong.

I've got a gut feeling that it's probably worth avoiding but just wondering what other people's thoughts are about buying a car with partial service history.

If it drives well and we service it from now on, these engines should go on for donkeys years.
 
You could ring SEAT and see if the car was known to be serviced by one of their garages, if not you could ring a previous owner and ask them about the history.

It's potentially only missing one service? If the price is good and the car is worth it then get as much off as possible.
If the price isnt any better than an equivalent car with full history then forget it, but another.
 
FSH means jack **** other than improving resale values.

FSH is not a measure of the condition of the vehicle.
 
unless its ultra rare I wouldn't bother tbh - will be a pain to re-sell.

If there are receipts for the servicing in the 2.5 years, just no stamps then it might be ok.
Otherwise its not worth the risk that its just been abused for that time by the second owner...
 
If it's not been serviced there is a good chance the car hasn't been as well looked after as it could have been. Anyone who looks after their car makes sure its serviced and stamped.
 
I sold my Fiesta with 60k on it when its last stamp was at 30k. All servicing since was done by me, buyer didn't seem to mind too much (though he understandably used it as a haggling point) as I pointed out that I am less likely to put the wrong oil in, under / overfill anything, fail to replace screws, etc...
 
You can buy a warranty from another company for about £400 for the year.
If you really like the car you might as well look into getting a warranty elsewhere.
 
LiE said:
If it's not been serviced there is a good chance the car hasn't been as well looked after as it could have been. Anyone who looks after their car makes sure its serviced and stamped.
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That's not true, my S2000 hasn't had its last 2 services, but I knew what needed doing, so it was done by myself.

The next service requires valve clearances to be checked though so it'll be going to a dealer for that.
 
if its been self serviced though I'd want proof of parts purchase at the very least.

General condition is very easy for a garage to clean up, how its been treated mechanically (ie any oil changes in 20k) is near on impossible to gauge by inspection...
 
My point was that someone who doesn't service their car, tends not to look after it as well as they should do. You said you service your car yourself.
 
amigafan2003 said:
FSH is not a measure of the condition of the vehicle.
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FSH is an indication of the level of opinion the owner held of the vehicle and how much it was worth keeping it up to scratch. It is not flawless nor is it infallible, but it's an important indicator.

It can also be used to demonstrate the mileage is legitimate.

This particular car has covered only 20k miles in 3.5 years (Not 2.5 years!) despite being an economical diesel. How interesting. This one appears to have been neglected ever since the warranty expired.
 
Should have mentioned it's a 150bhp petrol version. Good spot on my maths fail - 3.5 years is a bit concerning :\

There are no receipts since the last service in 2007. The car is around £1000 less than any other garage selling them though. Let's see what the test drive brings.
 
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TBH, even if they skipped one service then its unlikely to harm the car too much. Modern oils last a lot better than they did years ago, modern filters also last longer. All this to improve service intevals. A lot depends on the last service that was done. If it were top quality oil and OE filter thats a lot better than Supermarket grade gunk and some Chinese or Mexican "equivalant" filter. Some service work by disreputable garages is no better than no service...

So check the oil, see how it looks and smells, if the filter is easy to get to have a look see if it looks 2.5 years old or fairly new. Not fool proof methods but will give you a hint.

I personally wouldn't be bothered, I've bought loads of cars over the years with partial or non-existant service history. I service my own. When I had my friendly local garage service the wife's car they never stamped the book. When I asked them too they said "we don't have a stamp" so they in the end used the stamp they stamp thier reciepts "paid" with. So all cars serviced by them won't have a provable FSH, and they do a good job, probably better than some main dealers do...

So its not as cut and dried as some may have you think.

I also know that in the trade some cars have faked FSH.
 
Check the MOT history online and assuming that they are garages that did the MOT, you could ring them and see if they've serviced it at the same time. I did this with my mondeo and a car that had lost its service book actually had been owned by a lease company who kindly sent me all of their service history for the car including invoices until its first MOT, at which point the MOT check site said that it had visited 3 different ford dealers for it's MOT who had coincidentally serviced it too. The first garage produced a duplicate book and i sent it to all the others who stamped it up and I now have FFSH with book and invoices.
 
Walk away IMO.

Self servicing is fine and it is OK saying that the buyer of your car was ok with it but that is the difference when selling your car privately.

The guy who I bought my one from (co-owner of his own garage) showed me the service book which was empty bar two dealer stamps, he then pulled out a record of everything that was done to the car including receipts etc. From that and the general condition of the car I made a judgement call and went for it.

Now if it had been traded in and I was buying it from a dealer I wouldn't have touched it.

Could it be on long life servicing? With 20k intervals?
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Even more reason to walk away. These engines sludge up a treat when driven short distances with in frequent oil changes. Max it should have gone is 18 months on long life IIRC.
 
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We went for a test drive in the car earlier and it drives fine. Biggest concerns really are no old MOTs and no service history past 44,000 miles. The price has taken this into account though considering similar cars from other garages with service history which cost around £1k more.

Found out the warranty is provided by Motorplan and it seems to include a large majority of items - whether they honour this when it's needed is another issue though.

My gut is saying to walk away :\
 
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Simmy said:
We went for a test drive in the car earlier and it drives fine. Biggest concerns really are no old MOTs and no service history past 44,000 miles. The price has taken this into account though considering similar cars from other garages with service history which cost around £1k more.

My gut is saying to walk away :\
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walk away then matey first impressions and all that
 
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