"Full Service History"

[Kenai]

See i've only ever seen Partial Service History used when a car is actually missing a service (or evidence of a service) not just because it was serviced 3,000 miles or 2 months too late according to the schedule.

I can't imagine too many people advertise their cars that may have had one late service as only having partial history.

 

[PMKeates]

I can't imagine too many people advertise their cars that may have had one late service as only having partial history.

Exactly. This is why all these random terms are sort of meaningless. What's important is what actual service history the car has, and this can only be elicited by asking detailed questions or checking the records yourself.

 

[Em3bbs]

'Full service history' actually means completely nothing. It's a few words used by various people to mean different things. There are cars with full dealer service history just labelled 'FSH' and cars with patchy independent history that are being peddled as 'FSH'.

Exactly. It's only when you see for example FBMWSH that you should then expect a full BMW dealer service history. But even then I would always check.

 

[Kenai]

Exactly. This is why all these random terms are sort of meaningless. What's important is what actual service history the car has, and this can only be elicited by asking detailed questions or checking the records yourself.

Indeed, hence my initial stance:

I would generally take FSH to mean it has the full history of it's servicing, as opposed to only partial records.

Assuming anything more than that is just asking for trouble IMO.

 

[Jono8]

I wouldnt have thought any of the service histories that you have listed in those three examples would cause you much promblems, especially for this sort of car.

The only downside is your feeling about it, and also re-sale value or ease of selling it on.

If you are planning on keeping it for years and years then i wouldnt worry about it so much.

if there are plenty for sale though, i would probably hold out on one that had a proper full service history.

 

[Maz]

When listing cars, anything with a history that's tracable from new and without gaps in terms of mileage I would list as full history regardless of whether it's been maintained to schedule in terms of time - as I believe the mileage between services are more important unless a car does like really low mileage then I'd expect it to be serviced every 2 years or so.

Very few used cars come to me that have been maintained on the dot to the exact time/mileage recommendation for servicing beyond the initial warranty period.

 

[Meridian]

All things being equal I'd take the 2nd car personally.

My thoughts. I know the theory is "every x miles or y months, whichever is sooner", but miles are the bit that matters. My care does about 6k miles a year, so serving at 10k intervals is about every twenty months. I can't see any problem. But I can see a big problem with someone doing 15k miles a year and only serving every twelve months.


M

 

[saitrix]

Though it would have at least been doing motorway miles in that time, if the mk3 engine is anything like the mk1/2 then I bet it is fine, but at the end of the day it will be a gamble.