No service history

Not related to the OP's question but I recently drove a 2013 Mondeo 2 litre diesel with the auto box (so I assume same auto box) and it was not nice at all. Generally fine for driving sedately, but any sort of time where you want decent gear shifting (e.g. pulling onto a roundabout that's semi busy) and it was really hesitant. Plus it struggled with hills. And I live in Essex. There's barely any slopes around me I'd call a hill...

I'd not driven an auto before so my complaint could be normal for autos, but thought I'd put it out there!
 
My Focus had no service history, also no sat nav (But had the buttons for it on the radio)

I rang rang the dealerships in the general area where the car had been registered, also where the last MOT was done, and found it had full (3 stamps) service history. Ford garage stamped up a book and sent me it.

I then bought an SD card and the Sat nav worked :)

May be worth researching yourself a bit first if you like the car, they may of just lost it
 
would it matter so much if the service history was missing (it has the last service paperwork from jan 2016) if down the line I sold it, it would be p/x at a dealer anyway
 
Deuteronomy said:
would it matter so much if the service history was missing (it has the last service paperwork from jan 2016) if down the line I sold it, it would be p/x at a dealer anyway
Click to expand...

Well, without it, you don't know what work has been done, whether its ever had any parts changed, has it had things changed in line with the manufactures recommendations things like that. You don't want to buy it then have to change the belts, pump etc.

The number of owners would put me off too.
 
Deuteronomy said:
Went and test drove a nice Mondeo estate titanium x sport powershift, good price and spec. Good condition mot history ok.
The dealer could not produce the full service history. It only had the last service invoice. Had 4 previous owners too.
It was really difficult to walk away - my parents pretty much frogmarched me out of their office after accusing the dealer of being dishonest. It is a so much of a deal breaker?, they already offered me 2k p/x for my civic before we started haggling.

http://www.jwmotorsportltd.com/used-FORD-MONDEO-MANSFIELD-Nottinghamshire-982979

Trying to find a non diesel rapid-ish estate for the same price is pretty tough.
Click to expand...

Yes it's a deal breaker. My Mondeo 2.5T didn't have a full service history and look what happened. I assumed someone owning a car with an engine like that would take care of it. I was very wrong.

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=30033744&postcount=68
 
Daaaavvveee said:
My Focus had no service history, also no sat nav (But had the buttons for it on the radio)

I rang rang the dealerships in the general area where the car had been registered, also where the last MOT was done, and found it had full (3 stamps) service history. Ford garage stamped up a book and sent me it.

I then bought an SD card and the Sat nav worked :)

May be worth researching yourself a bit first if you like the car, they may of just lost it
Click to expand...
My RX8 was very much the same..

There was no service history with it at all when I bought it and when I went to my local Mazda garage to buy some parts for it they entered the REG plate or chassis number and it had a complete full service history and some recalls done with them on there computer..:)
 
Last edited:
[TW]Fox;30145201 said:
If this is true it means it's had a succession of owners unable or unwilling to do basic research before buying a car, or even read simple data.

No thanks.
Click to expand...

Not everyone buys a car like you Fox ;)
 
Personally no history wouldn't put me off.

However I would expect a discount, as a minimum the cost of a major service and a decent dealer warranty.

I wouldn't go trawling around to find the history, that's the sellers job IMHO.
 
Out of interest, why did you parents call the salesman dishonest? What did he do?

And yes, you should definitely not pay £7000 for a 6 year old Mondeo with no service history. If you can find out where it has been MOT'd, you could try calling them first to see if the owners had it serviced at the same time. You could also try calling the dealers in your area to see if they have a record of it being in. If so, then great, but I would seriously, seriously not buy a car without service history unless it was exceptionally cheap.
 
O/T

Sold my Corsa recently, the lad who bought it phoned up the following night bleating that his insurance had gone up by £350 for the remainder of his policy, which was three months!

You'd have thought insurance would be the first thing he'd have checked before buying it, he'd bothered to check its MOT history...

Wanted a refund! - didn't get one.
 
Scania said:
O/T

Sold my Corsa recently, the lad who bought it phoned up the following night bleating that his insurance had gone up by £350 for the remainder of his policy, which was three months!

You'd have thought insurance would be the first thing he'd have checked before buying it, he'd bothered to check its MOT history...

Wanted a refund! - didn't get one.
Click to expand...

Ouch that's a bit harsh from the insurance company!

when I swapped the Z4 for the GTR my insurance for the remaining 10 months went up a whopping £100 including admin fees....
 
Mrjobby said:
No service history means it had its **** clocked of when it had its first MOT.

If your happy with that then buy it.
Click to expand...

Yeah that was my first thought.

65k miles on a 6 year old diesel mile muncher.... yeah looks suspect with the lack of service history.
 
[TW]Fox;30148118 said:
What by checking that you can afford to put fuel in it? What an outrageously sad thing to do before buying a car.
Click to expand...

Now you're just putting words in my mouth... I never said it was a sad thing to do, I just said some people dont analyse potential car purchases the way you may do...
 
dale1uk said:
TBH I'd be more put off by that engine than anything else. You say you want a rapid-ish petrol estate, but even though it's got 200bhp the book 0-60 is 8.2s and according to the honest john real mpg page (http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/ford/mondeo-iv-estate-2007) it only achieves an average of 27mpg. So it's neither that quick or very economical.
Click to expand...

You've just judged it by a couple of rather meaningless figures. The 0-60 time is hampered by its off-the-line performance which is blunted by the gearing, weight, and FWDness, which makes it appear slower than it is. It's a bit of a pointless performance metric really.

And as for the 'real MPG'... Great, an average doing what?

40mpg on the motorway and mid-20s in normal urban driving isn't exactly uneconomical. I could tell you that my current average is 23mpg, which sounds shocking until I tell you that it's a 5.5 mile commute, 50% of the commute time being spent in heavily congested stop-start traffic.



Dr Who said:
Yeah that was my first thought.

65k miles on a 6 year old diesel mile muncher.... yeah looks suspect with the lack of service history.
Click to expand...

It's not a diesel.

The mileage is believable tbh.
 
Richie said:
Now you're just putting words in my mouth... I never said it was a sad thing to do, I just said some people dont analyse potential car purchases the way you may do...
Click to expand...

The implication is fairly clear - I put an excessive amount of time into picking the correct and your point is that not everyone does. Which is true, however the idea that checking something as basic as 'can i even afford to run this car' is on the same level as the sort of detail I go into is ridiculous.

I stand by my point - a car owned by a string of people who lack the ability to ask themselves that simple question is not a car that it sounds great to rush into buying :D
 
Not to mention that a car is likely the second most expensive thing you purchase (after a house). So it shouldn't ever be an impulse buy.

Granted, if you're only splashing a grand on one, then spending 5 mins on AT is probably justified.
 
The only car I've ever bought with a full service history was easily the dodgiest so it isn't the be all and end all, surely if there was something to hide in the history, they would just remove that piece. And my current car has some handwritten receipts for services in the history file, which would be easy to fabricate if someone felt the need.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom