Buying a car without service history

SteM · 11-06-2016 9:33am #1

We've been looking at a second hand 2010 C3. It's a private sale, the car originally came in from England. The only issue I have with it is there's no service history. The current owners husband runs a garage and services it himself.

Anybody else bought without a service history before. Should I be right to be wary?

Dark sun · 11-06-2016 9:38am

Can be a bit risky, but get a decent mechanic to check it over, look for any proof any receipts e.g parts, oil that have been used and proceed with caution check mileage and compare with nct and a good discount as you are taking a chance.

mickdw · 11-06-2016 9:39am

Why buy it?
Plenty choice of good cars.
If this is a super deal it's probably clocked.
In fact anything in from UK where history is missing is likely clocked.

ads20101 · 11-06-2016 9:41am

Get a professional inspection carried out.

For example the aa offer such a service.

I have no idea what the cost range is though.

mad m · 11-06-2016 9:42am

I bought 2nd car from a dealer, car had one owner and service history had 1 stamp in log book. Dealer said many people go to back to main garage for their first service then get indi garages to service after. Got car checked first though. car going great.

SteM · 11-06-2016 9:52am

Thanks all. I'm thinking of passing to be honest, there's 42k on it which makes me suspicious. It's a nice car though.

mad m · 11-06-2016 10:37am

SteM wrote: »

Thanks all. I'm thinking of passing to be honest, there's 42k on it which makes me suspicious. It's a nice car though.

Always go with that gut feeling..

rebel.ranter · 11-06-2016 1:46pm

As a starting point get the original UK Reg of the car from the VLC (log book). To verify the mileage you may be able to see at least one MOT from this link:

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

That's free. From here you could pester Citroen UK for the service history they may have captured from their franchised dealers, or at least tell you which dealer may have sold/serviced the car. You might get fobbed off but keeping trying.

The right advice however is to move on to the next, less hassle car that is available. Or go to the UK yourself and pick one up, save a bit of money and get something with history.

Atlantic Dawn · 11-06-2016 2:06pm

"The current owners husband runs a garage and services it himself. " sounds like someone selling cars on the side.

SteM · 11-06-2016 4:25pm

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

"The current owners husband runs a garage and services it himself. " sounds like someone selling cars on the side.

Yeah, to be fair he pretty much said as much when I was talking to him yesterday evening.

SteM · 11-06-2016 4:28pm

rebel.ranter wrote: »

.......Or go to the UK yourself and pick one up, save a bit of money and get something with history.

The Revenue's VRT calculator seems to be down. Is there alternative does anyone know?

Atlantic Dawn · 11-06-2016 5:42pm

SteM wrote: »

The Revenue's VRT calculator seems to be down. Is there alternative does anyone know?

No that's it, could be down all weekend too as they normally do updates lasting a full weekend.

Kencollins · 12-06-2016 7:56pm

I would proceed with extreme caution with this car if it has the 1.6 HDI DV6 engine.

These engines are prone to turbo failure caused by oil starvation due to the oil pickup line getting clogged with sludge.

This in invariably caused by missing or late oil services, not draining the oil properly, or using cheap oils instead of the needed C3 fully synthetic oil.

Google DV6TED4 turbo failure and have a read.

Ken

Buying a car without service history

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