Service Records??

MT2thDOC · 06-24-2014, 08:31 AM

Recently called a dealership about a Boxster for sale. When talking with the sales-rep, I asked about the service records for the car. I was told, "We have the records, but they belong to the previous owners(s). We can't (won't) give you the records". Has anyone run into this before? I think they must have something to hide!!!!

pc100porsche · pc100porsche's Garage

Sounds strange ....

JFP in PA · 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MT2thDOC

Recently called a dealership about a Boxster for sale. When talking with the sales-rep, I asked about the service records for the car. I was told, "We have the records, but they belong to the previous owners(s). We can't (won't) give you the records". Has anyone run into this before? I think they must have something to hide!!!!

Actually, quite common. With continued expansion of regulations on personal privacy, dealers now even have to keep any paperwork associated with the car in a locked and secured area, with limited access even to dealership employee's.

Even indies are not exempt from this, my lawyers told me several years ago that all service records are the property of the car owner, not the shop, and we should never share anything with a third party. In fact, if the current owner wants someone to see the records, we run a copy and send it to the owner only after we get either an email or written request for them. Then, if he wants to share them, he can freely do so, but we are not involved and have proof that the owner requested the records and that we sent them to him.

Unfortunately, lawyers run the world............

tonythetarga · 06-24-2014, 09:42 AM

Probably protecting previous owners identity. I'd ask for a service summary w/o identifying the owner.

MT2thDOC · 06-24-2014, 09:45 AM

JFP: OK, I get the "privacy" thing. Just let the dealer remove the name, address or other info from the records. Should be easy enough. Hell, if I have a vin, I can find out who the owners were in about 10 sec. flat! Registration recs are easy! I always felt the records "belong" to the vehicle! Go ahead and scrub the personal info for legal reasons, but let me have the records! This killed the deal for me.

JFP in PA · 06-24-2014, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MT2thDOC

JFP: OK, I get the "privacy" thing. Just let the dealer remove the name, address or other info from the records. Should be easy enough. Hell, if I have a vin, I can find out who the owners were in about 10 sec. flat! Registration recs are easy! I always felt the records "belong" to the vehicle! Go ahead and scrub the personal info for legal reasons, but let me have the records! This killed the deal for me.

Dealerships are always going to lean towards being safe, so rather than developing redacted versions of the records, they tend to say nothing. And as a legal point, the records belong to the owner who paid for them, not the car. This is why we always encourage owners to keep their paper records in order, they may be irreplaceable down the road.

MT2thDOC · 06-24-2014, 01:36 PM

JFP: Thanks for the info. I would think if you are going to ask top dollar for a "well maintained" Porsche, most "Porsche guys" are going to want to at least take a look. Never checked my owners manual, but I remember in the day that dealers would "stamp" routine checks (and oil changes) in the book that the work had been done. I'll have to pull mine to check if Porsche does this. Thanks again for the info!

bcrdukes · 02:17 PM

It's quite common that the dealership will withhold records.

My experience includes anywhere from Toyota, Honda, to BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche. I would much prefer to buy a car from an owner who has paper service records on hand as opposed to one who does not.

Not to say that the one that doesn't have service records is selling a bad car, but what if the next guy we sell the car to is as discerning as us? It can be a deal breaker for some! Case in point - I found a Lexus IS250 in manual transmission. The dealership would not let me see what work has been done to the car but kept assuring me the car is in great shape and maintenance is up to date.

While Lexus is known for their reliability, I had to decline the sale because there were no included service records from the previous owner, and despite the vehicle allegedly being dealer-maintained. It was just a chance I didn't want to take, especially the opportunity chance if and when I sell the car in the future. There will always be guys like us who want it all!

JFP in PA · 06-24-2014, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MT2thDOC

JFP: Thanks for the info. I would think if you are going to ask top dollar for a "well maintained" Porsche, most "Porsche guys" are going to want to at least take a look. Never checked my owners manual, but I remember in the day that dealers would "stamp" routine checks (and oil changes) in the book that the work had been done. I'll have to pull mine to check if Porsche does this. Thanks again for the info!

Your best bet is to buy a three ring binder when you get the car, and put the paper copies of the service work order in the binder in order of occurrence. When you go to sell the car, you have a complete and easy to follow full service record. A second choice would be a file folder, and lastly scanned copies of the paper records.

Hunt3R · Hunt3R's Garage

I recently bought a 997S from Porsche of Orlando and the car had been originally sold and always serviced there so they printed out the full service history and showed it to me but after I bought the car they were a little reluctant to give them to me because the previous owner's name and address were on all of them, even though they had already scratched over all of that with a black marker. But my sales guy said hold on a minute and he went in his office and cut out the upper left corner of every page so that the previous owner's info was gone and I still had the service done, mileage, date, etc and he gave me the whole stack with no issues after that.

johnsjmc · 06-25-2014, 01:16 PM

I bought a 993 from New York city about 4 yrs ago. On a guess I called the Manhatten Porsche dealer. I spoke to the service mgr. He told me the records were private and he couldn,t give me a copy. BUT he was willing to read off all the services performed during the last 4 or 5 yrs .yrs with dates and miles and what was done. He also listed all warranty claims made to that vin during another owners period.
Other than lots of oil changes the only thg that stood out was the steering rack was replaced at about 85k.