Is a car's "service history" a waste of money?

vikingaero

Service history is important in the first few years. Not only for warranty but goodwill from dealers and manufacturers. I certainly wouldn't buy a car under 3 years old without a service history. As the car gets older condition is more important than a service history.

Have you seen the buckets-o-carp that pass for cars in America? Either you have the money to run a roadworthy vehicle or you get public transport. I would rather there be a MOT system (and all it's failings) than have risk to peoples lives and property because someone is too tight to rectify their brakes or bald tyres. Witness the amount of appalling cars in Eire before they introduced the MOT in the early noughties.

And there are hundreds of thousands of cars in the UK that have mileages well over 100k.

iolanthe07

When I lived in California it was the norm to have an oil change every 3000 miles (5000 at the most). In the nineties this cost around $15 (£10) at Walmarts. Perhaps we don't change our oil often enough; engines there do seem to last a long time, and a quarter of a million miles is not that unusual.

Lirin

It's NCT in Ireland. From what I've seen it's not particularly good- I've seen cars in extremely poor condition pass, when I'd be reasonably sure they wouldn't have in my MOT centre.

Saying that, last MOT I had the car came out worse than when it went in as the idiot taking it decided to jack the car up on it's skirts....

MOT is only as good as the tester and the efforts of the car owners.

Inactive

I dread to think how bad some cars would be without an annual MOT, for some it is the only time they get any attention.

Hammyman

gck303 wrote: »

So my question is:

Is a car's 'service history' a waste of money, and just there to scare us into paying 200+ GBP every year for work that is unnecessary?

No. Firstly, I have never paid anywhere near £200 even for the most expensive service on my Mondeo.

Secondly, I bought my car mostly because of the fully stamped service book. There are hundreds of thousands of Mondeos so there's no need to go buy one without a service history.

If servicing is a waste of money, how come my car has over 146,000 miles on the clock?

And, and you cannot deny it, having lived in the USA you'll have no doubt come across the absolute sheds there are on the road which would even look out of place in a UK scrapyard. So yes, the MOT is worth a toss. Sure in the USA you'll get your brake pads checked when you go for a "lube job" but they won't tell you about the worn bushes, worn ball joints etc because they're usually shelf stackers from the local 7-11 who've been promoted to unscrewing oil filters, shoving a tube in the engine and pressing a button and the first you're likely to know about a serious safety fault is when the part fails.

If anyone wants to know how bad it can get in America and what wrecks are allowed on the road, one only has to watch MTV's "Pimp my ride". Watch a few episodes of that and you'll be in no doubt the MOT is a good thing.

Hammyman

iolanthe07 wrote: »

When I lived in California it was the norm to have an oil change every 3000 miles (5000 at the most). In the nineties this cost around $15 (£10) at Walmarts. Perhaps we don't change our oil often enough; engines there do seem to last a long time, and a quarter of a million miles is not that unusual.

My car is on 146,000 miles and has 12500 oil change intervals. I've driven lorries on over 1,000,000km on 60,000km oil change intervals.

Sorry but in America, they're still changing oil like it was the low quality stuff pre 1990's. In addition, the build quality of your average american donk is horrific so they need to change the oil all the time to remove the swarf in the engine. Over in the rest of the world, the quality of oil and additives has improved immensely and manufacturing tolerances are far tighter both resulting in longer oil change intervals.

Inactive

Hammyman wrote: »

My car is on 146,000 miles and has 12500 oil change intervals. I've driven lorries on over 1,000,000km on 60,000km oil change intervals.

Sorry but in America, they're still changing oil like it was the low quality stuff pre 1990's. In addition, the build quality of your average american donk is horrific so they need to change the oil all the time to remove the swarf in the engine. Over in the rest of the world, the quality of oil and additives has improved immensely and manufacturing tolerances are far tighter both resulting in longer oil change intervals.

Indeed, I was really gobsmacked the first time that I went to America and was given a Pontiac from the hire company, it was so badly built, bits falling off, doors didn't close properly etc. etc, I took it back the next day and insisted on a Toyota Camry, a fantastic car, and a whole different kettle of fish.

Lirin

Agree with the above- there's cars in America I wouldn't go near. I can't stand Pimp My Ride, as you know- a, they're potentially covering up issues which should be sorted out properly with a shiny flame effect paint job, B, the car will look like a shed again as half of the owners don't seem to have the ability to not continually hit things, and C, Who on earth wants rubbish like a working fireplace in their car anyway?

I'd much rather watch Overhaulin'.

MOT's are stricter in NI than England, by far. In my local branch, they would never offer advisories, they will fail. Anything for the retest fee!

But on the other hand, it is what you make of it- it is a vehicle being judged to see if it's in a roadworthy condition at that time. They are good in making people actually pay attention and do necessary repairs, but I know far too many replacing or removing parts for the test only.

life_in_termoil

Through personal experience I would say No it doesnt make the slightest bit of difference if an older car has service history or not
Im going through hell at the moment with a car with full service history and a knackered engine!!! See here

iolanthe07

A friend in the trade told me that stamped service books are becoming inreasingly worthless as crooks can buy forgeries through the internet.