Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim B.
So, is it your position that if there were two identical cars that appeared equal in all respects, but one had a full set of books and maintenance records and the other had none at all, it wouldn't matter which one you picked?
While it may be true that past history is no indication of future problems, wouldn't you rather opt for the vehicle, all other things being equal, that had a documented history of repairs and regular maintenance or the one that had none, and may have been a repo, had indifferent owners or passed through 5 differrent auctions?
Cars are advertised "with full main dealer service history" for a reason and used car buyers are exhorted to look for cars with that pedigree. Reassurance and peace of mind do matter.
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Unless your going to sit down and take a few days to not only go through the service records but call and verify that the work was actually done service records just appeal to the emotions of a car buyer. You can have rubber stamps made at any office supply store with anything you want on them. You can also get a group of people to write in the book with different colored pens to "fake" the service records. If this warm fuzzy feeling is worth a couple of thousand to you by all means pay it.
The real truth is there is not one good way to buy a car at all. While service records and maint history and inspection can weed out some cars with obvious problems its not a silver bullet. If they were training a new guy on the spot welder machine on a friday your "pedigree" car that you paid a kings ransom for and had your mechanic inspect for 2 weeks before you bought it can break. There are always exceptions to the rules and with cars there are more exceptions than rules.
Another unfortunate fact is that these "perfect cars" dont really exist in the numbers that people expect them to. Cars are owned and driven by people. Some of those people can barely operate the climate control system let alone know if that noise the car sometimes makes is serious enough to bring to the shop. The likelyhood of you finding an enthusiast owned car in a market flooded with cars is very low as many of these cars are traded in private circles and never make it on the open market. The extra effort and expense that a lot of people go through to find this perfect car easily outweighs any cost benefit they get over buying a car in reasonable condition and spending a little bit of money in normal service.
There are certain cars to shy away from such as a repo but your average car with a little wear and tear and service work needed can become a very depenable and loyal friend with just a bit of investment of time and money.