8 replies to this topic

[Chris C]

Hi, I'm currently on the hunt for a new shed. One ad I followed up on had no service history to speak of (one from last Dec but nothing before). The owner explained this as being due to it being a lease vehicle before he got it. Black Horse I thnk he said. When i asked if he'd tried ti track it down through the dealer netwrok he said the lease co did their servicng in house? Not having any experience of lease vehicles my question is does this sound legit? I'll do an MOT check for mileage consistency. Is there anything else I can check? Cheers. Chris

[JG]

You need to find what it was leased for. It may be been leased by a company for use a hire car. I'd avoid that. If it was a company car, i wouldn't have too many qualms about it. The person that gets my company car will be getting a bargain.

[Tfp]

I've bought hundreds of ex lease car from auctions, black horse, lex, lombard etc etc.. Most come with a service history, sometimes just the service book, but quite often you get a full print out of everything spent on the car. The odd one comes with nothing, it's pot luck. But beware!!!! Most of the clocked vehicles that I come across are ex lease vehicles, they are bought from auction at just under three years old and then clocked, because they have not had their first MOT (no vosa record) they are easy prey for the clockers. My advice would be to just find another car to buy that has service history. Bca hold records of the mileages of every car gone through them, only real way to check one out other than ringing the supplying dealer to see if the car went back there for servicing, but I think Bca no longer give out the info anymore, and garages nowdays get so many history calls they now mostly don't want to spend the time on the phone looking it up.

[Tfp]

A good sign that a car may have been clocked is if it's had an owner for a very short time, they have to hide their tracks so they register the car in some ficticious name and sell it. The log book of course has to go to an address, but they normally have the excuse that the person is not known at the address, must have been a lodger at one point. This is of course if they ever get a knock on the door. The system in this country is a joke, the clocking is rife and not policed at all, apart from by someone like myself who buys cars for a living, but I have found trading standards will do nothing unless it's a dealer..

[theotherjonnymac]

Our company cars always used to be serviced in house. For the last three years the deals we are getting on a fully maintained Audi are cheaper than a non maintained Ford so all the servicing is done by a main dealer.

[Chris C]

Thanks all. Think I may give this one a miss now so will carry on the search. Chris

[Tfp]

And just to add, I've seen plenty of forged/made up service histories. It really is "buyer beware" out there in the game of buying used cars. Happy hunting...

[Chris C]

I know, its a wonder we don't all just walk!!! The first I looked at this time round had no book but came with what looked like every receipt since day one. I was more comfortable with that to be frank (but it had other issues). Obviously the ideal will be both if I can find that. I'm generally pretty cautious, it was the particularly the lease explanation that was outside my experience so thanks for the feedback on that. Chris

[Tfp]

I know, its a wonder we don't all just walk!!!

The first I looked at this time round had no book but came with what looked like every receipt since day one. I was more comfortable with that to be frank (but it had other issues). Obviously the ideal will be both if I can find that.

I'm generally pretty cautious, it was the particularly the lease explanation that was outside my experience so thanks for the feedback on that.

Chris

A pile of bills and old MOT certificates are great, I too put much more weight in those rather than a service book that is easy to buy and have a stamp made up for, having both is a real bonus.

I bought quite a few ex water board vehicles over the years, they did the servicing in house so never got much in the way of history, so as before, it's pot luck. Although the auction did warrant the mileages to be correct.

Buying used cars is a worry, I go on my gut feeling a lot of the time once I have seen the car and met the owner.