Sanity check on a car with part service history, would you?

[bwoah]

Looking at a car with part service history. 2015 208 GTi prestige. 90k mileage but in my price bracket they're all high mileage and that doesn't bother me, It's available for 5k. The problem for me is the service history.

2016 - Main dealer 20k mile service
2017 - 35k
2018 - 41k
2019 - 47k
2020 - missing
2021 - missing
2022 - missing
2023 - 83k major service
2024 - nothing in the book but owner claims they have just serviced the car themselves

Would this both you? 36k odd miles done with no service history, the owner has said he has no extra invoices or paperwork to show work on the car. In the last year he's owned it he's done a few things like replaced the front suspension arms, I get the impression he's done all the work himself. 5 previous owners so maybe a GDPR thing, someone binning the documents? These are also the Covid years so not sure what to make of the whole thing.

The car looks clean from the photos, inside and out, will get it inspected, mostly for my own peace of mind than anything, and I'd get another major service done ASAP if I bought it. The price very much reflects the missing history and high mileage. I plan on keeping the car for a year only so I reckon it might be worth it. Have my fun with it and move on.

Is service history really that important, would it bother it? Current owner said he did the service "at work", I imagine he works at a garage, and possibly looked after the car well in his ownership but that's just an assumption on my part. Interested to hear what you think.

[Nickp82]

The older the car gets, the less service history becomes important to me, I prefer to judge what’s in front of me rather than what may or may not have been done years ago.

Obviously I’d rather good history than poor but if I was looking at buying that car and everything else stacked up I wouldn’t dither for a second over the missing stamps.

[BenS94]

It's a Prince engine.

Run a mile.

[Simon_GH]

Nickp82 said:

The older the car gets, the less service history becomes important to me, I prefer to judge what’s in front of me rather than what may or may not have been done years ago.

Obviously I’d rather good history than poor but if I was looking at buying that car and everything else stacked up I wouldn’t dither for a second over the missing stamps.

This.

Considering it was Covid years, the car was doing 12k pa which is above average for time. I’d be surprised if someone would lash out on a major service for a car that had been neglected for 36k and was in a poor state.

My local a garage was doing pick up only and pay by bank transfer during Covid so perfectly possible the paperwork never existed.

Good luck - lovely little cars.

[Torquey]

The missing service history would not bother me on that car.
But I'd be doing a lot of research based on BenS,s comment.

[Simon_GH]

Might be useful: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[DT1975]

bwoah said:

2024 - nothing in the book but owner claims they have just serviced the car themselves

Where did he work as he mentioned he did it at work ? You don't have to answer but its a question I'd ask.

I'd probably go on condition for that age / mileage.

Does it have a dip stick ?.have a look, likewise pop the air filter.

[georgeyboy12345]

BenS94 said:

It's a Prince engine.

Run a mile.

To be fair, the 2015 onwards motors are the Euro 6 models that should have had the timing chain issues rectified.

However,

The oil change interval on these is supposed to be every 18,000 miles, which seems really like a lot to me. Interestingly, Mini dropped the recommended oil change interval on their N14 engine (which is the same engine) to 6000 miles in 2012, presumably after seeing lots of failures.

So for the car to not have had its first oil change until 20,000 miles is somewhat alarming.

For it then to not had a service for three years and 36,000 miles is air raid siren level alarming.

The car will be an absolute basket case. Do not buy it. Let some other idiot do it.

[samoht]

I think when you've invested time and emotional energy into considering a car, certainly for me I tend to decide I want to buy it and risk becoming blind to the reasons not to buy that specific example.

Then three months later the rose tinted glasses wear off and you realise you've bought a poorly maintained car that's at risk of expensive failure and will be hard to re-sell.

I think if you step away and find another, even if higher mileage but with FSH, in the longer run you'd not regret it. I can roll with missing time-related servicing if it's done low mileage, but to go such long mileages between oil changes on a somewhat fragile modern engine just seems like incurring needless risk.

[carinaman]

You can buy a car with a great amount of Service History. It doesn't mean it won't have issues now.

[Truckosaurus]

If you are brave, and the car cheap enough, just budget for a new camchain to be fitted early in your ownership.

At 90k miles and 10 years old there will be plenty of parts coming to the end of their life even if the car had been serviced on time (or over cautious 6k mile oil changes).

As other have said, I bet there's thousands of cars with missing services in the 2020-2021 period, as many people get their car serviced with the MoT and won't have bothered doing anything while the MoT extensions were in place.

[vikingaero]

2020 onwards were the Covid years when many people skipped services due to low mileage, or had no work so they couldn't afford to service it.

But added on Peugeot+Prince= No Thanks.

[georgeyboy12345]

carinaman said:

You can buy a car with a great amount of Service History. It doesn't mean it won't have issues now.

True, but it’s all about risk and risk management.

Statistically, a car with a full service history is less likely to fail than one with part service history.

[bwoah]

Cheers all, I think many of you are right, common sense thing to do is walk away. There was another car just down the road from me available at a good price with FSH and I missed it by a day so I think I had a bit of FOMO seeing this one.

While part of me is willing to take the risk the fact there's zero paperwork at all from previous owners is a big problem. A couple of invoices here and there would have given me a bit of peace of mind. Think I might give Peugeot a ring to see if they have anything in their system as final check, but doubt anything will come up.

[66HFM]

Has the current owner got any receipts for the parts he bought to service it himself?
How long has he owned it / why is he selling it?

[the-norseman]

Have a look at the oil colour on the dipstick can soon tell if a petrol has recently been serviced, I recently bought an Alfa that claimed to have been serviced recently, quick check of the air filter and oil colour confirmed it had been done recently, oil was golden.

[Richard-390a0]

bwoah said:

I plan on keeping the car for a year only. Have my fun with it and move on.

And in a year you'll be answering the same questions you're now asking (including why are you selling it on so soon potentially).

[ilikejam]

I bought a 2016 Volvo V40 for 8k last year that had absolutely no history whatsoever. It had been given a major service prior to sale and the MOT history check showed it had never even had an advisory, so I was fairly confident after seeing and testing the car.

18 months on and it's been an absolute dream causing me no issues at all.
(Prepared to spend this evening at the side of the motorway now!)