What value do you place on service book stamps

[WokingWedger]

When buying a car, what value do you all put on the fact that a car has been serviced by a garage rather than the owner.

I am more than capable of doing a service on my Chimeara ( I am mechanical enginerer), but up to now it has a book full of Service stamps up to 96000 miles.

I would prefer to do the service myself but do not wish to reduce the re-sale value of the car.

I would obviously record the service and keep all the receipts for parts, but would future prospective buyers accept this as good as a dealer/specialist garage stamp.

As a car gets older then obviously the case for paying for the stamp gets less ( Say £500 service for a £1000 car), but a 97 Chim 500 in good condition ?

what do people think ?

[griffter]

Unfortunately I say that stamps in a book (from a reputable garage) are better than copious evidence of competent DIY maintenance. In my experience the latter is almost always a better job than the former (it's your car after all) but come resale it's easier to convince the prospective buyer that the car's in great nick because it's been servied by garage 'X' than because the bloke you bought it off knew how to wave a spanner.

You've got to decide what (if any) drop there will be come resale, then factor in the savings of DIY and the fact that the car may be better during your ownership becasue of it.

I travel well over 100 miles to have my car serviced by someone I trust - in no small part becasue I value the stamps in the book.

[JR]

Depends how long you'll keep the car. Saving £500+ pa in labour charges won't give you a car worth £5,000 less than a fully stamped alternative after ten years whereas after one year it probably would give you a car worth more than £500 less. My experience is that 2 to 3 years is break-even.