Selling a Car Without a Service History

The Purpose Of A Service History

Having a service history makes selling a car that much easier as it provides you with proof that the car has been looked after correctly over its lifetime. As cars become more and more complex, being able to prove that people trained in your specific make of car have been keeping it in check over the past few years. Even if servicing at a certified dealership will cost slightly more, you’ll probably find your car’s second-hand value is better because of it.

Selling Without a Service History

There’s nothing stopping you from selling a car without a service history, but it’s likely to make it much harder for you to find a buyer, or at least a buyer willing to offer the price you feel the car is worth. Most buyers are looking for a car they can be confident in, and a service history provides them with peace of mind that the car has been looked after correctly, and by people who know what they’re looking at. It’s a very thorough check-over.

How A Missing History Affects Price

While having a service history or not won’t change anything about the quality of the car itself, you’ll find that a lot of buyers will try to knock some money off the price due to the lack of information surrounding its history. Buying a car is never a simple experience, and for some it’ll likely be one of the biggest purchases they ever made, so they want to be absolutely certain that they’re getting exactly what they need, and not making a trip to their local garage soon after taking the car home.

Recovering A Service History

The majority of car owners will keep their vehicle’s service history safe with their car’s documents, such as the logbook and any MOT history. If for whatever reason the service history isn’t kept with the car, it can be relatively easy to get hold of. If the car has been serviced by franchised dealerships, then you should be able to go to any dealership in the country for that manufacturer and check their systems. If the services have been carried out at private garages, and providing you know which garage, you should be able to ask for the details from their own records.

If you don’t know anything about where the car was serviced at all in the past, however, then you’ll have to get in touch with the car’s previous owners and ask them where they took the cars and what services were carried out. You are able to request contact details for previous owners of the car by filling out a form on the DVLA website and paying a small fee.

For more hints and tips on how to keep you and your car on the road, visit our Car Care hub, where we guide you through everything from your first lesson to selling your car for the last time. 

If your car’s lack of service history is making it particularly difficult to offload, then why not consider selling for scrap or salvage? The friendly advisors at Scrap Car Comparison would be delighted to talk you through everything that’s available to you – so get started today using our free online quote generator and see just how much your car could be worth.