Hello all - need some guidance. I'm currently selling my c4s and a potential buyer is asking for service records. I haven't kept all 5 years worth and so I decided to call Porsche of Nashville where I've always gone. Each time promising they'd get it out to me that day. Yesterday I called and no answer so I left a message for the service manager. It's been a week. Outside of driving 40 mins to them and standing till I get it does anyone have any suggestions? I'd rather be told they can't or don't want to give it to me vs saying the will day off and not.

Thanks,
Huy

 

Most service records are only available from the servicing dealer to the owner. In both cases, that's you. Aside from going there I don't have another recommendation for you, but you should be able to get them so it won't be a wasted trip.

 

I called Greenwich Porsche where I know my car was serviced by previous owner, all I wanted was record of everything done. They told me only the previous owner has access to these records, what kind of BS is this?

 

Not sure about you guys but when I ask my Service Adviser about services to a car I may be interested in buying he is more than happy to review them with me. He does not print them out, nor have I asked him, but he will let me know the what, when and where of the services.

 

I am the second owner of my C2S, which I purchased in 2016. The first owner of the car is very protective of his privacy and would not provide any documentation for the car. I was however able to get a somewhat complete service history from CarFax that showed a battery change, 2 brake fluid flushes and various other services during the 25k miles that he owned the car. I had an oil change and inspection done last month at the stealership, and they were only able to see the same history for the vehicle I had with CarFax.

 

I've experienced the same issue. Many owners do not bother to maintain records if they know the car is being serviced at a Porsche dealership who can look up the history of their car.

Apparently, subsequent owners cannot access the dealership records. There is probably some legal precedent that protects the information. But, it is a bummer for subsequent owners to verify that all required maintenance was done.

If someone has figured out how to get access to these records, I would be thrilled to death!

 

After a week of calling and escalating I did finely get it. But it was exhausting.

 

The dealer is concerned about the privacy of the previous owner and this is good.

My experience is one can get the service history with enough detail to make it worthwhile but one should avoid trying to learn anything about the previous owner.

One is buying the car not its previous owner.

With a CarFax report for a car (996 Turbo) I was interested in I called the various Porsche dealers in the area the car spent its first 6 years with its 1st owner and with the VIN the person I talked to was able to give me a brief description of the service (oil change, brake flush, etc) and the month/year and mileage. Afterwards I had a pretty good feel for the car's servicing but still knew nothing about the previous owner which suited me just fine.

My advice is don't ask for printouts or a fax of the service records. The dealer would want to redact the hardcopy to conceal any info about the owner at the time of the service and the dealer and its staff are not setup to do this. This is why when I called about servicing I had a pen and paper handy to jot down what the person at the other end was reading off the service records.

Another problem nowadays is dealer service records don't go back all that far. I think they go back -- at least at the dealer I use for my cars -- just 4 years. (Parts department records go back only 2 years.)

 

I'm more accepting to not getting service records for previous owners and our best chance is carfax. But not being able to get your own service records is completely not acceptable. I escalated and after a week I finally had it emailed to me. The exhausting secret sauce is just being persistent.