Full service history

[Kalahari]

After upgrading my subscription, I looked at the Classifieds to see if somebody wants to do away with a decent Xterra or old Prado.  But it seems "full service history" is as scarce as a LR that does not leak oil??? Surely, even if you service your car through a backyard mechanic, you would keep record of that - or is it because people pay cash without any receipt to avoid the VAT?

[Srikumar]

Or probably because they extended the 10k service to 20k and extracted every bit of juice out of the oil

[Gaurav]

1 minute ago, Srikumar said:

Or probably because they extended the 10k service to 20k and extracted every bit of juice out of the oil

So true, I will be scared to buy a car that doesnt have FSH and if owner look too lost or busy to know "How car works".

If it's high mileage low cost desert warrior, I wouldn't bother much on service history rather than its current running condition.

Read this too:

 

[Barry]

For the majority of people here, a car is just a way to get to work and they don’t care how it works as long as it works. For them, a service simply means an oil change at the petrol station so you’re going to come across a lot of cars that have had major things like timing belts and brake fluid changes neglected. I recommend buying on condition and getting a proper pre purchase inspection done. If you need help with that, I can help you arrange it. 

[desertdude]

19 hours ago, Kalahari said:

After upgrading my subscription, I looked at the Classifieds to see if somebody wants to do away with a decent Xterra or old Prado.  But it seems "full service history" is as scarce as a LR that does not leak oil??? Surely, even if you service your car through a backyard mechanic, you would keep record of that - or is it because people pay cash without any receipt to avoid the VAT?

That's the culture here mate. There was no and is no direct personal income tax so majority dont keep receipts of anything including car services including myself. 

Also majority of the people who reside here come from countries that really don't have a car culture or didn't have one until recently so cars are just a means to an end. That's why you will also see so many boring plain Jane vanilla cars on the roads here. 

Do you keep receipts for your washing machine or toaster? That's what a car to most people here. Plain old white goods 

[Rahimdad]

@Jamy B. and @Asif Hussain recently acquired their Nissan Xterras so I will leave the stage to them as to how each one came to know about all these vehicles for sale. This process also took them an year to complete in which they either came across lemons or were too late to close the deal on time. So keep your eyes and mind open and do ask a lot of questions, we are all here to help one another. But do keep your trust in God, if it's good and meant for you, nothing can keep you apart.

[Desert Dweller]

On 3/9/2020 at 12:18 PM, Rahimdad said:

@Jamy B. and @Asif Hussain recently acquired their Nissan Xterras so I will leave the stage to them as to how each one came to know about all these vehicles for sale. This process also took them an year to complete in which they either came across lemons or were too late to close the deal on time. So keep your eyes and mind open and do ask a lot of questions, we are all here to help one another. But do keep your trust in God, if it's good and meant for you, nothing can keep you apart.

Even a car that belonged to a Sheikha (for her guards) didn't have the full history

The process is definitely long and draining! not only because I've considered many other options (through recommendations from experts over here in Carnity: Land Cruiser, Prado, Pajero, Wrangler, FJ Cruiser, Xterra... over 125 posts to analyze...) before deciding to go for an Xterra Off-road model. It is true that full service history is scarce, specifying that as filter is possible though, only to reduce your results to very few. Still, that has proven not to be a guaranty that the car would be a good fit for me...

I've test-driven over 30 cars the past year, taken around 4 cars to get checked by a mechanic as I was close to deciding that was the one... money spent on that obviously! And many hours searching in a few car websites, even Facebook groups... a lot of help from Carnity members as well, to whom I'm eternally thankful!!! Until I found the best deal for me, after deciding to check ads not only daily but from morning to evening, even when I was at work, as the good deals get sold within hours!!! (Lost many opportunities for calling a day or a few hours after the ad was posted...).

So obsessing is essential, I'd say I'm extremely happy with the final result!

Best of luck!

[Desert Dweller]

I have to add that even though my car had full history, I still took it to a mechanic, where I found some issues that I used to negotiate the price, including the repair costs.