As some may or may not agree, I believe Privacy Laws were meant to protect actual personal information about a person, not automobiles. As the owner of several "high-line" Euro cars, I have no problems with anyone seeing the service history of my vehicles, especially if I was selling one. Anyone can run a CarFax on any vehicle they choose as long as they have the VIN number, so what is the difference of that and dealer records? If you own the automobile, you should own the records as well. Its not like you can get a credit card in someone else's name using a part number from a 2002 MB radiator hose, or can you?

So, I suppose the easy answer is to come up with a records disclosure form that the seller must sign and release at time of purchase. I know most of us love our MB's like children, but they are still only cars...not humans. Common Sense, I don't know what happened to it, but I sure do miss it.

Finally, as my "pro-communism" note on the subject, If greed-ridden corporate America would not openly offer credit to millions of people based on numbers and phone calls we wouldn't be having this discussion. Credit should be local face-to-face thing IMO, or at least by proxy through a local banking institution. Mark my unimportant words, it will get worse before it gets better, the current system if severely flawed when it is overflowing into mundane things such as automobile records

I bought an 89 300TE from a 2nd owner in Dallas, car was serviced at Dallas dealer, called the dealer with vin# and talked to the service manager, he wouldnt give me the records but he did go over all the work the car had since delivery in March of 89, that conversation sealed the deal and I have been driving the car daily for the past year.

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'05 Ford Escape 100,000 miles
'87 560SL 92000 miles
'89 300TE 199,000 miles
'02 Audi TT 100,000 miles
'00 Ford Excursion V-10 121000 miles
'92 Mercury Capri 100000 miles
'02 BMW 325XI 60000 miles
'92 230CE 160000
'87 BMW 535SI 160,000 miles
'93 Rinker Captiva 209
5 Kids
2 Dogs
1 Wife

I believe the subject of this thread relates to the actual service records of a particular vehicle. You’re talking about a Vehicle Master Inquiry (VMI ). There’s a huge difference between the two. For starters, the VMI only shows work that was paid for by MB Warranty/Goodwill. You won’t find scheduled maintenance, or any other customer pay work listed on a VMI. They can be helpful if you need to solve a mileage discrepancy, or to check for any open Recall/Service Campaigns, but other than that, they’re virtually useless to a would-be used car buyer. A VMI can be obtained by any MB dealer, regardless of where the car was purchased or serviced.

The service records however, have detailed information about the vehicle’s history relating to repair and maintenance work. Part numbers, prices, labor charges, and actual time spent on the job are all there. I don’t think they offer much to a potential buyer that a good pre-purchase inspection wouldn’t uncover, but sometimes they can make for entertaining reading. The service files are ( supposed to be ) stored on-site at the dealership, with restricted access to the storage area. Only the dealer that performed the customer pay work has access to these records. If a vehicle has had work done at several different dealers it can be a real hassle to compile a complete history. At my dealer, if a service file is inactive for two years, it’s moved to an off-site, secured storage area. I hope this clears things up.




Some may disagree, but I find Carfax to be pretty much useless. I’ve done major work including engine/transmission replacement and flood damage repair, paid for by insurance, and never saw it show up on a Carfax report. I’ve also seen signs posted in body shops stating that they do not report to Carfax.