I agree with Gilly's advice. Having access to the entire service history may provide some interesting reading, but I don't see how it'll help decide on a course of action where repairs are concerned. Like Gilly says, it's easy enough to bring it up to date.

So, is it your position that if there were two identical cars that appeared equal in all respects, but one had a full set of books and maintenance records and the other had none at all, it wouldn't matter which one you picked?

While it may be true that past history is no indication of future problems, wouldn't you rather opt for the vehicle, all other things being equal, that had a documented history of repairs and regular maintenance or the one that had none, and may have been a repo, had indifferent owners or passed through 5 differrent auctions?

Cars are advertised "with full main dealer service history" for a reason and used car buyers are exhorted to look for cars with that pedigree. Reassurance and peace of mind do matter.

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

A thorough Pre-Purcahse Inspection, performed by a QUALIFIED MB technician will provide more useful information than reading the vehicle's service history. Also, I'm not sure how the service records will help determine if the car was re-possessed, bought at an auction, flooded, totalled, etc. I thought that was what Carfax was for? A VMI however, can be useful. It'll tell you if the vehicle has any Recall/Service Campaigns that need to be done.
When I bought my 124 I never even bothered looking at the service file, and it was in the building I work in!!! I simply gave the car a good look-over and that was that.

In my experience, well cared for cars are easy to spot if you know what to look for. Something that's been neglected is even easier to pick out. A full detail and engine wash only go so far. I'm not saying that the service records are useless, however. It just seems to me that if it's a major headache to get your hands on them, why bother?

EXACTLY! Most people if they spent a little time to get to know how a vehicle should look and drive would be able to spot the good cars from the bad within a few minutes of driving and personal inspection.

Jim: No idea how you drew that conclusion at all. Jerry, the original poster, did you read his post at all? He just wanted to know how he could find out when the last service was done on a car HE ALREADY BOUGHT without records. I was merely asking, in this case, if it might not be alot less hair pulling to simply DO the service for peace of mind. If he wants to go through alot of effort to have the RECORDS, that's a different matter, and I wouldn't knock him for wanting to do that, but it wasn't the question.
Gilly

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What I am trying to do is get a idea of how many miles are on it. If I can track down the previous owner that would help a lot. He would know about how many miles were on it when it smoked. The repair shop got it with the speedo fried so they said they thought it was around 3,000 miles. I think the owner quit paying for the repairs so they didn't finish the job. Then the bank found out where it was and sent there man to pick it up and sell it. My parents had a Olds dealer ship for 35 years so I grew up working on cars. I do mostly electronics repair now so there isn't anything on the car that I can't work on. I have a hoist and all kinds of tools so it is fun for me in my spare time. I went to the dealer I buy parts from today and they are going to see what the can pull up on it. I couldn't wait around today for them to do that as about five minutes after I got there the power went off for the whole town.))) Jerry

Unless your going to sit down and take a few days to not only go through the service records but call and verify that the work was actually done service records just appeal to the emotions of a car buyer. You can have rubber stamps made at any office supply store with anything you want on them. You can also get a group of people to write in the book with different colored pens to "fake" the service records. If this warm fuzzy feeling is worth a couple of thousand to you by all means pay it.

The real truth is there is not one good way to buy a car at all. While service records and maint history and inspection can weed out some cars with obvious problems its not a silver bullet. If they were training a new guy on the spot welder machine on a friday your "pedigree" car that you paid a kings ransom for and had your mechanic inspect for 2 weeks before you bought it can break. There are always exceptions to the rules and with cars there are more exceptions than rules.

Another unfortunate fact is that these "perfect cars" dont really exist in the numbers that people expect them to. Cars are owned and driven by people. Some of those people can barely operate the climate control system let alone know if that noise the car sometimes makes is serious enough to bring to the shop. The likelyhood of you finding an enthusiast owned car in a market flooded with cars is very low as many of these cars are traded in private circles and never make it on the open market. The extra effort and expense that a lot of people go through to find this perfect car easily outweighs any cost benefit they get over buying a car in reasonable condition and spending a little bit of money in normal service.

There are certain cars to shy away from such as a repo but your average car with a little wear and tear and service work needed can become a very depenable and loyal friend with just a bit of investment of time and money.