BBD, That appears to be the case.

I'd say the price is £300/400 less than it should be. It's a C-Max.

I'd assume the lack of service history is because it has been lost?.

In my rather limited 60-year history of car buying, I can recall few, if any, instances of traders including what we might call a FSH with a used car. One is fairly lucky to get a stamped-up service record book. Only private sellers (some of them) keep a complete file of work done on their car.

My most recent purchase was a 1991 Pug 205, which came from its original lady buyer with apparently every bill from its sale onwards. Ironically the only missing item was the service booklet, which disappeared at its 1000-mile service !

Edited by Andrew-T on 24/11/2023 at 12:24

Edited by Metropolis. on 24/11/2023 at 07:36

Y'all seem oddly preoccupied with tyres, a consumable appendage.

Not oddly, sensibly.

If the car is on a matching set (or at least a matching pair on each axle) of decent quality tyres, it is highly unlikely that any servicing will have been missed. On the other hand, the car sitting on four mismatched cheap tyres may not prove that servicing has been neglected, but it certainly points in that direction. Neither scenario is a given, but buying an older car is always going to involve a degree of luck, so, (especially) in the absence of a service history, the more proof that the previous owner was happy/willing to spend money on it the better.

Thanks for all the comments.

My plan to view it tomorrow has been scuppered by the price rising £400 overnight. I do wonder how such a seemingly well llooked after car has had the service history lost. The 1998 Fiat Coupe I bought last year went through 7 owners before me, yet all the service history, a plethora of receipts covering very single year, has been retained.

I'll bide my time on the C-Max.

A few comments.

When I have PX'd the last few cars the dealer did not want any receipts, just the service book or in the case of VAG cars the annual service print out. Reason is simple, data protection. In the past the V5 had the details of the last few owners (we have had buyers chasing us for bits the dealer has robbed in the past), passing details via the service receipts would not be acceptable.

For cars from the VAG stable this is not an issue providing the services are carried out within the the VAG network, the records are computerised and available by any VAG dealer (and some independents if what people say is true) but for Kia owners it is an issue since there is no central records, the dealer doing the work has the only info available, if you don't know who did the work you would be out of luck.

When we sold the Celerio about a month ago to a Suzuki dealer he did not want copies of the receipts but he did want the service book.

Because of this it does not surprise me there is no service history in an older car that has probably not seen a Ford dealer for many years. But a service book would be nice even if the work was carried out by an indy.

With regards to engines the 1.8 petrol in the C-Max was the chain cam Mazda derived unit and its an excellent motor. The 2 litre is used by Caterham in standard and tuned versions and its pretty bullet proof, would not expect the 1.8 to be any different. We drove a 1.8 when we bought our C-Max and it was a good drive but we bought a diesel because of the miles we were doing at the time.

The 1.8 mentioned by the OP that was in his Mk1 Focus was a totally different engine that was 100% Ford designed and produced (had links back to the CVH from the 80's - some racers make what they call a ZVH which is a CVH head on a Zetec block when the regs require the original number of cams/valves. Makes for a more reliable 2 litre XR2 or XR3i than an overbore on the CVH block). It was belt cam. Have a 2 litre one in my Caterham, been in there for almost 16 years now and other than a cam belt change, one set of spark plus, plenty of oil changes and plenty of enthusiastic use its not been touched. Its due another cam belt this winter (the engine was 2004 production).

My 2016 VW Touareg still uses a service book which defines what has or hasn't been done - when subject to VW service plan the dealer invoices VW not the owner so no detailed invoice.

My 2014 Skoda Superb didn't have a service book - I got a printout of its service record after every service. When I stopped using the main dealer after a few years I bought a blank service book and stapled the last printout in the front and my trusty local independent has stamped the book thereafter.

Edited by Big John on 24/11/2023 at 22:57

The vendor now has a Cyber Monday Deal on it claiming the RRP to be £450 more than the asking price, but the 'Limited Time Offer' SALE to this Saturday allows you to save £450 in that time period. A load of t*** as the price the last couple of days was the lower price.This smacks of shonky business. I wonder what trading standards would have to say about it.

I'm moving towards a 1.8TDCi fully aware of the risks in doing so.