Getting car service history from Audi Canada?

[Ruski]

Hey gents/ladies,

I am talking to a seller right now. They dont have service receipts but say all the service was done at the same Audi dealership they bought the car from. Can i just call up Audi Canada and using the VIN get all the service history, etc.? OR do i need to contact the specific dealer (out of province) to get this info?

As for Carfax...would that report contain the service history anyway, if it was all Dealer maintained?

Any suggestions/info on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

[Retsujou]

Tell the seller to get the records from the dealership. That is easily done as they can print it out or might even have it on file.

[shoppingcart111]

Apparemtly most dealerships are standalone, so if you know the dealership where it was purchased then you can call them and give them the vin and should pull the history, that what I did when I bought mine in edmonton, I knew it came from vancouver island so I called all the dealerships in victoria and they pulled it. Although I was in van and stopped at a dealer there and they could pull it too.

[Ruski]

I am in Toronto and the dealership where the car was bought and serviced is in Quebec.....you think they could email these records? Alternatively, ill ask the seller to go get them.

[qwks4]

I believe they can't release service records to anyone but the customer that paid for the service. It has to do with meeting privacy laws.

[Tanner]

qwks4 is right. You can at most get them to scan through the service history and see if there were any out of the ordinary repairs.

Dealers, new or used, can get a carfax along with the previous owner but they don't provide that information, unless they make a mistake and leave it in the rest of the documentation and provide it to you :)

[Ruski]

ohh interesting...the privacy stuff kind of makes sense. I guess ill have to ask the previous owner to get the records for me.

[JuniorAra]

It doesn't hurt to call and ask. I did it when I bought the car from the States and their privacy laws are MUCH more stiff than ours. It all depends on who you get. Audi Canada wont have the records and it is a simple print out. Worst case, get the owner of the car to call the dealership and tell them where you want the records faxed to. If the seller wont give it to you, than you know right away not to waste your time.

[Ruski]

So here is the latest:

1) I called Audi Canada and the dealership where this car was bought/serviced its whole life.
- The dealership confirmed that I would be the 3rd owner and told me they have full service history for this car and its all clean, no major issues, etc.

Here is were it gets wierd:
Carfax vs Audi Canada
Audi says its clear to them its two owners and they have the names/records.
Carfax tells me there were 5 owners but one was 4 days long and looks more like a dealership transfer of ownership.
It also says that the car was sold at Auction at the end of lease but according to Audi they just transferred the ownership from the 1st owner to the 2nd owner who took the car after the lease was finished.

There is no crazy gaps in mileage or evidence of someone rolling-back kilometers, but it just looks weird on the Carfax. Also shows a transfer from this ladies company ownership to her personal ownership. She is an attorney so that makes me slightly more comfortable.

Any Carfax experts out there who can tell me if this is dangerous territory or if i have the full service history and get a pre-purchase inspection done, then i should be ok?
If i buy this car, can i contact Carfax to clean up the record if Audi Canada can verify?

Actual Carfax: http://www.carfax.com/viewEmailRepor...i3&language=en
Any Carfax experts out there give me some advice?

[a4audi4fun]

Other than a brand new vehicle, if a car isn't owned by the end user than it's got to be titled to someone else. If the car caught on fire or was stolen for example, I'm pretty certain a dealer would want to collect some sort of insurance. Each transfer between dealers, would likely trigger an ownership change. In general, dealers aren't typically counted as an owner for retail purposes unless some bunch of mileage was added.

[claudiovagkraft]

When I bought my car I did my homework too. Called Audi of Canada, as well as the dealerships where it was serviced. Lucky for me (in this case) my car was just off warranty so all work was done at the dealerships. Anyway, my point is that, just like you, there were 2 owners before me but the history of the car showed 4 owners because there was the dealership and dealer auction that technically owned the car as well. I'm in my 3rd year owning my car's been nothing but good to me. I think you're good to go if you want the car.

[Ruski]

When I bought my car I did my homework too. Called Audi of Canada, as well as the dealerships where it was serviced. Lucky for me (in this case) my car was just off warranty so all work was done at the dealerships. Anyway, my point is that, just like you, there were 2 owners before me but the history of the car showed 4 owners because there was the dealership and dealer auction that technically owned the car as well. I'm in my 3rd year owning my car's been nothing but good to me. I think you're good to go if you want the car.

Thanks for the writeup. I actually just agreed to buy the car...going to be flying to Montreal on Tuesday to pay for it and get it. Got insurance already, so now just need to worry about the ownership transfer, etc.

I will probably post a quite writeup on my experience once i get the car back to Toronto :)

[Pr0n]

I'm late, but an Audi dealership up here was able to get information on my U.S. vehicle (this was years after I had already purchased it tho), but it was interesting to hear some of the history.

[Ruski]

I'm late, but an Audi dealership up here was able to get information on my U.S. vehicle (this was years after I had already purchased it tho), but it was interesting to hear some of the history.

Cool, i am supposed to fly out and pick up the car on Tuesday....if everything goes to plan. I was able to obtain insurance on the car already (starting Tuesday) so now its just a matter of all the pieces falling into place. If i am missing any records, i will contact Audi once its registered in my name and try to get the complete picture.

[audifirst]

I guess depends on circumstances , some dealers will not give you info since you were not the person who serviced the vehicle, it will be easier for her to pull the information for you, friend of mine bought domestic car from seller in Quebec, he couldn't get history by himself because of the privacy laws, so he asked seller, then he called dealer and asked to fax the information to him or you can asked her if she can draft a letter for you and you go to a dealer and pull the records on Tuesday..

[BoSNiaN]

So did the dealership actually give you detailed information or just tell you that you were the 3rd owner etc? AFAIK, you can call any national dealership with a VIN and they can check if all the recalls had been done etc but you'd have to call the local dealership (and know which one) to lookup all non-recall related work. And no, Carfax doesn't report this stuff.

The Audi(.ca?) Canada support team might be a little slow to reply but if you email them the VIN they can look into the background of the car for you and email you back a printable hard copy. If you're REALLY lucky, the dealership will have documentation (maintenance log or receipts) from the previous owner but that is pretty rare....