Have you ever wondered why used cars that are emphasised to come with a Full Service History (FSH) appear to be slightly costlier than those which don’t? I mean surely a document which keeps records of every bit of servicing the car has undergone can’t be that valuable, can it? Well it most definitely is valuable with a full service history playing a significant role in how the new owner of the car will proceed to take care of it.
What’s in a Full Service History?
An FSH is exactly what it says on the tin – a full history of the servicing which has been conducted on the car. As part of the after-sales service provided by many original car manufacturers these days, and if you as the owner want to make sure to remain eligible for any warrantees, only designated and accredited service points are allowed. This ensures that the typical FSH is accurate, as there is indeed a worry that many details may be left out – important details that could have some major implications on the structural integrity of the car, such as if it might have previously been accident damaged and had some major panel-beating.
This is not to say some information can never be falsified, but at least it ensures some kind of standard when it comes to the official record-keeping.
Vehicle up-keep
I’ve perhaps already touched on it a bit, but to get deeper into it, one of the biggest reasons why a car’s Full Service History is important is that of the need for any future work to be done on it to take into account issues such as accident damage. If you wanted to have a brand new bumper fitted to the car for example, some structural accident damage could mean that any new bumper would have to be custom ordered and custom made since one that is available from a regular spares shop may not fit safely enough on the region that has previously been accident damaged.
Beyond the major damage though, a Full Service History will help the new owner save costs on what would have otherwise probably been unnecessary procedures being re-done when they’d just been done a short time before. Problems which are particularly hard to “diagnose” can also be rectified much easier when there is a full service reference point to work with.
Legal implications
There are many regulations and laws about buying and selling used vehicles in particular, as often it involves money which changes hands between people who could overplay or underplay the value of the car to gain more out of the exchange. Beyond that however, when it comes to something like a retro car accident claim, a Full Service History allows professionals such as Atlanta car accident attorneys to continue their investigative work without halting the natural economic cycle of a specific car that might have been involved in an incident that has legal implications. So it’s the FSH which can shorten something like the period of time a car has to spend in an impound while investigations are ongoing.
