Does history mater?

Yes. Simple answer. Click bait title but I do actually want to know people's thoughts on a "full history" and by that I mean receipts for every part and piece of labour carried out on a car. Is there any value in receipts for consumable parts that have since been replaced possibly several times? Do you care about a hose clamp that was replaced 10 years ago? Or with cars of this age is evidence of recent big jobs, stamps showing the essential maintenance throughout the early years and the fact it's still going strong good enough?

The more 'paperwork' the better but the most important are the evidence of routine servicing, oil changes and the recent replacements of consumable items. IMO, anyone wanting more than that is being 'picky' in the extreme. I'd place 'all tax discs' 133rd on my list of most important things I've seen listed in some adverts.

I suppose old invoices indicate that care was taken when the car was new and not just ragged!

A receipt for a pair of tyres from 12 years ago isn't worth all that much IMHO. And MOTs can be looked up inline. What matters most for me is how the car has been looked after in the last 3-4 years. Especially given that values bottomed out around then and some people may have run their cars on a shoestring. Any long-term preventive maintenance is a big plus, as is proof of typical problem areas being addressed like brake pipes/lines, rads/condensers and replacing any other bits that corrode or rubber that deteriorates.

:yeah: Last 3-4 years and invoices listing the work done ... if just servicing then there will probably be work that's due but not yet done .

Taken literally, 'full service history" means a history of every service ever done, whether on time or not. A lot of sellers seem to take it to mean a bunch of old paper work! But that wasn't the question you asked... Personally I do value stamps in the original service book. It's nice to have something that goes back to the beginning and the service book at a glance can tell you who did what when and where. You can gauge when the car went out of the dealer network, get an idea of the decisions taken by previous owners about by who and when the car was serviced ('anything 'Autocentre" always rings alarm bells!) and you can tell where the car has moved around the country. Personally I don't want the details over three or four years old. I don't mind having them but I won't pour over them when buying. To be honest I think too much value is placed in having receipts on file. They tell you nothing about the way the old component was removed, the replacement installed and how vigilant the mechanic was while things we're in bits. I'd take an original book pack and service stamps over a pile of receipts, but I think I'm in a minority! At the end of the day you have to evaluate the car in front of you. Very rarely in life do you have all the necessary information to hand. Buying a car is no different, but (assuming you're not buying unseen, which I wouldn't do and can't understand!) if it's evidence of certain work you're looking for, looking at the car will tell you more than a pierce of paper IMHO. Obviously if having the IMS bearing replaced, for example, is important to you then you need to see the receipt but it still won't tell you if it was fitted properly or if more damage was done in the process. I guess that's when that one receipt could be very important because if it was from a specific garage with the right reputation it could count for a lot.

It would to me. The tyres fitted to the car tell alot about how it's been treated by ALL previous owners. Are you telling me that if it'd only ever had whoflungdung wingwang remoulds fitted it wouldn't put you off?

I take your point about crappy tyres indicating that someone could have been running it on a budget. But if it a car has survived 12 years (or more) since then and the receipts for the last 3-4 years show it has been taken care of and the right parts /consumables have been used, it wouldn't bother me that much.

Yep, attention to small details like keeping all bills probably points to an owner who probably took as much care of the car too. Knowing the make of tyres fitted over the years is also a good pointer as to whether the previous owners were cheapskates OCD is good imo How it was driven is another matter though. Pedal to the metal from cold is not a good thing and I know plenty of people who drive like that even if they get servicing done on the button. There is absolutely no way of knowing how it has been treated from cold.

I'm interested in the condition it's in when I buy it, not the condition it was in ten years ago. What tyres were put on it in the past are irrelevant to me. Paperwork-wise the only evidence I'm interested in is the evidence of frequent oil changes, preferably annual ones irrespective of whether service interval mileages have been reached, and wether items such as the AOS, RMS, and rads have been replaced within the last few years. As for the rest of it, I know enough about 996s that I would be comfortable doing my own PPI to ascertain the condition of the car. This is my own view on how I would view the history though, and you may be different. Indeed, if you're used to looking at a folder rather than underneath a car to form an opinion on what condition a car is in, i.e. you're not handy with the spanners, but you want reassurance that what you're buying has been looked after, then paperwork should represent some value to you.

"whoflungdung"? are they not N rated then? :?:

No...the whoflungdung wingwang's are though :grin: :thumb: