996 Service history

I'm ready to purchase a '00 C4 with 27k miles. Before I do I'd like to find out the service history on the car. I've been told that any P dealer can provide the service records on a car as long as you have a vin number. When I called my local P dealer they told me that the car had to be serviced at that particular dealership to get the info. Does anyone know if that's correct? Could there be someone at Porsche whom I could contact to find out the service history on this car? I would presume that Porsche would have this info in their database. Thanks in advance.

I suspect that is the case. I did not confirm it, but when I got my car I asked and received the car history from the dealer that seller used. When I went to my local dealer, they had to create a record for the car in their system. Lexus has unified system, I don't think Porsche does.

Path, Spend the $20 and get a carfax report. It should tell you which dealership did certain service, also will tell you about accident damage, etc... www.carfax.com

Where / Who are you buying the car from? If they dont have it, its probably an Auction Car. Call PCNA ([phone removed])), ask them the original destination dealership. Also, the CarFax can help isolate the region the car was in based on registration information. All of the dealer numbers can be found at www.porschedealer.com.

Path, Additionally, you can call PCNA with the VIN and get the options the car was ordered with. AND...make SURE you get a PPI, its about $200 from any Porsche dealer, they will inspect the car and make sure you're not about to buy a headache...and as the warranty is porbably nearing the end, consider an extended warranty...

path this is true. the service info is not available to all service departments. my dealer told me that this will be possible soon since the capabilities do exist. as everyone has already suggested obtain a car fax report. also if the car is available for your personal inspection you may be able to find the original dealer in one of the manuals. i did in mine and i was then able to call the dealer to find out about the car ( dealer installed upgrades, service info, etc). suprisingly they were very helpful as i guess they wanted future business from me when i upgrade (he,he) roy

This is what I have been told. Any dealer can via their computer access warranty work done on the car, but not service work. For the service work you have to know which dealer did the work and see if they will print it out for you. My dealer will not do this without the ok of the original owner as they consider it as the property of the original owner. Jeff

Thanks guys!!

Hi All, I have been through this recently with my wife's 1999 C4. Here is what I found out: With the VIN any Porsche dealer can give you the warrantee/recall work done on the car, the original cost of the car, and the original dealer where the car was sold. The specific NON warrantee/recall work is not on a national database - so only the shop who did the work will have this record The new privacy rules effectively PREVENT the dealer from releasing this information to anyone EXCEPT the person who had the work done - if your dealer is nice and the original owner calls and asks them to release it, they might. Ray Bahr

Sorry I forgot - Carfax will not release names of shops - at least on the last couple of reports I have seen - there was no such information. ALSO: CARFAX MAKES MISTAKES!!!!! and the burden is on the owner to fix it... so treat it only as 1 data point Ray

Hi Path...since I'm paranoid, I would be suspicious if the owner did not have all of his records available to you...and with all the used Porsches available today, I would not buy from anyone except the original owner, or have that information verified thru carfax if you're working with a dealer. Just my.02

Winner Porsche in Newark Delaware considers it property of the dealer NOT the owners! They are impossible to deal with! I found out AFTER buying a car that had been serviced there that they will NOT release any service records, even to the owner that had the service performed originally. Their policy is to give you a record at the time the service is performed. If you loose it, too bad, they won't issue you another copy. My local deal does not have this policy and I would suggest when anyone buys a new car that you check that this isn't there policy either.