thanks all for your input - super helpful.

a lot of cars for sale which I'm enquiring into are missing service history in 2020 and sometimes 2021 as well. They're all saying this is due to covid which might be a fair point!

What's your opinion? Is it unreasonable to dismiss a car because it's missing a service during the pandemic?!

If it's missing a 2020 and/or 2021 service but has a 2022 and 2023 which shows no issues, would this be sufficient for you guys?

Thanks again

We were servicing vehicles all the way through the lockdowns - it may have been a valid reason for the actual lockdown periods but outside of those (i.e. late spring, summer & early autumn 2020) then it was just an excuse to not spend some of the Furlough money...
We were pretty much back to normal workloads in 2021 so again, cost avoidance dressed up as 'Covid' will be the main driver - also, no excuse not to have it serviced as soon as practicable. IMO, higher mileage vehicles would fare better with a missed service due to the lack of likely failed regens causing excessive oil dilution.

Your money, your choice - servicing (and MoT history) is no guarantee of future longevity, find one you're happy with and don't look back.

In my mind, folks who really care about their cars at least service them by the book, anything less is neglect, plenty of vehicles have managed a FSH through Covid, so that’s just an excuse.
FFRR’s are large complex cars, and it’s not so much just the routine annual service work that’s important, it’s the inspection work to preempt future issues that’s equally so.
Also, when it comes to resale value, an identical car with FSH will always fetch more.
Appreciated that conversely, you can use missing SH to barter down the price of course.
Many owners on here myself included, have an interim oil change every 6months to counteract low mileage and dilution. Like Phoenix says, there is no guarantee and a certain amount of luck involved, but there must be a bit of a gambler in all of us on here  “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” -where’s the fun in that?

Thanks both. Yes, I've heard a few people say go in lower if no FSH, but isn't that counter productive? Am I better to avoid a car like that altogether?

Also, would you prefer a car that missed 2019, 2020 and 2021 but only covered 18,000 miles in thsat period and then had service in 2022 and 2023. Or a car that missed 2020 and 2021 but covered 35,000 miles during that period?

I'm aware I'm asking soo any questions so excuse me for this but I'm new to FFRR and more importantly, new to buying a second hand car altogether!

Thanks again for everyone's input!

Be prepared to travel a long way to find the right car, and don’t rush it.
Given the scenario above, you may as well flip a coin, luck of the draw.
I would want a chunky discount either way, so maybe less miles is better, just as many others will disagree with that thought of course  “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” -where’s the fun in that?

Frankly, neither.
The first one is way too long and will have significantly suffered due to oil dilution.
The second one will (potentially) have had a high soot load in the oil, leading to poor lubrication around the turbo's (and if it's a 3.0l, crank journals too) with that mileage, they've clearly been driving it so should have been able to find time to get one service done - which would be acceptable (to me), missing two with 35k driven is not something I'd want unless the price reflected the risk.

Thank you both.

Yes, I'm absolutely not rushing this and am actually enjoying the hunt and learning so much from this forum! Thanks again and no doubt I'll be back on here asking more questions tonight or tomorrow once I've done some more hunting!

Thanks for the warning!

Haha!

Align89 wrote:

Thanks both. Yes, I've heard a few people say go in lower if no FSH, but isn't that counter productive? Am I better to avoid a car like that altogether?

Also, would you prefer a car that missed 2019, 2020 and 2021 but only covered 18,000 miles in that period and then had service in 2022 and 2023. Or a car that missed 2020 and 2021 but covered 35,000 miles during that period?

I'm aware I'm asking soo any questions so excuse me for this but I'm new to FFRR and more importantly, new to buying a second hand car altogether!

Thanks again for everyone's input!