Reviewing service history online

[Chocolate]

Most manufacturers let you create accounts online to review service history.

Toyota has https://www.toyota.com/owners/ and www.drivers.lexus.com, where you can add a VIN to your account and review any service history done at a dealer. Mazda USA has https://www.mazdausa.com/owners

When I tried reviewing two higher mile examples on Autotrader, one example had no service history listed and the other VIN I tried logged me out when I tried to add it, which leads me to believe the VIN is tied to an account and only the owner can see the service history. Is this correct?

If that's the case, it just means you need to contact a dealer to see the service history if you're looking at buying a used example. However, sometimes dealers are reluctant or unwilling to show you the service history of another vehicle. I am curious to know if anyone else shops this way, what their experiences have been, and if they've been able to review service history of other cars online. Carfax is one option, but incomplete as they often don't include dealer service history depending on the dealer.

 

[CX-5um]

I once bought a used BMW and requested in person at the dealership the historical service records. They denied the request saying it was confidential records for the previous owners

 

[Chocolate]

Yeah. If I can't see the history somehow, I'm not buying a used vehicle. There's no reason for it to be secret. Toyota is the number one auto manufacturer in the world and they let you see the dealer service history of any Toyota or Lexus right from their website. Any user added records don't show up except on the account of the person who adds them.

As it stands, I guess you have to ask a service advisor to pull up the records and look at the screen, or ask the dealer in person to show them to you. Policy or not, if you're serious about buying the car, they're going to show it to you anyway.

 

[Avoidin Deer]

I once bought a used BMW and requested in person at the dealership the historical service records. They denied the request saying it was confidential records for the previous owners

Great.

HIPPA for oil changes.

 

[Chocolate]

Great.

HIPPA for oil changes.

That's a BMW similarity I would rather not have.

I worked there for a while and the online records are stamped "Confidential" across the top of each page. That's in large part because they don't want people seeing how expensive they are to repair, with proprietary tools often required to work on the vehicle.

On the subject, it seems the Mazda clickwheel controller was also copied directly from BMW. Everything is the same except the size of the controller (and lack of other expensive gimmicks like a touchpad). The buttons surrounding the controller are a direct copy.

While they were copying ideas, they should have also copied the 8 programmable memory buttons - that is a great feature.

 

[Avoidin Deer]

While they were copying ideas, they should have also copied the 8 programmable memory buttons - that is a great feature.

Would that be a touch pad for radio presets?

I've said that for all the things that Mazda disabled while the car is in motion for "safety," migrating radio presets from a button I can automatically reach without looking to a screen I gotta read & select seems to defeat that purpose. I imagine they're not alone in this.

 

[Chocolate]

They are 8 hard buttons that can be programmed as a shortcut to whatever is highlighted in the infotainment. Press and hold one of the buttons for a few seconds and you can set shortcuts to audio sources, radio stations, preset navigation addresses, whatever you want.