How to check a car service history (and what you cannot see)

Where a service history lives

A car's service history is not stored in one place. It is spread across the owner's folder of receipts, the shops and dealerships that did the work, and the records that insurers, junk yards and state title offices report to databases. Each source answers a different question.

That is why the honest answer to a search for a free service history lookup is that none shows everything. The steps below go from the most useful source to the least.

Start with the seller's paperwork

The Department of Justice's used car buying tips, which summarize FTC advice, tell buyers to ask for the car's maintenance record from the owner, the dealer or the repair shop. They also suggest talking to the previous owner, especially if the present owner does not know the car's history.

If the owner has no copies, the same page says to contact the dealership or repair shop where most of the work was done, because they may share their files. Our own advice is to lay the receipts out by date and look for gaps: a car that shows 90,000 miles but has no record of fluids or tires deserves a firmer price or a pass.

Run the VIN through NICB for free

The National Insurance Crime Bureau offers VINCheck, a free tool that tells you whether a vehicle has been reported stolen and not recovered, or reported as salvage or flood damaged by participating insurance companies. You can run up to five searches in 24 hours per IP address.

NICB says plainly that VINCheck is not a comprehensive vehicle history report. It checks insurance records from participating insurers only, so a clean result does not guarantee a clean history. It also does not list services.

Order an NMVTIS report for title events

The National Motor Vehicle Title Information System, run by the Department of Justice, reports five things: current state of title and last title date, brand history such as junk, salvage and flood, odometer reading, total loss history and salvage history. The data comes from state titling agencies, junk and salvage yards, auto recyclers and insurance carriers. Each provider is listed on the Vehicle History site.

The page notes that a report with nothing in it is a good thing, because the report is intentionally short. The buying tips page says to expect to pay up to $4 per report. Consumers cannot get NMVTIS reports from Carfax, DMVDesk or Experian, which provide NMVTIS data only to car dealerships, according to the provider list.

What none of these can show you

An NMVTIS report is not meant to include repair histories or other care and maintenance data. The Justice Department says private providers offer that kind of information, and NICB says full reports from partner companies can include service history among other sources, mostly at a cost. That information only exists when a shop or owner reported it.

So an oil change done in a driveway, or at a shop that reports to nobody, leaves no trace in any report. The Justice Department strongly encourages an independent vehicle inspection before you buy, and NICB urges additional due diligence. An inspection is the only check that reads the car itself rather than its paperwork.

Keep your own record from now on

The best service history is the one the owner kept. Write down the date, the mileage and the work at every service and keep the receipt, so the next buyer sees proof instead of a promise. This is our own advice, not a rule from any source above. Note the shop name too, because a future owner who wants to confirm a repair can then call the place that did it, which is the same step the Justice Department suggests to buyers today. Photograph paper receipts before the ink fades.