A documented service record is the difference between a car that was maintained and one that was merely driven. Enter the VIN to see what was recorded.
Recorded maintenance visits with dates and, where captured, the odometer reading at the time.
What was done at each visit, where the reporting source recorded that detail.
Repairs beyond routine servicing, including work following a collision.
Long stretches with nothing recorded, which is worth asking the seller about.
Safety and mechanical inspections, including provincial certificates where they were reported.
Whether outstanding safety recalls appear to have been addressed.
Enter the 17-character VIN from the windscreen, door jamb or registration document.
Vektracer searches the vehicle-history sources available for that VIN.
Review the free preview to see which records exist.
Unlock the full report when the records are worth reading.
Road salt attacks brake lines, subframes and body seams. Cold starts are hard on batteries and oil. A car serviced regularly through ten Canadian winters is in a materially different condition from one that was not, and the difference is not always visible on a spring inspection.
Service records appear on effectively every Canadian report we generate — more often than on American ones. If you are buying in Canada, this is one of the more reliable parts of the record rather than an afterthought.
A three-year stretch with nothing recorded does not prove neglect; it may mean an independent garage that reports nothing. But it does mean the seller should be able to produce receipts, and if they cannot, that is worth reflecting in the price.
Service visits usually capture a mileage reading. That makes the service record a second, independent source for the distance the car has actually travelled — which is exactly what you need to test a rollback.
The record lists visits chronologically, typically with the date, the odometer reading and whatever description the source supplied. What you want to see is regularity — visits at sensible intervals with mileage climbing steadily between them. What should give you pause is a long silence followed by a burst of expensive work, which often marks the point where a problem was ignored until it could not be. Remember that a missing record means nothing was reported, not that nothing was done.
See a full sample reportYes. Enter the 17-character VIN and the report returns recorded service and maintenance events, with dates and the odometer reading where it was captured. Service records are present on effectively every Canadian report we generate.
Sometimes. Dealer networks and larger chains report consistently; small independent garages often report nothing at all. An absence of records for a period does not mean the car was neglected — ask the seller for receipts covering the gaps.
That nothing was reported in that window. It could be an independent garage that does not report, a period when the car was off the road, or genuine neglect. The record narrows the question; the seller's receipts and a mechanical inspection answer it.
Salt corrosion and cold-start wear do their damage gradually and largely out of sight. Documented servicing is the best available evidence that a car was looked after through conditions that punish cars which were not.
Recall information is included. For Canadian vehicles, confirm against the Transport Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Recalls Database, which is the Canadian authority — recall campaigns and their timing do not always match between Canada and the United States.
Enter the VIN to see which records exist. The preview is free.