Since we bought our MINI second hand, I am curious as to what has been replaced/maintained. I'm sure not everything was done at the dealership, but it looks like almost everything is O.E.

Has anyone ( especially second hand owners) attempted to get history information, and is this even plausible, calling the dealership and giving them the necessary information ( vin#, etc)

 

If service was done by a dealer they should be able to pull up the history based on your VIN or by putting your key in a reader if it's a newer year model. If work was done elsewhere you'd probably have to order a carfax report and those don't always include complete information - they're dependent on whether the service provider reports the information.

 

Gotcha. I'm hoping to find some history, see if the front end was disassembled since it's not aligned correctly, and if the water pump/supercharger/thermostat, etc. was replaced. Also it gives me a good starting point of when the next interval to change fluid and parts is.

 

The day after I got mine (last week, from a used car lot) I stopped by my local Mini dealership for some parts. While I was there I spoke to one of the service guys and he was able to pull up the history for me (I knew it had been serviced at that dealer from the carfax report). He was able to go through all the previous service visits and tell me what was done and what is scheduled to be done (I still have a service plan til June and the brakes are due to be serviced). As Kirby said, they can only report what was done at a dealer since anything done privately is not on record but it's still a nice piece of mind to see how/if the previous owner had it serviced regularly or not.

If you're going to try to do it I suggest going to the dealer and politely asking if there's any way they can pull a service history since you just bought the car. I'm not sure if they'd be willing to give that info out over the phone though.

 

Oh yeah, I want it printed out for my log book, so I'd have to be there in person.

 

So get this ( I'm quite pissed to be honest) I call Mini of Mt. Laural, and ask for the information for my Mini. I give them the Vin number, and the person asks what I'm looking for. I ask to have all the history printed out and faxed to me, which he said he wasn't allowed to. I could understand for security reasons over an anonymous fax line, so I ask if I have to go there and personally pick it up. He promptly tells me he can't give me anything since I'm "Third Party." I ask who is entitled to this information, and he tells me The dealership and service only. He tells me by LAW he isn't allowed to do this for me...... I don't get it, I'm the owner of this, why am I not entitled to know what has been done to my very own vehicle. I'm not sure if this is because he's being lazy, or the fact that BMW/Mini is still witholding information, which I feel is illegal, I should have the right to know what they have done to keep the car running, and what problems may have arised from this car in the past.

Any input on this? Has anyone else been denied their information?

Oh and BTW, no trans service done, and last time it was in was 50K ago for brakes and oil change......so not much records kept on it.

 

I'm guessing they're required to protect the previous owner's privacy and don't want to go through the trouble of redacting the report. You might try another angle: ask them to tell you the service history over the phone, or go to the dealer and have them read it out loud to you.

 

I'm not surprised they wouldn't give you a printed copy since it's a previous owner's record and not necessarily something that gets transferred to new owners.
As I stated earlier, when I went to my dealership and spoke to the service guy nicely he was able to pull up the record and pretty much tell me everything that had been done and what is due (my brakes are due for service). He didn't offer to print anything nor did I expect him to since I know if there was any sort of red flags he would have told me about it.

 

Okay, I'll have to do that when I swing by up that way....just any of the local Mini dealers are an hour away...

 

yea I'm in the same boat pretty much, I have 2 "locally" but each one is about an hour drive (or more depending on traffic). The day I stopped by to check the history of my car and pick up some coolant I had to leave work a couple of hours early to get there, not the most convenient thing.

 

It is not surprising they refused to give you the history. The SA who did give out the information was obviously poorly trained. The information does not belong to a subsequent buyer of the vehicle but rather are the records of the previous owner, redacted or not.

It does involve the Privacy Act and most dealers do not feel the benefits are worth the potential risk. Especially not when they did not sell the vehicle to you. In this case, you are looking for previous damage and no dealer voluntarily should want to be involved in that scenario.

 

Yeah most dealers wont print you anything unless you know them well. Some wont even tell you anything about the previous owners history being there are privacy laws, etc.

i was able to get all mine, but i have known people who have been told no.

 

I told him my main concern is the transmissions having a potential failure at around 80K, since were at that point, and I just wanted to see if there was any work done dealing with the transmission, at which he didn't deny hearing about it ( hint hint) and looked over the list, and let me know that no, no recent history, and none concerning the transmission, so as mad as I may have been, I realize I at least got a little compliance with much needed info.

 

I was able to get a printout of mine and it clearly states "confidential information" on the report. The thing is that after getting the report I realized that the car has an extended service plan that I did not know about. Now I wonder if it is still good since ownership has been transferred and maint. plan transfer paperwork was not done.

 

Seems like they could give you the info as long as the PO's name,addy,etc-. was not on there.
Now of course the dealer would rather have you bring the car in so they can work on it.