Hi
Any advice/views on the following would be gratefully received -
I bought a 57 plate panda at a BCA auction last week - described as one company owner, 11k miles warranted, 2x service stamps. After I bought the car, I checked out the service book (only stamped, no invoices) to find it had been stamped at 7113 miles on the 3/12/09 for the first service and again at 9910 miles on the 1/12/09 for the second service???? Obviously there is a problem with this. I called the company that "serviced" the car, and this turns out to be a body shop (a subsidiary of Direct Line according to info from google) which used the panda as a customer car. The person I spoke to told me that they don't service cars and was not sure why the book had been stamped - they have no paperwork to back up the stamps. Whilst I believe the mileage is correct, this will affect the balance of the fiat warranty and also impact on the resale value.
I am going to contact the auction company on Monday but am really looking for views on what you would expect the outcome should be?
thanks
tim
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Hi, Tim. As regards the odd service dates, service departments are always messing up the info in service books. They've probably written the date of next service in the place where they should have put the date the service was done.
You may struggle to get any comeback. Notice how auction descriptions say 'two stamps' and not 'two services', so, technically, they're correct.
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to find it had been stamped at 7113 miles on the 3/12/09 for the first service and again at 9910 miles on the 1/12/09 for the second service???? Obviously there is a problem with this.
my moneys is on the 1st stamp should have been 3/12/08.
still doesnt seem quite right though....
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First of all congratulations on buying a Panda. We got ours new four years ago and it is the best car we've ever had bar none.
I wouldn't worry about the stamp really, at least with the same colour pen you can carefully alter it to 2008 then it will look right in a few years when you sell it.
If you doubt it has been serviced correctly then I'd for peace of mind have it done again anyway, especially as a bodyshop car it may have done lots of short journeys and endless shunting around the yard cold when it was blocking other cars in.
You will have saved a bit hopefully on the price to counteract this. But at 11k it should just be routine stuff really.
Hope you enjoy it, it will provide years of value motoring.
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thanks for the replies - I was just worried that somebody had made a bad job of filling in the service book the day before the car went off to auction. Checked the oil and it is very clean so has been changed recently which I suppose is a good thing. The cars condition is excellent which backs up the mileage. Just wondered if they can describe the cars mileage as warranted due to the descrepency? I bought the car for my mum who is 72 - her micra (which I bought from a motability auction 8 years ago) has finally failed its MOT for rust having given faultless service.
On a more general point, I think it is difficult for a private buyer to get a great deal at auction at the moment for this type of car - I have been to a few sales recently and the prices seem really high, especially when you add the buyers premium which was £320!! (and the fact I ran out of petrol 1/2 mile from the auction!)
On a happy note, my mum is happy with the car so I suppose thats the main thing!
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Glad your mum likes it. They are ideal for someone who is not as agile as they once were due to the highish seat position, so she can slide into it rather than plonk down on the seat. The city button makes light work of steering too.
They can warrant the mileage as they ran it from new and presumably signed a declaration. Just think in reality a bodyshop car may only do a few miles a day for someone to get to work etc. And it may not of been on hire everyday of it's life. If its been just run round a local town, then 500 miles a month seems ok to me.
I'm sure your mum will find it ideal.
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with respect Duetto2005 you may love your fiat
but you know nothing about bodyshops and loan cars
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BB,
Another optimistic, positive post.
Think we might have to rename you: For Whom the Bell Tolls Boy. :)
No one can know all the history of this car.
If it looks in good condition, it probably is - think quacks and ducks.
Give it a good belt and a service in that order.
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I'm with BB,with any multi user fleet you get good cars,bad cars and most are just very average.All depends on what you have to pay and being aware of the previous fleet life if its important to you.
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