Full service history means every service the manufacturer's schedule called for has been carried out at roughly the right time or mileage, and there is evidence for each one. Evidence means dated invoices, a manufacturer digital record, or stamps you can telephone and verify. A book full of stamps with nothing behind them is not full service history, however the advert describes it.
FSH means no missed services and proof for all of them. Part service history means gaps, and where the gaps fall matters far more than how many there are. No history at all is acceptable on a cheap older car with a simple engine, and a real problem on anything with a cambelt interval, a dual clutch gearbox or a diesel particulate filter, unless the price already covers putting it right.
Every manufacturer publishes a schedule based on time or mileage, whichever comes first. A car that covers 4,000 miles a year still needs its annual or two-yearly service. Skipping it is a missed service even though the mileage looks light. Some cars use a variable schedule driven by sensors and driving style, in which case the car itself decided when the service was due and the record should reflect that.
The schedule is also more than oil and a filter. Depending on the car it takes in brake fluid every couple of years, coolant, spark plugs, air and fuel filters, transmission oil, and the expensive one, a cambelt and water pump at a set age or mileage. Full history means all of that is accounted for. Plenty of cars advertised as FSH have had ten oil changes and no brake fluid since new.
Service books and rubber stamps can be bought. That is the blunt version. The subtler problem is that even an honest stamp records only that somebody stamped a page. It does not say which items were replaced, what oil went in, what the mileage was, or whether the work the garage advised was ever done.
| Evidence | How strong | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer digital record printed by a dealer | Strong | Held centrally against the VIN, with dates and mileages |
| Dated invoices showing mileage and parts | Strong | Says exactly what was done and can be checked with the garage |
| Stamps you have verified by telephone | Reasonable | Confirms the visit happened, though the detail is usually thin |
| Stamps alone | Weak | Books and stamps are easy to obtain |
| "I serviced it myself, no paperwork" | None | It may well be true, but you cannot price on it |
Most manufacturers moved years ago to a digital service record held against the VIN. A franchised dealer, or an independent inside the approved network, uploads each visit, and any dealer for that brand can then print the history.
Two things follow. First, for a brand that uses a digital record, a printout from a main dealer beats any book. Ring a dealer with the registration and the VIN and ask. Many will produce one for a serious buyer, and some will ask the current owner to request it, which is a perfectly reasonable thing to ask a seller to do.
Second, a car looked after properly by a good independent outside the network can show almost nothing digitally. That is not evidence of neglect. Ask for the invoices instead, then check the garage still exists and remembers the car.
Carpeep does not hold service records. No UK vehicle history provider does, because that data belongs to dealers and manufacturers and is not published anywhere central. Outstanding manufacturer safety recalls are not in a history report either, and you can check those free on GOV.UK.
What a used car check does give you is the evidence next door to servicing: every MOT test with its advisories and failures, the mileage recorded at each test, keeper history, plus outstanding finance, write-off and stolen markers. The MOT advisory trail is the closest free proxy for how a car has been looked after.
Read it as a story rather than a list. Corroded brake pipes advised three years running, an oil leak that never gets fixed, tyres passing at the limit every single time: that is a car receiving the legal minimum. Advisories that appear once and are gone by the next test suggest an owner who acts on them. Cross-check the readings with a mileage check and pull the full MOT history before you drive out to view anything.
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Part service history means gaps, so ask which services are missing and at what age. A skipped interim oil change on a chain-driven petrol is a shrug. A missing cambelt service on a car that passed the interval two years ago is a bill and a genuine risk of a destroyed engine. Work out what it costs to bring the car to a known state and take that off the asking price.
Get quotes for the work that brings it to a known baseline: oil and filter, brake fluid, plugs, coolant, transmission oil, and the cambelt and water pump if there is any doubt. Deduct the total, then decide whether the car is still worth having. Remember that missing paperwork rarely travels alone, so read the rest of the record properly and treat it alongside the other red flags worth checking. A full history check costs £15 and will tell you whether the mileage, keeper record and finance position back up the seller's story.
Hidden finance and write-offs won't show up on a test drive.
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