# Can I get the Service records for my Nissan?



## pathfinder100 (Nov 14, 2006)

I bought an 03 Pathfinder from a Nissan dealer. The Carfax should that it had been serviced a bunch of times, since it was new. Maybe most were oil changes. The sales guy said he could get the service records from Nissan but when I picked up the car he told me he could only get them if his dealership had done the service and they had not. 

Is there a way for me to get the records?


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## 88pathoffroad (Jun 6, 2004)

Only if you know what dealership it was serviced at.


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## pathfinder100 (Nov 14, 2006)

88pathoffroad said:


> Only if you know what dealership it was serviced at.


Yeah, the Carfax shows what town it got an inspection sticker, so I called the dealer in that town and sure enough it was serviced there and they have all the records. They would not give me the info over the phone because the want to see proof of ownership, so I'll be taking a trip there tomorrow to get all the records. 

I just want to see what was done to it and if the brakes were ever done...


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## piste (Dec 23, 2009)

Curious if anyone has ever gotten copies of service records from a garage or dealer for service done by a prior owner. Reason I ask is I am an IT professional and AFAIK it would not be ok and possibly illegal for a dealer/garage to do so without the consent of the person who had the service done. The right to access such information does not transfer along with ownership of the vehicle.


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## sup_mario (Jun 30, 2010)

No idea about it man. But I think it's possible.


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## pathfinder100 (Nov 14, 2006)

I guess it all depends on who you talk to at that dealer. When I called they said they said they wanted proof of ownership and then they said they could not release the info because the previous owners name was on the records. They later said they would extract the info without the owners name and mail me the records. Well, they sent me the records but it still had the owners name on there...

So, if you know where it was serviced, just call them up and ask. The worst they can do is say no...


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## piste (Dec 23, 2009)

pathfinder100 said:


> I guess it all depends on who you talk to at that dealer. When I called they said they said they wanted proof of ownership and then they said they could not release the info because the previous owners name was on the records. They later said they would extract the info without the owners name and mail me the records. Well, they sent me the records but it still had the owners name on there...
> 
> So, if you know where it was serviced, just call they up and ask. The worst they can do is say no...


Sounds about right. Issues like personal information on the paperwork are one of potentially many issues. Now of course I have ZERO expectation that anyone who works at a dealer or a garage would have ANY sense of any potential issues with doing this...thus it's the "depends on who answers the phone" syndrome. I'm asking rhetorically for my edification as I have no need to obtain prior records. Mine is a 97 SE and I'm original owner and have every slip for anything ever done on mine including oil changes!!! 

Anyway...I'm more interested in the ...for lack of a better term...legal side of this. As an analogy....If I buy a house do I have the right to obtain service records from any place that did maintenance on the property? HVAC? landscapers? painters? plumbers? The need is less obvious than with an automobile...but technically if I had the rights to prior service information in the case of a car...why not a house? or other things I might purchase.


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## MattyDK23 (Nov 30, 2007)

piste said:


> Curious if anyone has ever gotten copies of service records from a garage or dealer for service done by a prior owner. Reason I ask is I am an IT professional and AFAIK it would not be ok and possibly illegal for a dealer/garage to do so without the consent of the person who had the service done. The right to access such information does not transfer along with ownership of the vehicle.


If there was a decent level of obfuscation done -- for example, removing all identifying information of the previous owner(s), and perhaps only reporting the month and year for services done, not the exact dates -- then I would be OK with it. That's something that can be quite easily done with practically any database.

I don't think an owner of a vehicle has an inherent *right* to have all of the service records, but it would be something very nice to have. And if there was a standard level of privacy that all dealerships and garages followed, then maybe that information could be delivered in a manner that protects the previous owner's privacy to a decent degree.

However, then there's the issue of previous owners not wanting some service work reported, say if they were in an accident and were trying their best to keep it under wraps. Should that be information be omitted, say with an opt-out option on the service record?

I'm not a politician, I don't know. However, when I bought my second Pathy, the original owner gave every copy of his service records -- including repair quotes and bodywork reports from the two minor collisions that the CarProof report noted (Canada's version of CARFAX).


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