This is the first time I have to buy a car for myself, and whilst it is largely academic until I sell my Ambiente, I'm asking for some advice.

The last time I bought a car, I bought a pig of an MG Midget, which had a hole in the petrol tank (one of it's lesser faults). We discovered this at 2AM on the M3 much to my Dad's chagrin.

This time I'm not playing with paper-round money, so I'm a little less cautious, naive and enthusiastic

I'm keen this time to do my research and not to get stung, and as such I'm reading as many different articles as I can.

One of them on Honest John (who I've being paying a lot of attention to since reading about the ESP faults) was saying about "fake service histories", a scam that is increasingly common with the availiability of blank service books off certain sites and now anyone with a John Bull printing set can make a stamp.

What should I look for in a genuine Skoda dealers stamp, do they differ from branch to branch or follow a common format? Are they just black and white, or is the logo in Green? I've always taken mine to Indy garages bar the first service, so not really got any comparison. The HJ article was really good, but not 'Skoda Specific' so any guidance welcome.

You contact the garage and ask them, "Did you service this car?"

A genuine service history should be obvious, a proper service book will have the vehicle data sticker inside the front cover that should match exactly the car you are buying. A service book by itself should never be taken as proof of servicing, I sold my octy and it had all the reciepts for the services carried out with the service book. This is not always the case though, especially if the car you are buying is ex. lease. If you buy an approved used car from a main dealer then its history can be checked through the dealer network if you are unsure.

What should I look for in a genuine Skoda dealers stamp, do they differ from branch to branch or follow a common format? Are they just black and white, or is the logo in Green? I've always taken mine to Indy garages bar the first service, so not really got any comparison.

The website www.autoquake.co.uk shows the documentation for all their cars and thus you can compare various Skoda Dealers' stamps. They seem to follow no obvious pattern but the logo is black and green ink with the "ID" number for the dealer. The receipt I got for my last service at a main dealer was a print out on a laser printer. Seems to me I could make up a plausible "Service History" just from that information alone.

I would suggest a "Skoda Approved" Skoda and a written undertaking from the dealer that a Full Skoda Service history follows the car is about the only way to be sure. I understand dealers have some central database they update with the services they carry out. It should be possible for a Skoda/VAG dealer to back up his story of a FSH.

[edit for spelling]

Edited 1 March, 201016 yr by FriendlyFire

It's a lot harder on newer cars, but my Golf was sold as full VW service history and I was a little sceptical since the reg didn't show up, but it's had so many plate changes and the general condition of the car showed that it was well maintained regardless of the history.

If I understand correctly Skoda doesn't run centralized database, so there is no way to verify history between dealers. While buying my now-being-replaced Octavia three years ago I did encounter few service history sets which seemed highly unlikely - as an example - car with Essex area code in reg plate, two owners, last owner on V5 with address in Berks, entire history stamped by a ten-marques-under-one-roof type dealer in Kent as "the car was always serviced with us". Stinks from mile away, doesn't it?

TBH I think this kind of thing must have been going on for decades.

It seems silly to risk counterfeiting a pound note when it is so much easier to invent a service history and (together with ringing the mileage) bump the value of a car by hundreds.