Should You Keep Your Car Service And Repair History Reports?

Should You Keep Your Car Service And Repair History Reports? When you get a store or restaurant receipt, you hold it temporarily. Eventually, it ends up in the trash bin. When you get an auto repair service receipt, store these auto repair receipts in a safe and secure area.

Examples are a glove compartment in the vehicle, a folder, a binder, or a safety box. Why should you keep your car service, auto repair, and repair history receipts when you can throw them away?

What’s So Special About Auto Receipts?

An auto repair service receipt mentions one repair job. That becomes a piece of your vehicle’s history. A car service and repair history report combine all documents, so dealerships, buyers, and you understand the vehicle better.

It offers the complete history and condition of the car then and now. It helps auto technicians narrow down the choices to the root of the problem when something is amiss. They use it to discover a pattern of issues that persist after previous repair shops cannot fix it.

It’s like how credit history tells a lending company how responsible you are about repaying outstanding debt. Another example is how medical history records say to a doctor about a patient’s health.

Specifically, the car history mentions the owner’s name, previous owners’ names, odometer readings, and service history. It also reveals accident history, title information, liens, repossessions, recall notices, and car use (business or personal).

These reasons will change your mind if that doesn’t convince you to keep your auto repair service receipt.

Reason 1: Remembrance and Comparison

Today’s busy lifestyles make it easy to forget the last time the car visited an auto repair shop. A receipt helps you recall the repaired or replaced part, the location, and the date. It has those details and more, leaving nothing to chance.

You can use receipts to compare the time between the current and previous appointments. Examples are an oil change, a car battery replacement, a tire rotation, and an air filter change. The receipts can guide you toward the next oil change date as well.

Reason 2: Auto Insurance and Auto Shop Warranty Claims

Owners with a warranty on their vehicle want compensation for repairs, defects, failures, or faulty items. However, they can only get those benefits once the insurance company checks the auto receipts.

If they don’t get it from you, the origin of purchase or auto shop will provide that data. A paper trail speeds up insurance claim processing so you can receive your compensation faster. Filing a claim for your vehicle is more difficult when there is no vehicle history from auto shops.

The same is true for an auto shop receipt with a warranty included. You could get a free part or low-cost replacement if the car fails before it expires. That saves money because you don’t have to pay the exact amount.

Without a warranty, you miss out on savings. Therefore, you must pay extra for a part that could have been free or reduced cost.

Reason 3: Peace of Mind for Used Vehicles

Auto owners who want to sell their vehicle to a new owner will have a paper trail as evidence. That provides ease of mind when buying used cars from the owners directly. This also works with trade-in vehicles through a dealership.

The company can back up the vehicle’s condition through the paper trail when selling it to customers. Additionally, owners and dealerships can charge a higher resale price because of the vehicle’s good condition.

Buying an automobile from a person or dealership without a paper trail of auto service is risky. You might end up with a car that needs 7,000-14,000 SGD of repairs or more. At that point, the car is not worth keeping. Conversely, the vehicle might be in good condition, but until an auto technician examines it, there is no proof.

Should You Keep Your Car Service And Repair History Reports? – Conclusion

As you keep the receipts for your records, focus less on cost and more on the type of repair. The price will not matter in the long term. What matters is whether the car is in good driving condition for personal use and resale.

To keep a car in good driving condition, it needs regular maintenance from a reputable auto shop dealer. Most auto shops keep a record of vehicle repair, and so should you. Do this for memory, comparison, resale, and warranty claims.