I am in the process of purchasing a used car, and from the car fax report it states last serviced at 14,782 - and the car currently has 34K miles. Are service records only made available thru dealers?
Generally.
Car Fax can only provide information on what was reported to them. Anything else is pure guess work. Don’t assumer the absence of anything good or bad is meaningful.
Carfax is notoriously unreliable and it does not report as much information as the potential buyer would want in many cases. So, it is possible that the car was serviced properly.
Then again, in the absence of paper records (I assume that the car does not come with any of those), it is also possible that it really hasn’t been serviced in about 20,000 miles. After reading some of the stories on this site, I can tell you that there are irresponsible car owners who essentially do almost nothing in terms of maintenance, and if they get rid of the car within just a few years, the only person who will have problems will be the next owner.
The only source for complete service records would be the dealer or the mechanic who consistently serviced the vehicle. If the vehicle was serviced at several locations, the records would be scattered in many locations. But, in either event, you would have to know where the vehicle was serviced in the past in order to try to reconstruct its history.
If there is any doubt regarding the maintenance of this car, pass it up and keep looking. A used car is just like a commuter bus, e.g.–there will always be another one.
The point of the carfax service reports is not supposed to be an indication of how well-maintained the car is. The idea is to record mileages and dates to detect odometer rollback. For example if you saw a service record at 150k, but the odometer currently reads 70K or something, then you would know something’s fishy. Most shops don’t submit these reports, however, so the absence of them should in no way indicate an absence of maintinence.
I will also mention that these records are only as accurate as the people entering them in-- there was a post a while ago where someone was looking at a truck that carfax reported as having an “odometer discrepency” where one service record obviously just had an extra number added on.
I agree with everyone above who noted the unreliability of Carfax reports. If an oil change center does not file reports with Carfax, the cars it services will have nothing to show. Pay no attention to the lack of service report.
If you can, check all the fluids in the vehicle for discolor and a possible burnt smell.
An overdue engine oil change will turn up a very dark brown color.
At only 34K miles, a recent oil change should show a light amber colored oil. (at least for two weeks after)