I've been looking for an 03 or 04 Avant for a while now, mainly via cars.com and autotrader. Not too many coming along from private sellers that look interesting although I just missed a great deal while I was out of town [:@]. I know the service record is probably the most important consideration for me. Since I willl most likely be dealing with a dealer, I only have carfax to rely on. I've seen a number of cars which have had regular service records at audi stealerships although there really isn't much information that is given (except stupid stuff like changed the wiper blade). Often time it just says 'serviced'.

So my question is: If a car has a good service history (i.e. serviced every 5k or so) as recorded by carfax, should I take this that the owner did all the upkeep? Could I call the stealership and ask what work has been done to the car? Is the service manager going to sit there and read everything they did to it?

I do plan on doing an independent inspection too (from a distance) but at least this way I can identify the possible options.

thanks in advance
jim

 

Before I bought my car, I called up the dealer that it was serviced at, and he told me what had been done to the car. I think it just depends on who/what dealer you talk to.

And get it independently inspected.