Whilst getting my vehicles serviced yesterday, I was struck by the number of 'soft sells' that I overheard the Service Advisors were doing with customers, things like:

• "okay, so at 30,000 miles it is recommended you do a fuel injector clean...we can do that today for only $169..."
• "while your battery is only 3 years old, and it did check out okay, we recommend you replace it, especially with the cold weather approaching..."
• "at 60,000 miles it is recommended you change the coolant, and I'd would highly suggest doing that today since record low temperatures are forecast...:
• "your front brake pads are at 7mm thick, it's recommended to change those at this time...your front brakes do most of the stopping so that is why they are thinner than the rear..."
• "we can do a comprehensive recommended maintenance on your vehicle today; this includes changing the spark plugs, a fuel injector service, air filter change, and a check of all the electronic components..."

and so on and so forth. It got me to wondering what the Scheduled Maintenance in my Owner's Manual stated, and it is pretty basic, especially compared to my 2010's manual. I also asked if I needed to have anything 'stamped off' to show the recommended service was done and my Service Advisor kind of smiled and said, "No, sir...it's all electronic these days. We don't need to stamp your manual. Which was kind of disappointing, as that was something I always proudly showed when selling or trading a vehicle: this living diary so to speak of its service history. Oh well, times change.

 

its up to you to determine what actually needs to be done, the manufacturer wants to show a lower cost of ownership and the dealer wants to make money. the reality of what's best is somewhere in the middle. the electronic log works, when you sell your truck they will scan the vin and log into the app and have the service history or they can go to the dealer and get a print out of everything that was done. you can also enter your own maintenance details and take a picture of the receipts in the app and the records will all be in one place.

 

I’ve never in my life had a vehicle serviced by a garage so I wouldn’t know about the stamps, but if you have the fordpass app you can log various maintenance with mileage, dates, costs, and even upload invoices. These records stay attached to the VIN from what I understand.

 

an oasis report run by a ford dealer will also show all work ever done by a ford dealer - repairs, recalls and maintenance. When its time to sell get em to print ya one out

 

only if its done under warranty

 

I dont think dealerships care about the service history of a trade-in... they just want to low ball you some cash for it and get a new vehicle off the lot.

 

I keep an old school sheet of paper in my truck, actually everything I own. Across the top is Date, Mileage, Comments. I record absolutely everything I do to any vehicle, including replacing wiper blades etc. Oh I could find receipts if necessary under a warranty sheet fight, it's more on them to provide proof I did not do it. I have found any buyer on any vehicle, bike, boat, or trailer I ever sell is delighted with the paper trail, it's always a selling point. As far as trading in at the Dealer, any documentation is worthless with the evaluation, The clown that evaluates simply gives the book values with a bit of local area influence.

As far as above maintenance picture, I didn't see the brake fluid exchange, and a couple other things.

Here is my sheet, basic notebook paper works as well

 

"Soft sells"... I have had to argue loudly when a service writer of some sort insisted that my brake pads were "down to 20%" - they were almost brand new. Not so soft.

 

Yup. They make it sound like your vehicle is going to explode into a huge fireball the minute you leave, if you don't get all the needless servicing done that they strongly suggest.

 

Nobody really cares about service history except a tiny community of obsessive-compulsives. Guess what the difference is in engine condition and remaining service life between one that had the oil changed every 3000 miles with obsessive-compulsive documentation and another that had the oil changed 1000 miles after the sensor said to change it? It's not measurable, which means it has no value.