Way to check what maintenance has been done on a used vehicle

[Badbird2000]

Not sure the best way to word this. My wife and i bought a used 2016 Cadillac XRS from Carmax earlier this year. Not my choice to purchase from there, she likes dealing with them. Her car, she is happy. The car itself is great, only 52,000 miles, old lady drove it locally. Is there a way to see if particular services have been performed on it by plugging in a reader at the dealer? Carmax wasn't helpful, just that they ran a Carfax on it, came back clean.  

[KARNUT]

6 minutes ago, Badbird2000 said:

Not sure the best way to word this. My wife and i bought a used 2016 Cadillac XRS from Carmax earlier this year. Not my choice to purchase from there, she likes dealing with them. Her car, she is happy. The car itself is great, only 52,000 miles, old lady drove it locally. Is there a way to see if particular services have been performed on it by plugging in a reader at the dealer? Carmax wasn't helpful, just that they ran a Carfax on it, came back clean.  

My experience has been even if it’s tracked on carfax. The only way I’d buy a used vehicle. Usually it’s the recommended dealer service. That’s been proven not to be enough. I’d do all service and consider it money well spent. 

[customboss]

9 minutes ago, KARNUT said:

My experience has been even if it’s tracked on carfax. The only way I’d buy a used vehicle. Usually it’s the recommended dealer service. That’s been proven not to be enough. I’d do all service and consider it money well spent. 

You can lie to CARFAX. 

[KARNUT]

8 minutes ago, customboss said:

You can lie to CARFAX. 

Well according to you everyone does. I guess I’m a little more trusting. I haven’t been burned yet. 

[Atlas]

If you ask nicely, a service writer at a Cadillac dealership or other GM brand dealership may be able to run a GM VIS report for you. It will list any repairs done at a GM dealer under warranty. I can't remember if it will also list any services performed at a GM dealer. If you are able to locate the dealer where the original owner had the car serviced (if they serviced it at a dealer) then it's possible they could provide the service history with the previous owner's information redacted.

 

Carfax is another possible source as 3rd parties can report maintenance work (Instant oil change places, independent repair shops). I've actually had better vehicle history hits using Autocheck as of late.

 

At this point, on a nearly ~10 year old vehicle, all required services are suspect IMO. Coolant, brake fluid, transmission (50k), transfer case or AWD. If there's no record, just assume it hasn't been done.

[mjm-1957]

GM Vis will only show warranty repairs and build information and all RPOs and the delivering dealer.

[customboss]

1 hour ago, KARNUT said:

Well according to you everyone does. I guess I’m a little more trusting. I haven’t been burned yet. 

? I don’t think everyone does. 

[Jsdirt]

Pretty easy to keep info off Carfax.  Dealerships will put the info in there IF it comes in for service.

 

If an incident or accident doesn't go through government (police) channels, then it won't be on Carfax. For example, you get in a bad wreck in a rural area and the guy begs you not to call the cops and pulls $4,000 out of his wallet, then that wrecked vehicle is clear. It never happened.

 

On my '07 Silverado, I did my own repair work since day 1, so nothing service related was shown. When I backed into a sapling in my yard one time and nearly totaled the vehicle, I did most of the work there too aside from straightening the box (POS beer can!) & painting the wrinkled metal that was straightened. The Carfax on that truck was VERY short - only recalls showed up. None of 30 or so trips to the service department for warranty issues did.

Edited November 4, 2025 by Jsdirt

[txab]

3 hours ago, Atlas said:

If you ask nicely, a service writer at a Cadillac dealership or other GM brand dealership may be able to run a GM VIS report for you. It will list any repairs done at a GM dealer under warranty. I can't remember if it will also list any services performed at a GM dealer. If you are able to locate the dealer where the original owner had the car serviced (if they serviced it at a dealer) then it's possible they could provide the service history with the previous owner's information redacted.

 

Carfax is another possible source as 3rd parties can report maintenance work (Instant oil change places, independent repair shops). I've actually had better vehicle history hits using Autocheck as of late.

 

At this point, on a nearly ~10 year old vehicle, all required services are suspect IMO. Coolant, brake fluid, transmission (50k), transfer case or AWD. If there's no record, just assume it hasn't been done.

Report from a dealer should show any service performed on the vehicle at any dealership provided the  VIN was entered into the system at time of service. newdude would be the ultimate authority on this info

Edited November 4, 2025 by txab

[KARNUT]

I take my vehicles to the dealership every other service. I take them to Valvoline in between. It shows up on each other’s computer. Do it yourself keeps it off, of course. Detailed records for resale would increase its resale value. If you have doubts about body damage take it to your mechanic to give it a once over. Otherwise just service your recently purchased vehicle is always smart. Every used vehicle I purchased gets done the first week. 

[Jsdirt]

Besides the fact that I could never pay someone for something I can do myself, up here in MA, trust is a MAJOR issue.

 

Just finding a competent shop that could perform a simple front end alignment has been a 20 year process for me! Between my cars coming back with the steering wheel completely sideways, tie rod adjustment collars left loose, and tools left under my hood, it's TOUGH up here! 

 

I ran my own shop 14 years. If you're leaving tools under the hood, that means you're rushing. If you're rushing, quality has taken a backseat to speed. If I had the equipment, I'd do alignments myself. 

 

Only other things I don't do is glass or any body / paint work (unless it's a rattle can). I have ZERO patience for that kind of work. 

[KARNUT]

8 minutes ago, Jsdirt said:

Besides the fact that I could never pay someone for something I can do myself, up here in MA, trust is a MAJOR issue.

 

Just finding a competent shop that could perform a simple front end alignment has been a 20 year process for me! Between my cars coming back with the steering wheel completely sideways, tie rod adjustment collars left loose, and tools left under my hood, it's TOUGH up here! 

 

I ran my own shop 14 years. If you're leaving tools under the hood, that means you're rushing. If you're rushing, quality has taken a backseat to speed. If I had the equipment, I'd do alignments myself. 

 

Only other things I don't do is glass or any body / paint work (unless it's a rattle can). I have ZERO patience for that kind of work. 

Generally I’ve done everything automotive. I still do easy stuff. I can spot damage. I even bought a builder titled car that was totaled and repaired. I got it for a song. A year old Z-28. Kept it 7 years. I’m a month away from 70. I have several trusted shops. Some of the guys I drag raced with back in the day. I’ve been lucky that way. I even have a couple trusted dealerships. So I’ll gladly farm stuff out. I guess I’ve just been lucky. 

[Jsdirt]

TX tends to still have God-fearing Patriots in its population. Those qualities are getting very sparse in the Northeast these days, and have been on that trajectory for a long, long time.

[Black02Silverado]

On 11/3/2025 at 2:51 PM, Badbird2000 said:

Not sure the best way to word this. My wife and i bought a used 2016 Cadillac XRS from Carmax earlier this year. Not my choice to purchase from there, she likes dealing with them. Her car, she is happy. The car itself is great, only 52,000 miles, old lady drove it locally. Is there a way to see if particular services have been performed on it by plugging in a reader at the dealer? Carmax wasn't helpful, just that they ran a Carfax on it, came back clean.  

Best to just go over the vehicle and complete all fluid changes at this point. Belts and hoses give a good visual inspection. Also, I’ve seen it before but check the tires date code. Anything over 8 years means time for new tires. Case in point, my father-in-law  never had tires rotated and the back tires still had good tread on them and were over 10 years old.  

[RyanbabZ71]

Another piece of mind could be to run an oil analysis  I purchased a used ZL1 in March and recently ran an oil sample (oil was changed by dealer prior to being sold) after changing it a few weeks ago. Everything came back really good which was piece of mind.  Car only has 13K miles currently.  Many of the services were shown in carfax (oil change).  I did not have record of the rear diff being changed so I went and did that.  Nothing abnormal from that service.  Also checked the brake fluid with a test strip and it was acceptable.  I plan to change next spring when I start tracking the car.