- Official manufacturer records
- 45 brands covered
- 7 in 10 cars have manufacturer service history
Service history in numbers
What thousands of UK checks tell us about manufacturer service records.
Our first data release: how often a check finds manufacturer history, how that changes with a car's age and fuel, and how much history a covered car carries.
What the data shows:
- 7 in 10 vehicles return manufacturer recordsCovered means a dealer record is on file through our supplier, not that a car was or was not serviced.
- Cars aged 4 to 10 return history most often
- 4 dealer visits on a typical covered car
- Nearly 9 in 10 have history from new
- Every fuel type returns about 7 in 10
The headline figures
From thousands of UK vehicles checked through ServiceStamp, 29 December 2025 to 27 October 2026. Covered means a dealer record is on file through our supplier, not that a car was or was not serviced.
7 in 10
vehicles checked return manufacturer service records
70.5% of the unique vehicles checked across the whole period, and about 7 in 10 on both sides of the July 2026 supplier change.
77%
of cars aged 4 to 10 years return history
The newest cars sit at 67%. Past 15 years, coverage falls below 4 in 10.
4
dealer visits on a typical covered car
A median 9.3 months and about 6,600 miles apart, in line with annual servicing.
87%
of covered cars have a dealer record within 18 months of first registration
The history usually starts at the beginning of a car's life. It does not always continue.
How often a check finds manufacturer history
Of the thousands of UK vehicles checked through ServiceStamp from 29 December 2025 to 27 October 2026, about 7 in 10 came back with manufacturer service records: 70.5% of unique vehicles.
A vehicle counts as covered when its check returned at least one service record from the manufacturer's systems. That is the same rule the report, the trade API and our own dashboard use, so the figure reconciles to what customers see. The remaining 3 in 10 came back with no dealer record on file, which is not the same as no service history: work at independent garages and fast-fit chains never reaches the manufacturer's system, and some manufacturer feeds keep records for a limited number of years.
The sample is the vehicles ServiceStamp customers chose to check, not the UK car parc. Buyers often check a car they already have doubts about, and trade buyers check younger stock, so the figures describe record availability for cars being bought and sold, not the servicing habits of the nation.
Coverage by vehicle age
Coverage rises through a car's first decade, then falls as manufacturer systems stop returning older records.
| Age at the check | Returned history |
|---|---|
| 0 to 3 years | 67.1% |
| 4 to 6 years | 76.4% |
| 7 to 10 years | 77.3% |
| 11 to 15 years | 59.1% |
| 16 years and over | 37.1% |
| All ages | 70.5% |
Age is the year of the check minus the model year. Vehicles with no recorded model year are left out of the bands and included in the total.
Coverage by fuel type and buyer
Fuel type makes little difference. Trade buyers see a little more history, because the stock they check is younger and skews to the best-covered makes.
| Group | Returned history |
|---|---|
| Petrol | 69.6% |
| Diesel | 72.5% |
| Hybrid | 71.3% |
| Electric | 73.7% |
| Trade buyers | 75.2% |
| Private buyers | 70.0% |
Fuel type as recorded against the registration; vehicles with no recorded fuel type are left out of the fuel rows. Trade buyers check through a trade account; private buyers are everyone else.
What age and fuel tell us
Cars aged 4 to 10 return history most often, about 77%. The newest cars, 0 to 3 years old, sit lower at 67%. Past 10 years coverage falls to 59%, and past 15 years it falls below 4 in 10.
The fall for older cars is mostly a matter of how long each manufacturer's system keeps records. Some feeds hold roughly ten years of history, others return records for the life of the car, and that difference shows up as soon as the sample is split by make. We will publish the make-by-make picture in a later release, once each make's sample is large enough for a reliable figure.
Fuel type makes little difference: petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric cars all return history at about 7 in 10. One pattern hides inside the hybrid figure. For a few makes the records that reach us come from a hybrid service programme rather than general servicing, so their hybrids return history and their petrol cars rarely do. That will come out with the make-by-make figures.
How much history a covered car has
Nine measures of the records behind the covered vehicles. The period says which records each one uses: the whole period, or the current supplier period for anything in miles or about record detail.
| Measure | Figure | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Dealer visits per covered car | Median 4; the top tenth show 11 or more | Whole period |
| Time between visits | Median 9.3 months | Whole period |
| Dealer record within 18 months of first registration | 86.9% | Whole period |
| Span from first to last record | Median 3.4 years | Whole period |
| Miles between visits | Median 6,559 miles | Since 15 July 2026 |
| Mileage at the last record | Median 32,479 miles | Since 15 July 2026 |
| Annual mileage up to the last record | Median 7,645 miles a year | Since 15 July 2026 |
| Records that list the work done | 80.9% | Since 15 July 2026 |
| Records that name the garage | 70.8% | Since 15 July 2026 |
Mile and record-detail figures use the current period's records only: earlier records carry no mileage unit and less detail. Kilometre readings are converted to miles and exact duplicate records are removed.
How recently the car last saw a dealer
Time from the last dealer record to the check, for every covered vehicle. The four shares add up to the whole.
| Last dealer record | Share of covered vehicles |
|---|---|
| Within the year before the check | 31.2% |
| 1 to 2 years before the check | 17.0% |
| 2 to 3 years before the check | 11.2% |
| More than 3 years before the check | 40.6% |
A gap is not an unserviced car: work at independent garages never reaches the manufacturer's system, and some feeds keep records for a limited number of years.
Depth, recency and mileage
A typical covered car shows 4 dealer visits, and the top tenth show 11 or more. Visits are a median 9.3 months and about 6,600 miles apart, in line with annual servicing.
Nearly 9 in 10 covered vehicles have a dealer record within 18 months of first registration, so the history usually starts at the beginning of a car's life. It does not always continue: fewer than 1 in 3 covered vehicles had a dealer record in the year before the check, and 4 in 10 had none in the previous three years. A gap is not the same as an unserviced car. Many owners move to independent garages as a car ages, and that work never reaches the manufacturer's system.
The median annual mileage up to the last dealer record is about 7,600 miles. The figure describes the period the dealer records cover, not the car's mileage today.
What these numbers do and do not mean
Our customers' cars, not the UK parc
The figures describe the vehicles ServiceStamp customers chose to check from 29 December 2025 to 27 October 2026: cars being bought and sold, with trade buyers checking younger stock.
Covered means a record is on file
At least one record exists in the manufacturer's systems through our data supplier. The report, the trade API and our dashboard use the same rule.
A gap is not an unserviced car
No dealer record on file is all a gap means. Work at independent garages, fast-fit chains and DIY servicing never reaches the feed.
Never the car or its owner
Where coverage is low for a type of car, the reasons are data-sharing arrangements, dealer system adoption, retention windows and vehicle age.
Method
How the figures were produced, so they can be checked and repeated. Every figure carries a sample size and a confidence interval, available on request.
Unit
One unique vehicle, identified by VIN, counted on its latest definitive result. Repeat purchases, re-runs and the two legs of a Full Vehicle Check count once. The set is a segment of the checks ServiceStamp has run: those with a definitive answer in the period.
Periods
Checks completed from 29 December 2025 to 27 October 2026. Coverage was about 7 in 10 mile.
Covered
At least one manufacturer service record returned. The rate is covered vehicles divided by covered plus empty. Registrations that could not be matched to a vehicle sit outside the denominator; trade checks refunded for returning no records stay in.
Intervals and thresholds
Every figure carries a Wilson 95% interval, and two groups differ only when their intervals do not overlap. A group appears only with at least 30 vehicles, and a bare percentage only with at least 200. Sample sizes and intervals are available to journalists on request.
Records
Depth figures use the dealer records of the covered vehicles after exact duplicates were removed, kilometre readings converted to miles and the 0.1% of dates that could not be read set aside. Nearly every record carries a mileage.
Privacy
The analysis ran read-only against aggregated results. No registration, VIN, name, order or report was extracted.
Questions about the data
Does "no record" mean the car was never serviced?
No. It means no record is on file in the manufacturer's systems through our supplier. Work at independent garages, fast-fit chains and DIY servicing is not in the feed, and some manufacturer feeds keep records for a limited number of years. Every ServiceStamp report also includes the MOT history, which gives a mileage trail whatever the service record shows.
Can I get the figures by manufacturer?
We hold them, and we will publish them once each make's sample is large enough for a reliable figure and we have finished reviewing the results with our data supplier. Journalists and partners can ask for a briefing in the meantime.
Can I quote these numbers?
Yes, with attribution to ServiceStamp and a link to this page. Please keep the period with the figure, and describe a gap as "no dealer record on file" rather than "not serviced".
Related reading
Service history check success rates
The first look at the data, from April 2026, and the reasons a check comes back empty.
Press and data
The company boilerplate, key facts, logos and the press contact, with every data release.
About ServiceStamp
Why we started, what we have built and where the records come from.
Need a cut of the data or a quote?
We can split the figures by age, fuel type or customer type, and the founder is available for comment. Quote any figure with attribution to ServiceStamp and a link to this page.
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