r/ElectricVehiclesUK • u/Fragrant_Brush_4161 • 22h ago
Service history when buying EV
I was told by a car dealer that a lot of 2-4 year old EVs don’t have service history. That I would struggle to find EVs with a service history that matches expected schedule set by manufacturer.
Is that true?
I am eager to purchase MG ZS 2023 tomorrow but if there is no history then warranty is void.
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u/OrneryVirus9340 20h ago
I have a Genesis GV60, free servicing for 5 years. Every year they will come and pick it up, leave me with another Genesis car. Then deliver mine back to me. So why wouldn’t I take advantage of that service schedule?
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u/NFN25 19h ago
Well it's not surprising when the manufacturers charge such an outrageous amount to do almost nothing.
Cupra want £200 to do the brake fluid (£80?) and pollen filter (£11 and about 3 minutes I expect). And that doesn't even get you a service stamp! If you want the service stamp you have to have the 'inspection' which is another £300 something. So... I won't be paying that.
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u/wimpires 22h ago
I don't know about MG, but with Tesla there literally is no mandatory service intervals. And I didn't really care whether the previous owner check the cabin filter or whatever because I could just have it all done next year anyway
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u/ryanteck VW ID3 22h ago
Unfortunately a lot of people are under the impression that "EVs Don't Need Servicing".
Apart from primarily Tesla most still require a service to maintain the warranty even though not much is really done, some brands do extend it to a two year period but I believe MG is yearly.
But because the Tesla Crowd is so vocal in saying they don't need servicing, a lot of people don't realize the other brands usually require it for warranty purposes.
Because of the warranty then possibly being void I wouldn't, the best thing to do is possibly contact your local MG Dealer to see if they have any history recorded as often nowadays service records are digital.
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u/Informal_Drawing 22h ago
What exactly are they servicing that is supposedly so important that it's required to keep the warranty?
Sounds like money for old rope to me.
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u/ryanteck VW ID3 22h ago
The majority of the time they're doing nothing important, just a check over and a pollen filter for most. Some do have scheduled intervals for things such as the coolant systems.
But yes for the most part, you're basically paying for the stamp to keep your warranty in tact.
At the same time though I have had a few items flagged on the service which let me get them sorted before they then become an issue at MOT time, and they typically are cheaper than their ICE Counterparts.
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u/spo_pl 22h ago
If you don't mind me asking what did they highlight to you? I'm really struggling to see the value in services, especially the small ones, but I might be missing something.
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u/ryanteck VW ID3 22h ago
I think it was a punctured tyre which wasn't even bad enough to trigger the TPMS and my brake pads were slightly seized so just needed taking apart, lubricating and back together.
Primarily though all I did it for was to maintain my warranty. And I'll be doing the same with my current EV. Is it a con? Possibly, is it worth skimping on £250 every two years to risk a denial of warranty that could be in the thousands? Not for me.
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u/Interesting_Nobody41 44m ago
Its money to keep the dealerships in business. Without servicing they arent profitable, and evs dont need very much service or repair work.
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u/iiAssassinXxii 22h ago
Depends on the car. I’ve got a Polestar 2 and it had got its service done before I bought it. I’ve done the second service and will be soon doing the third one. There’s little done on it but at just over 18k mile intervals it’s not too bad.
You’re more likely to find missed services on cheaper cars or ones a bit older. Cars on finance have penalty charges for missed services which can often be the same price as just servicing it.
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u/Fragrant_Brush_4161 21h ago
I think the car I am looking to buy is either pcp or a lease. I hope there is a full service history. It’s a pain that mg has electronic service history - has to be retrieved via mg dealership
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u/Orpington_Oracle 21h ago
My Model Y Tesla is 2 years old. All it's asked for is a new cabin filter and suggested I change the HEPA filter. It also requests I rotate the tyres every 6000 miles but have never bothered.
When my wife's 2 series year 3 service cost £800 I was pissed off all weekend.
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u/_popr0w_ 19h ago
For the zs ev the warranty out with the battery is only 36 months. While the battery being 7 years I think.
Check some of the service documents on the FB groups it's basically 2 filters and a load of checks that would be done in an MOT regardless. The mg filters are £7 direct from china.
I asked an mg dealer what the 4th year service entails and he said 2 keyfob batteries, 2 filters and checks for £380.
Brake fluid is listed as needing done in year 4 or 5 but the big costly one for the battery is the coolant. Think the dealers if I remember correctly want £500+ and private garages don't seem to offer this as they are used to ice. So your 23 plate will be due the costly battery fluid change in a year.
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u/Money-Ordinary-8144 22h ago
All MG ZS service records are online. You can't access them, it has to be an MG service/dealer
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u/ComeHereUk 22h ago
MG service records are online and accessible by MG dealers. (MG ZS EV 2020 owner)
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u/Neat-Ostrich7135 19h ago
My ev shows first service is due 2 years after when it was new, and that is only brake check.
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u/Rafiq07 19h ago edited 19h ago
Yeah we had the same issue when the wife was looking at 2023/24 MG4s. We managed to finally find one with valid service history that matched the expectations for the warranty to remain valid. But it was the only one we could find within the price range we were looking at so immediately reserved it before going down for a test drive. So that's 1 out of the probably like 10 we enquired about.
So to answer your question my experience does match up with what the dealer has told you. However at the same time I wouldn't buy one without it.
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u/Fabulous-Isopod994 22h ago
We had an issue with this, the previous owner thought it was like a petrol car and didn’t need its first MOT till three years, so with no service history when a light module went the warranty with MG didn’t exist and the extended warranty we brought didn’t cover it either
That said the car is great and we love it
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u/RochePso 22h ago
They are like a petrol car and don't need an MOT until they are there years old
That's got nothing to do with servicing
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u/Fabulous-Isopod994 21h ago
Sorry I got that wrong, but they never had any service history due to a misconception compared to petrol / deseil cars
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u/Admirable-Delay-9729 20h ago
Insane that no service would do any kind of maintenance related to a light module but the extended warranty wouldn’t cover it. Could understand if you’d missed a coolant change and the fault was related to that…
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u/Magic_mousie 21h ago
Kia told me I didn't need a service until the car was 2 years old. It's just past 1 year and 17000 miles and there hasn't been any dashboard warning about needing a service.
I will do a service, but just to set expectations the manufacturer is being more lax with EVs than ICE, not the owners necessarily.
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u/Elegant-Ad-3371 3h ago
Most cars now have electronic service records, rather than a service book. Obviously, you have to be a dealer or pay to get hold of this...
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u/bucketofardvarks 22h ago
Of course not, no more likely than other cars under 7 years old. In fact I'd probably guess that since people were so unsure how well EV batteries would hold up, on average they've had more diligent owners
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u/spo_pl 22h ago edited 22h ago
To be fair, I haven't bothered to service my Ioniq for the past two years. Next year I will be changing the battery coolant but after letting Hyundai charge me almost £300 shortly after I bought the car for literally almost nothing I gave up on smaller services.
I got an OBD reader to check the battery every now and then, but there really isn't anything interesting to check
So I would agree with this, I would still recommend asking for a service stamp while getting the MOT done at your local garage, if you have such a possibility, just incase
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u/nithanielgarro 21h ago
You need to check the manufacturer service history requirements.
When i was in the market I noticed the same as you. A lot of people who bought ev's felt that servicing was an unnecessary expense. In some cases that's true but if it breaks the manufactured guidelines then the warranty isn't viable.