Laws about service records?

A call or eMAIL to the CA attorney general's office should get you your answer.

 

Walk, no, RUN away. What incredible BS! I would want to know what they are hiding. Do they actually expect you to buy "a pig in a poke"?

What dealer is this so I never trade w/them?

 

It's all in who you know or how well you can talk. They should be able to at least show you the computer print out which shows no names or addressess. If not, like what was said above, run like hell
I was able to get all of the records on my 355C thru 3 different CA dealers, of course I had purchased the car and part of the deal was all the records. I have aquired a book on this thing, cool history even found out it had been to Italy for the Challenge finals in '98. Regards, Vern

 

Showing copies that have had the personal information removed for that purpose is routine.

There is no requirement to not share with permission.

While it is true that the owner paid for those records and in a sense they belong to him do you really think an owner would not give permission to share those with a serious buyer unless there was something to hide?

 

Although not in CA I called the dealer about the service records on my car and they faxed them within 1hr. They just blacked out the owners name and address.

 

If it walks like a duck....

 

Hmmm.. FoSF sure comes up alot. My mother used to tell me if you don't have something nice to say then don't say anything, so strike that comment.

 

I have absolutely nothing but good things to say about FoSF, they are without question the best dealer (regardless of make) I've ever worked with. Call the sales manager (Brad) directly and explain the problem, and I'd be very surprised if you weren't satisfied with the outcome.

Gary

 

Back in '2001, being veddy F* naieve, I bought my car w/o any records(duh).

I was soon educated, but just didn't have much to go on to track them down except for a 'Gentry Lane' sticker on the window. Searching the web, I tracked down Gentry Lane as a (then active) F* dealer in Canada.

Called their service dept & requested the records. They checked with Gentry Lane's owner & he refused, even with blacking out personal info, citing liability.

Service tech did tell me that he'd seen them, they'd serviced the car in '87 & '88. The service was just routine stuff, oil changes, etc., no repairs or major services.

 

There are federal and state data privacy laws which are relevant here. Specifically, the release, distribution, transmission or dissemination of personally identifiable information (this includes name and address and tel number) which is not authorized by the individual to whom the data relates can trigger substantial liability. While it may seem overly restrictive in the context of dealer service records for an automobile, there are some very valid and substantial reasons for limitations upon transmission/dissemination of personally identifiable information by 3rd parties. So don't beat up the dealer here.

If you can recreate the ownership history for the relevant (or all) years, then you can go to each prior owner and ask for their consent to release of the data by the dealer. Usually a simple email confirmation to the dealer from the prior owner is sufficient.

 

No one is asking for that information. It is routine to either cut it off or black it out. Owner personal info is a non issue.

 

The introductory question posed was "law about service records" and the clear implication in the introductory discussion was what are the relevant laws here... Obviously, data privacy is the relevant area of law.

 

Re: "owner personal info" is not a non-issue. It is, in fact, the very reason why the dealer is not providing the service records. The means and process of redacting is just an inelegant approach to solving the problem of data privacy liability.

 

"They told me that California law states that the service records belong to the owner of the car who had the work done at the time. Is this true?"

You are not inquiring about the owner; your interest is to verify that work has been done on the vehicle as claimed by a dealer or seller.

CA has no such law. This is a dealer ploy to make you think that they would look out for your best interest under similar circumstances, but don't be foolish enough to believe it. They may also be hiding the truth from you! Beware. This is a red flag.

As has been said here, blocking out the owner's name for the owner's privacy purposes prior to the sale is the norm in providing the records to a prospective purchaser. I have a folder full of records that were faxed to me, and with some the owner's name was blocked.

If they refuse to do it, tell them to pack a lunch and look for another car.

 

If I were a dealer with nothing to hide who wanted to sell a car, or if I were a potential buyer, I would prefer the "means and process" of spending five minutes with a black magic marker crossing out identifying information to the "elegant" approach of contacting who knows how many previous owners and waiting for their responses. (And then likely producing/receiving a redacted copy anyway, which means contacting previous owners was unnecessary because no personal info was going to be disclosed in the first place.)

Let me guess- you're a lawyer.

Bonus question: If you are a potential buyer and have the information necessary to contact the previous owners (name, address, phone number), how'd you get that without a privacy violation? And what additional information is contained in normal service records that is arguably protected other than name, address, phone number?

 

It is in fact a non issue because as previousy stated, it is not being asked for, it is not wanted, there is no reason to provide it.

No one really cares if the records are elegant.


Take your arguments to the court room, this guy just wants to buy a car.

 

I beat you by 7 minutes, but you were more to the point.

 

How far South of Boston are you, Kirk? Braintree?

 

Yes, no doubt the redacting process is effective and works just fine. As is apparent to this potential buyer however, not all dealerships are OK with that approach preferring instead to just abstain from providing service records for legal liability reasons.

As to your bonus question, in many states you can retrieve the prior owners name from public records allowing some digging to be done to secure contact information. This process obviously doesn't violate data privacy laws as burdened upon dealerships.

I'm a chief financial officer of a global software company. And yes, in addition to being a cpa I'm also an attorney.

 

You're just not using critical thinking here. A legal question was posed and a precise legal answer was given - to understand it requires some sophistication and focus and you're just not following.

 

Don't be mad just because I pointed out how worthless your advice was in the question about oil for a 360.
And I really want to thank you for showing us why lawyers have earned such respect and admiration in our society.