MarcSebens

I recently bought a 1-owner R350 showing great service history on the Carfax, all at MB dealers. My local dealer said he can't give me a complete VMI, but each dealer can give me a VMI for what they have done on the car. After calling the 4 dealers who have worked on the car I am getting conflicting responses. One says they will send the VMI for the work they have done, and asked for a copy of title and ID proving ownership. Another says that MB policy is that VMIs are internal only and not released to owners, but he will send me service records for the work they have done.

Can anyone confirm whether MB USA has a policy against releasing VMIs, or contribute any helpful advice?

Thanks!

pjw1967

I don't think there is a "policy" beyond the statement on the VMI that it is for Internal Use Only. I guess it was a statistical oddity that both '14 ML350 CPO's we looked at were always serviced at the selling dealer and were never touched by any other dealer. It makes sense that a dealer will only show you the work he has done, either by VMI or actual service records. There could be a liability issue down the road if one dealer gives out details inputted by a different dealer. Conclusion? Take what you can get. BTW the dealer from whom we bought our ML gave us the VMI.