rydetl

Hi I'm hoping someone can help me with a VMI printout? I'm interested in purchasing a 2005 E320 from a gentleman and he's called 3 different dealers to get this for me and they all refuse. It's ridiculous!

Anyway i'd be willing to paypal a few bucks to someone here if they can help me out with this?

Thanks

(I apologize for the double post i accidentally posted this in the W210 forums first)

Sgooter

My dealer willingly printed out the VMI for my CPO car during the sales negotiation phase, and the VMI contains no personally identifiable information, such as the name of the previous owner/s.
I suggest you eyeball the VIN of the car and visit a local dealer's service dept and ask an SA about the VMI. Even if the SA won't print out the VMI for you, he can at least call it up on his computer, review it, and let you know if he sees any issues/problematic history with the car. Doesn't smell right to me. Good luck.

lkchris

Let's see ...

... you're not buying the car from the dealer and are unwilling to take the car to the dealer and pay for a PPI (pre-purchase inspection).

You say the current owner has called three different dealers--are these dealer's he's patronized in the past? Why doesn't he ask them for copies of receipts for work he's had done at those dealers? Is it such a mystery to this owner what's been done to his car or do you simply not trust him? There's nothing in a VMI that a previous owner couldn't demonstrate with receipts.

Take the car to a dealer, arrange for a PPI and request a review as part of that as to what's been done to the car previously. Dealers are in the business of performing service at their hourly rate, not making printouts. And, you want a car in working order TODAY, and something fixed a couple years ago is meaningless. And, you can pay for a CARFAX, which is likely to give you most of the same information as a VMI.

mbnj

I suggest you talk with the dealership where you intend to have the car serviced ($) and ask them to print it out. I've seen them do it for prospective buyers of pre-owned cars.

I agree with IChris that it is very odd the current owner can't get the printout since that is the basis for denial when the prospective buyer calls and gets denied- "sorry, i'd like to but am not allowed to give that information out to anyone but the owner who had the work done".

BethesdaBenz

The VMI does display personal info of the current owner. If, say, you are looking at a car that the dealer hasn't bought yet (say, a lease return from MB Financial) then the customer info will show up on the VMI.