A car with a documented history is worth more than the same car without one. Everyone knows this, and almost nobody manages it, because the traditional method — keep every invoice, remember which drawer — fails quietly over years of ownership.
The practical problem is not discipline. It is that paper invoices are not a history. A history is something you can search, total up, and prove.
What a service history should tell you
- When — the date of every visit
- At what mileage — so intervals mean something
- What was done — parts, fluids, components
- What it cost — per visit and in total
- By whom — which garage or dealer
- What is next — and when it falls due
Building it from what you already have
Start with the invoices you can find
Photograph them. Each one is read and becomes a dated timeline entry with the mileage, the cost, the garage, and the components involved — brakes, oil, filters, battery, tires. You do not type any of it in. Old invoices from years ago are just as useful as recent ones; the timeline sorts itself by date.
Add the vehicle history report if you have one
A carVertical, Carfax or autoDNA report imports as a full record: identity, odometer readings over time, ownership changes, damage and legal flags, emissions data, market value and the factory equipment list. It also fills in the car's profile — make, model, engine, year — where those fields are still empty.
Add the manufacturer's schedule
Import the maintenance schedule from the handbook or the dealer, and each interval is measured against the car's actual mileage and the last matching service. What is overdue and what is due next stops being something you have to work out.
Import from another app
If you have been tracking fuel and service elsewhere, that history comes across too — see switching from another car app.
Keeping it going
The habit that makes this work is small: photograph the invoice before you leave the garage. Thirty seconds, once or twice a year. Everything else — the mileage, the category, the cost, the reminder for next time — is derived from that photo.
When you sell the car
Export a PDF report for the vehicle: the profile, the full service history, expenses, insurance records, the document index and tire history. A buyer looking at a complete, dated, mileage-stamped record is being given a reason to trust the car — and a reason not to negotiate as hard.
You can also export CSV for spreadsheets, and the whole archive as a single backup file.
Used cars in particular
Buying used is where this pays off most, because you inherit a car with an unknown past. A workable first week: photograph every document that came with the car, import the vehicle history report, decode the VIN to fill in the specifications, enter the current mileage, add the insurance policy, record what is on the wheels, and import the manufacturer's schedule so you know what the previous owner may have skipped.
From that point the car has a documented history under your ownership, even if it had none before.
Get MyGarage
Available on the App Store and Google Play.