In the private app of VASS, a Dutch collective of automotive businesses, one of the most active chat channels is maintenance history. Business owners ask each other for the history of a specific vehicle because they cannot access it themselves. There can be several reasons: the business may not carry out repairs or maintenance and may therefore not fall under the legal right of access for independent operators, or the brand requires registration, verification or payment for certain services.
It works, but it is cumbersome. From June 2027, manufacturers must make an API available for electronic maintenance history, which allows independent repairers to view and update that history via a third party. For businesses and garages that service multiple brands, that can save a lot of work. For cross-border used-car trading, it can be a practical advantage.
Maintenance history via a chat channel
Chantal Brands, responsible for Operations at VASS, confirms the picture from the app. VASS has more than 1,100 affiliated business owners, from garage owners to car dealerships. Brands: "Business owners who need the maintenance history of a vehicle they cannot access themselves ask for it in the chat channel of our app. If another business owner can access it, they share the data."
Maintenance history is fragmented across brand systems and workshops. A brand dealer usually has access to the history recorded within its own brand network and the manufacturer's central systems, but even that history need not be complete. Maintenance carried out outside the official network may be missing, or only visible if the garage that did the work has registered it in the brand system.
Why access to maintenance history is unevenly distributed
A Verian survey in nine EU countries shows that independent car businesses have less access to vehicle data. In 2025, 93% of workshops within the authorised brand network and 87% of authorised dealers reported both read and write access to vehicle data, compared with 48% of independent repairers. The survey covers vehicle data in general, not maintenance history specifically.
One explanation is that car manufacturers organise access themselves. Independent businesses therefore face different portals, registrations, security procedures and technical restrictions per brand. In the same survey, 67% of manufacturers say they apply a differentiated access policy, especially for advanced diagnostics and software updates.
In June 2026, the European Commission concluded that, despite the revised guidelines of 2023, independent repairers still encounter problems accessing technical information and vehicle data. For dealers who already experience margin pressure in aftersales, that is more than a technical detail.
What changes from 23 June 2027
On paper, independent repairers already have a right of access to digital maintenance history. If a manufacturer stores it centrally, an independent garage must be able to consult the data and register its own maintenance work. In practice, that access is fragmented across separate brand portals, accounts and procedures.
That changes in part with a new European regulation of March 2026 on type approval. From 23 June 2027, a manufacturer must make an API available for electronic maintenance history, insofar as it concerns the maintenance history as described in the ISO standard for access to vehicle data (ISO 18541). An independent repairer can then view and update that history via a third party. That third party, for example a provider of garage software, acts under an agreement with the manufacturer and facilitates the repairer's request under the manufacturer's conditions.
What this can mean in practice
Say an independent garage services BMW, Peugeot, Volkswagen, Renault, Mercedes and Toyota. Today, that can mean six accounts, six portals and six different search methods. From 2027, a provider of garage or dealer software could, in theory, build connections to those manufacturers' APIs. The mechanic then enters the vehicle identification number (VIN) and can request the electronic maintenance history within their own working environment. Which data is available exactly depends on what is recorded in the manufacturer's system. After the service, the same software can write the new record back to the manufacturer's system. That only happens if software suppliers and intermediaries actually build those connections.
Who benefits depends on what a business does. "Independent" is broader than it sounds: under the type-approval rules, authorised repairers and dealers of another brand also fall under it, insofar as they service vehicles that do not belong to the manufacturer's distribution system. A Peugeot dealer servicing a traded-in BMW can therefore count as an independent operator for that BMW. A pure trader or trading platform that only wants to know what happened to a car is in a legally weaker position. It has no automatic right to the maintenance record.
No central database, but conditions
The new rules do not create a central European maintenance database. Maintenance history stays in systems managed by or on behalf of the manufacturers. The standardisation lies in how software systems can request the information.
Nor is it a free-for-all. Updating may require the customer's consent. The manufacturer can verify the repairer's identity, for example with a certificate. Manufacturers may use the same or equivalent procedures as on their existing repair and maintenance website. Manufacturers may also apply conditions and reasonable fees. For multi-brand businesses and independent garages, the API can still simplify day-to-day work considerably. How far that goes depends on how manufacturers and intermediaries implement it. The question shifts from "may I access it?" to "has my software supplier built the connection?" As a result, parties that bundle the APIs of multiple manufacturers may become more important.
What this can deliver for the market
If car businesses and garages can request and update history faster, customers and buyers benefit too: a car's history becomes more complete and stays more current. A car that has been serviced at an independent garage for years is then less likely to disappear from the digital brand history, provided those garages register their work correctly. That is an expectation, not a certainty. This API does not automatically give consumers access themselves. The legal API obligation is aimed at independent repairers.
What does this mean for import and export?
According to Chantal Brands, importing also involves having to trace maintenance information through foreign brand systems or dealer networks. The new standardised access can make it easier for a repairing business to consult the available electronic maintenance information on an imported vehicle. However, the rules do not guarantee a complete international vehicle file and do not automatically give a pure trader access. Whether import and export actually become more transparent therefore depends on the completeness of the recorded data, the technical implementation by manufacturers and software suppliers, and the capacity in which the business requests access.
This is EU legislation, so it applies in all member states. For a dealer with a workshop, it may therefore become easier to check the history of a traded-in or imported car of another brand. The EU is also working on rules against odometer fraud. Under a European Commission proposal of April 2025, member states would have to record odometer readings in national databases and manufacturers of connected vehicles would have to pass on mileage data periodically. That is still a proposal under negotiation between the EU institutions, with no agreement. The final rules may differ.
What this does not solve
Europe has developed access to technical and maintenance information for repairers extensively. A European overview of maintenance, damage, odometer readings and repairs that a trader can request before purchase does not exist. The API obligation is aimed at independent repairers. A trader without a workshop cannot simply use it to request the history of a car from another country. Anyone buying cars across borders still has to piece the history together from multiple sources.
Anyone importing cars wants to know not only that the history is reliable, but also where those cars are and when they will arrive. Transparency about that status is increasingly a prerequisite, not a choice. That starts with your own digital control layer: status information per vehicle that lands in your own systems, and not only on your carrier's screen.
Frequently asked questions
Will every dealer soon get the maintenance history of every car?
No. From 23 June 2027, manufacturers must make an API available for electronic maintenance history, which allows an independent repairer to view and update that history, subject to conditions. A car business that repairs or services a car of a brand whose distribution network it is not part of can count as an independent operator for that car. A pure trader without a workshop has no automatic right to the maintenance record.
Will there be one European database of maintenance history?
No. Maintenance history stays in the systems of or on behalf of the manufacturers. The new rules do make it possible to request and update it via standardised connections, subject to conditions.
Source: European Commission, DG Competition, evaluation of the motor vehicle block exemption (25 June 2026). Data-access figures: Verian survey commissioned by the Joint Research Centre. API obligation: European regulation of 23 March 2026 on type approval (EUR-Lex). Odometer readings: European Parliament, EPRS briefing Roadworthiness package (January 2026) and Agence Europe (3 July 2026). Maintenance history in the VASS app: Chantal Brands, VASS.
