The Workshop Book, an ally when buying a used car

The Workshop Book is the digital tool that connects workshops, users and industry professionals online

The Workshop Book is a digital tool launched in 2018 by the Directorate-General for Traffic (DGT) in collaboration with entities related to the car repair and maintenance sector and others in the field of buying and selling cars.

In order to boost both road safety and the reliability of the work carried out by mechanical workshops and, thus, support the guarantee of a vehicle’s good condition, in the event of a sale, the idea of the Workshop Book was conceived.

What the Workshop Book is

Basically, the Workshop Book is a platform where private individuals, companies and the administration can interact regarding the maintenance and repair operations carried out on a car.

A record that collects date, location, mileage, official inspections, modifications and repairs carried out on the car, which serves as an inventory of everything a car has undergone during its visits to workshops.

CETRAA, the Spanish Confederation of Car Repair and Related Workshops, is part of this Workshop Book, promoting that the almost 25,000 workshops it brings together register for this service.

With the participation of these professionals, the Workshop Book can be a very useful tool for knowing the life of a car through its workshop visits: what has been done, where and when. This guarantees that what has occurred in this virtual record is recorded exactly as it happened, thus encouraging visits to legal workshops and allowing the user to know the actions carried out on the vehicle.

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How the Workshop Book can help in buying and selling a car

It is common for certain maintenance actions carried out on a car to be recorded, but as the years pass and the official warranty ceases to be a factor encouraging workshop visits, a record of the operations performed on a car is not always kept.

So, in the best case, invoices for the work done, or a simple notebook with notes on the actions carried out, serve to record the maintenance or repairs made on a car.

With the Workshop Book, the record can be updated every time the car enters a workshop registered for this service, and the actions carried out are added, allowing not only its owner to stay up to date, but also, when selling a vehicle, the actions performed on the car are on record.

Where the Workshop Book can be obtained or consulted

Unlike the paper maintenance logbook, the digital world has produced this tool, hosted on the DGT’s servers, which acts as the collector and displayer of information, through the Workshop Book as a fully virtual platform.

Private individuals can consult or access the Workshop Book of a vehicle in person at any DGT regional office; the price for consulting the Workshop Book is 8.40 euros. It is also possible to do so through websites dedicated to buying and selling cars.

For their part, workshops can register after paying 20 euros as an administrative registration fee through the website. After this payment, use is free for professionals.