I've just been down to the main dealer (won't mention the brand) to pick up an oil filter. Got there just before they were closing, and as I came out from the parts desk, four employees came out from the workshop and drove four cars from the car park into the workshop for the night.
They wheel-span two of them.
This is the main dealer, and this is how they look after their customers' cars. (They weren't their own courtesy cars, one had a private plate for example.)
I also suspect it's quite commonplace for them to take faster cars for a, shall we say, rather enthusiastic road test. (I know it's happened to mine.)
I think there are quite a few people in the motor trade in this Back Room. Can anyone comment on what goes on?
-Mark
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You really don't want to know what goes on! :-)
number_cruncher
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A chap in my owners club (Supra) had his car in for service, and Toyota stoved the front end in after colliding head-on with another vehicle after losing the back end existing a roundabout. This occured during a "test drive" to check the brakes.
I'm often tempted to hang around my local dealer when my car is in, just to see if any monkey business goes on.
Here's a link to the thread for those interested...
www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1...a crashed+my+car
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Sorry, that should read exiting a roundabout.
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I live near an s-bend on an otherwise straight bit of (NSL) road close to the local Porsche, Volvo, Saab and BMW dealers. One day I heard a screach of tyres and came up to find that a test driving mechanic had put someone's M3 convertible backwards through the hedge into a field.
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Ha, ha, - you really don't want to know!
A classic some years ago at a local Rover main dealer we dealt with was when two of the lads took two SD1's for a road test. They went racing off nose-to-tail. Unfortunately the lead car had to brake sharp just before a bridge and the following SD1 ploughed into the back of it - very expensive!
I also remember visiting a Ford dealer when the Mondeo had just been launched. One of the mechanics I was friendly with took me out in one he was PDI'ing for a customer. Had it up to 100mph+ on local dual carriageway plus some rubber-burning around roundabouts etc. with the stereo thumping away. Hope the new owner ran it in carefully!
Mechanics are not that well paid and are mostly fairly young and enthusiastic about cars. Its not really surprising that when given the opportunity to drive a new/fast car they do go a little crazy. We used to employ a couple of young mechanics and they caused us no end of problems. One lad, Nigel, was a real pain. We had an LPG fork-lift to repair one day. After Nigel had fixed it he went racing around in the yard on it. Suddenly there was an enormous bang. He'd crashed into the concrete wall at the end of yard and blown up the LPG bottle! Fortunately no one was hurt.
On another occasion I had just finished rebuilding a BW35 auto transmission and put it back in the car (a Rover). I asked Nigel to move the car. He jumped in and raced off the pit in it, before crashing into the parts-cleaning tank at the end of the workshop - stoving in the front of the car. I had a hard time explaining that one to the owner!
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I avoid taking any of my cars to local dealers for this very reason! I know the place I take mine to at the moment won't do anything stupid with them. They did have a lad there that managed to write off a nissan 300 sx twin turbo by giving a bit more welly entering a dual carriageway sliproad.. with big power rwd cars it is very easy to get it wrong, especially in damp conditions. A little too much throttle and you can find the back end coming round on you. He would have counter steered, car would have got grip back and bingo car is propelled into opposing carriageway.
Crashing your car is one thing, it is whether they admit fault and either fix it or make their insurance cover all your losses is another. If the garage I take mine to were to damage it I know they'd hold their hand up and get it fixed without inconvenience to me.
teabelly
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Interesting stories, guys, keep them coming.
It's not just the possibility of pranging it that bothers me, though - it's pretty obvious when that's done. It's the idea that you take your car there for their professional care, and they treat it as a joy ride on your petrol, your brakes, your tyres... and you can bet your bottom that if they do mechanical damage in the process (blow up the engine or mash the clutch or something) they're not going to admit it and put it right for free.
When you go on track days you DO see cars which fail under the strain. If they treat my car like this every time I take it to them, over the 50 years I'm likely to own a car, with say one service and one repair per year, I'm likely to get at least one mechanic-thrashing-induced fault.
Anyone have any idea how they get away with this?!
-Mark
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I had a Mk 2 Fiesta on franchise from a driving school and got rear ended by Reliant Robin. It was about 10 months before they got round to having it repaired. When I went to pick it up the embarrassed looking service manager had to show me a scrape down the nearside where the body fitter had misjudged his exit from the workshop.
It looked worse than the minor damage I'd just had repaired, and was still there when the car was replaced a year later.
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It was quite horrifying what went on at the dealerships where I worked.
Even within the workshops there were mishaps such as:
A car idling after an incomplete oil change for 20 minutes dry of oil. Remedial action - Let it cool down and fill with oil
Driving off a four poster ramp by turning too soon and the car dropping off the sides.
Remedial action - Wrench bumper/spoiler into line and patch up with touch up pen
And these two examples happened before the roadtest.....
'Nuff said
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I heard a story whereby a chap took his Golf VR6 in for service at a VW main dealers - they said that they needed to keep it in overnight to finish the job. Fair enough. Anyway, he walked round to his friends house for a beer, and lo and behold his car was sitting on the drive of of one of his friends neighbours houses, who happended to be a salesman at said VW garage.......
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regent. that happens a lot, as a young mechanic in glasgow vw dealer i never owned a car i didn't have to i had a different vehicle every night sometimes they belonged to the company sometimes customers. sometimes with customers cars it was legitimate in that their was a problem that we could not find customer then knew we would drive the car for a day or two to see if we could find the problem . i personally always treated customers cars with respect although i know some of our lads didn't.
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I heard a story whereby a chap took his Golf VR6 in for service at a VW main dealers - they said that they needed to keep it in overnight to finish the job. Fair enough. Anyway, he walked round to his friends house for a beer, and lo and behold his car was sitting on the drive of of one of his friends neighbours houses, who happended to be a salesman at said VW garage.......
It is entirely normal to use customers cars in this way. You get the opportunity to check for any faults ;-)
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When the first MR2 was launched in 1985 a young Toyota technician having PDi'd a customer's car, decided to see what would happen if he released the clutch as the engine was bounching off its' 7800 rev limiter; he found out, the differential splintered into many pieces beneath the car.
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On the opposite side of the coin to this, another Toyota dealer, whilst servicing my car had no courtesy cars available, but the nice young man on the desk let me have his own brand new Starlet GT, presumably still a company car though.
Very nice, nippy little number, until I spilt curry all over the passenger seat.
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There's the infamous tale of a garage situated between Liverpool and Southport in which one of the technicians (mechanics to us simple folk) took a customer's pride and joy, a rare and just launched Honda NSX, for a spin and virtually wrote it off.
The story was plastered all over the local TV and radio news programmes and most of the national newspapers.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What's for you won't pass you by
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Now and again the various watchdog type programmes/magazines send undercover cars to various garages for 'work' to be done. Secret underbonnet cameras have shown mechanics who just clean the oil filter (especially if they think the customer isn't the type to check anyway)so it looks new, clean (or try to clean) the air filter with a high pressure airline, and clean various parts so they look new. One garage even pierced the radiator with a screwdriver, then pointed out the leak to the customer when she returned. The moral is, authorise no work other than what the car is in for, ask for all the old parts back and obviously check straight away to make sure the intended work has been done, i.e. is the new filter a different make to old one etc.
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And happily one at least of this type of crook is behind bars, according to a recent Which report. Charging for fuel pump that had not been replaced: got 4 months. Previous conviction for much the same thing, offences under Trade Descriptions Act.
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I heard a story whereby a chap took his Golf VR6 in for service at a VW main dealers - they said that they needed to keep it in overnight to finish the job. Fair enough. Anyway, he walked round to his friends house for a beer, and lo and behold his car was sitting on the drive of of one of his friends neighbours houses, who happended to be a salesman at said VW garage.......
Shame he didn't have a spare key for it!
Could you imagine the set up. Owner calls in the following day to pick it up and embarressed service manager has to tell him that tha car has been, er - lost.
I would pay good money to see that situation in play!!!!
H
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I took my nearly new Renault 18 for a service to a main dealer some years back. When I collected it,it had done 50 miles and the stereo was missing!! They were prepared to let me drive it away like this. Needless to say I left the car in the workshop and legged it round to the cop shop. The copper informed me this was not the first time they investigated this dealer.
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"Nothing less than 8 cylinders will do"
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One of my workmates had a total brake failure one Sunday evening, miles from home. He drove it carefully back (many miles), left it on the forecourt of the main dealer and posted the keys through the letterbox. Next morning at opening time he phoned the dealer, explained the problem and asked them to fix it. The dealer rang him back that afternoon with apologies. The foreman had asked a mechanic to bring the car around to the workshop, but hadn't told him why. Front end rebuild.
My brother worked in the office at the same garage. Two mechanics picked up an engine, Ford sidevalve, and carried it. One was holding it behind him and walking forward. The other was holding it in front of him, also walking forward. Oily hands, heavy engine. The front one's hands slipped, he dropped it and fell back, lacerating his bottom on the spark plugs. The engine dropped on the foot of the other, crushing his toes. Both men needed hospital treatment. For years later they would greet each other by politely asking after the state of their respective injuries
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Article in this week's Auto Express bout someone whose C2 was damaged in an accident whilst at the dealer's. Dealer eventually replaced the car even though it wasn't a write off.
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I recall the tale of a chap who took his car in for a service at a main dealer.
Come lunchtime he visited his local hostelry with some workmates and was surprised to see his car in the car park.
As luck would have it, he had a spare key on his person, so he got in and drove back to the office. At the end of the day, he rang the garage to ask if his car was ready. One of those "oh to be a fly on the wall" moments I think (so long as it's not an urban myth)
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I used to work as a Credit Manager for Snap-on Tools and was in and out of garage workshops on a regular basis and it was a regular occurence to see pimply youths wheel spinning cars up and down the lenghts of the workshops/yards. The frightening bit was generally the foreman was cheering them on!!!
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When I lived in Felixstowe, we'd regularly see brand new Volvos being driven at high speed from the port to the distribution depot at Ipswich. Its only about 12 miles, but these cars were straight off the ferry - not even PDId yet and they were being thrashed.
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I once owned an Astra SRi which I took in for a service. As I arrived at the end of the day, I saw two young lads wheel spinning off the forecourt in it. I stood in the queue at the service desk, quietly fuming. Short time later it came tearing back onto the forecourt, with just the driver, who had clearly taken his mate home.
I then asked where my car was and was told it was 'out for a test drive.' I found words in my vocabulary that I never knew I had. Didn't get a discount thougth!
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Small garage locally from which I hired a 206 for the weekend a few months ago. Service light was saying 900 miles overdue when I picked it up. Whilst filling up at the adjacent garage recently I spotted the same 206 on his forcourt for sale. Wonder how the prospective owner would feel if he knew his "low milage" second hand car had been on the hire fleet and treated in such a way?
About cars getting thrashed from cold, same things happens at my local auction - anything remotely tasty gets revved up and screaching tyres.
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Not just high performance cars. Non turbo BX, perhaps surprisingly "chuckable", but no tyre burner. Carry an emergency box in the boot, jerry of water, oil, LHM etc. Never spill it over myself. But whenever car is collected from service the contents are spread over the boot.
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Not just high performance cars. Non turbo BX, perhaps surprisingly "chuckable", but no tyre burner. Carry an emergency box in the boot, jerry of water, oil, LHM etc. Never spill it over myself. But whenever car is collected from service the contents are spread over the boot.
What's LHM?
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What's LHM?
Liquide Hydraulique Minerale:- Citroen specific mineral hydraulic fluid for the suspension, braking system etc.
And what I meant was I never turn the box over - LHM would leave a lovely green stain down my shirt!
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Liquide Hydraulique Minerale:- Citroen specific mineral hydraulic fluid for the suspension, braking system etc. And what I meant was I never turn the box over - LHM would leave a lovely green stain down my shirt!
Only had to top up my Xantia once, just used the hydraulic oil for the machines at work at the time. Did'nt seem to do the car any harm.
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This thread has really got me thinking - It was only in last week mine was in and on collection I noticed they had reset the trip counter!!
Its going back next week and I am going to make a note of the mileage before handing it over. If any more than a sensible amount is added I will play hell. Unfortunately, I will have to return to work so cannot sit and watch them. Really dont want to take it there but as its under warranty with them I dont have much of a choice.
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I've seen many cars go into the garage at our local dealer with revs at the max and wheels spinning!
I myself have learnt three things about taking cars to garages:
1. Never ask for a service: they charge £70+ for an oil change and changes to other components you didn't ask for (gearbox oil, spark plug [replaced them myself 6 months before!]).
2. Remove wheel trims if you want to see them in one piece again: two lovely cracks through one after only my second time taking a car to be serviced.
3. Remove everything from inside, including tapes: left the car with no tape in the deck, came back to find new one had been 'played' and now screwed up in machine (deck never chewed a tape before or since).
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Many moons ago my brother left his company car at a Ford main dealer. When he returned to pick it up, they couldnt find it, they searched high and low. In the end they found that it had been stolen, as the garage left the keys in the cars on a publicly accessed yard, and someone had made off with it. It was never recovered.
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In the end they found that it had been stolen, as the garage left the keys in the cars on a publicly accessed yard, and someone had made off with it. It was never recovered.
At a local purveyor of desirable vehicles, one of the sales staff apparently left a key in the ignition in a car sitting outside on the forecourt.
5 minutes later, the sales manager walked past and noticed.
5 minutes after that, the dealership had one fewer sales reps.
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At a local purveyor of desirable vehicles, one of the sales staff apparently left a key in the ignition in a car sitting outside on the forecourt. 5 minutes later, the sales manager walked past and noticed. 5 minutes after that, the dealership had one fewer sales reps.
Not so long ago a similar thing happened at a local mitsubishi delearship. Salesman moving cars round on the plot leaves a Shogun running, unfortunately it wasn't the sales manager who noticed but a local low life who made off in said vehicle.
What made things really bad though was about a fortnight later exactly the same thing happened again - oops!
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One of the local free newspapers ran an article about a BMW dealer who took days to realise that a car which had been parked on the forecourt was no longer. The topic raised interest for several weeks.
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One of our cars got loaned out once, only one person knew that it was on loan, it took the rest of us two weeks to realise that the car was missing, god knows how long we'd have taken to notice if the car actually had been stolen :-)
When you have soooo many cars on the forecourt that are all moved every day, it's very easy to miss the odd one here and there, I know we once lost an Escort estate and it took weeks and weeks before anyone noticed that it was missing.
Oh, and on the matter of how well the cars are treated, on the whole I would say they are treated well where I work, they're certainly not ragged around in a manner that would cause any damage.
Blue
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Worked for a couple of M/D`s Agree with NC and Aprilia...Really dont think you want to know!..I think best left alone
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Steve
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On the rare occasions when I have hired a car, the dealer has walked round the car with me beforehand and filled out a form showing any damage, scratches etc that were on car.
Having heard the above comments, should we be doing this with the dealers when we hand car in for a service?
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I think most miss the point..Only comment I will make on subject
without naming/shaming. Ford Capri special edition. released in IIRC 1987. one came in for first service.Oil drained new filter put on...Tech forgot to refill with oil. Car was taken for test drive before pickup by owner. Engine seized about a mile from garage. I picked it up. on trailer Dont know what excuse was given to customer. But customer received car with rebuilt engine probably without knowing.. Other instances by car hire firms I worked for..Sad world
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Steve
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In India, they note down all the scratches etc and empty out your belonging especially if they are picking the car up from your premises
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On the contrary, Steve.o, I'd be very interested to know what goes on!
Also, given that I bet quite a few motor trade professionals visit the HonestJohn site, it's very interesting to note how many have replied to say nothing of the sort goes on at their garage...
-Mark
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Why worry about how the garages treat your cars.
Its abit late to worry about that when they have already been screwed before they are even delivered or registered in their storage compounds.
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I'll never forget delivering a Saab 900 Turbo after its service back to the owner. The village idiot next to me at the lights in his XR3i wheelspun away thinking I would race him. I eventually got into Leicester City Centre and handed the keys to the owner who said "Fast isn't it?"
I replied " I gather they are but I drive customers' vehicles with care so I don't get to find out!"
I think he was surpised.
H
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I remember a MK2 GOlf I had being botched in a series of ways by a ford dealer in deleted, but the most noticeable was when I managed to wrangle new front brake pads out of the dealer as part compensation for the bodge-ups. I sat waiting for the best part of an hour because their delivery truck was delayed, and then watched as the young mechanic screeched it into the bay. A few minutes later there came a tremendous clanging sound from the garage as the chap tried to hammer the new pads into place because they wouldn\'t quite fit..
Now at this point you, I or anyone further up the foodchain than amoeba would be wondering if checking the new pads against the old ones first would have been a good idea (or rather we wouldn\'t , because we\'d already have done it, ahem ;) but not this lad. They\'d ordered the pads based on the year rather than what was in front of their eyes, and neglected to notice that certain 1983 Mk2s had the calipers from the MK1 GTI which were asymmetrical, and the year after switched to the standard ones we\'ve come to know. No idea why, but I know they had one of two clutches too, and it seemed a bit hit-and-miss which one you ended up with.
COnsequently I shouted a lot, had to wait another day for the proper pads, along with a few more hours sitting around and found they\'d not fitted shims so they rattled like crazy. After watching them fit them, get them wonky so they caught on the wheel, and then snap the offending bit off with a pair of pliers, I made my excuses and got out as fast as I could..
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