car dealerships driving your car

[Jeff7]

Looks like we're in The Garage now and not OT.

I do contract work for insurance companies ALL the time and they will stop giving out work if I don't side with the policy holder a certain percentage of the time. What you're saying is a common misconception. They're not stupid enough to think they can sign up a ton of people and reject all of the claims while still holding onto the majority of their client base. When a claim is legit, they pay it. What most people don't like is that their claims are often not legit. When there's a disagreement, they contract a third party (me) to provide an unbiased professional opinion.

Ok, good. I'm glad to be wrong on that then.
I guess it's selection bias - you only hear about the denied high-dollar claims.

I don't believe in slippery slopes. When it becomes non-optional or an invasion of privacy, then I will push back. That line may be different for everyone to some degree, but the vast majority of people will find common ground on an issue like this.

I do. People like to sneak in changes here and there. If it's kept gradual, the change might not be noticeable, and it will be more readily accepted.
People also like to see how much they get away with. If they can get away with a nibble, maybe they can try taking a bite. If that provokes a response, try two nibbles instead.
A change might not become non-optional overnight. It'll start optional, but then things will happen to incentivize people to change (discounts and such). Eventually, support for it wanes, and it can be made non-optional without much fuss.
"Invasion of privacy": A very subjective term. Now we've got publicly-held companies offering an open door for surveillance, and it's probably buried somewhere in their terms&conditions, "If you send data over our systems, we can do with it what we please, including hand it to government officials." If you don't like it, you don't use the Internet because there aren't any other options. At least some of it can be encrypted, so that helps.
For example, advertisers would like to follow you around 24/7 if they could, as there's a lot of money to be made if they know how to get in your head. And of course, insurance companies like to have a black box keeping tabs on their customers. Money money money.

There's some truth here, but I don't see why it matters. You can simply not participate at all if it starts to bother you. There are other methods of transportation. Also, I much prefer tiered pricing because the morons usually end up paying higher premiums.

I do like the idea of stupidity being painful, or at least monetarily damaging, I'll say that much.

When it becomes non-optional, I'll be right there with you fighting back.

:thumbsup:

Spin it however you like, but if you drive like an asshole then you pay more money. That's the high level concept here. There are certainly other second order effects, but you're being encouraged to be safe, courteous, and aware while driving by taking part in this incentive program.

I just get wary when new opportunities for abuse show up. Like I said, the change isn't usually instantaneous. It comes in little nibbles at a time, and then at some point everyone's wondering "How did it get like this?"

 

[crosshairs]

If you drove my car for greater than the distance from where it was parked to the bay and back, you would hear from me and so would your manager. I'm not taking it in for an inspection, I'm taking it in for an oil change (which I never would do anyway because of threads like this one), but still, don't "examine" my car and try to tell me what it needs if I haven't requested that service from you.

I cant speak for every shop, but I would imagine most are the same..when you present your car for service, you must sign a repair order...within that repair order is language that basically says you are giving your consent for the dealers employees to drive your car .

In any event, I dont know you personally, but from your post above, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't work on your car anyway. Its been my experience that customers that display the attitude that you do , aren't even worth the time it takes to throw them off the property