The manager apologized to me and asked if I wanted a free oil change. I declined because I didn't want this to seem like a cheap way to get something for free. I was genuinely curious and that's it. I told him everything else was great and that I was really happy with the price, service (except for the obvious issue), and the unexpected car wash/vacuum treatment. He closed with a promise that he would make sure his technicians knew not to drive cars without following the proper procedure. It's hard to tell if that's actually going to happen and I would think they all had been told that information already, but it's better than saying nothing I suppose.
the mechanic did, after all, violate a company policy, one that (even though it did not) could have cost the dealership a good deal of money.
lol. Is this the thread?
People need to wait until the vehicle in front is actually moving on not going to have to stop quickly before they get moving (SAFETY).haha
Everyone in line has the opportunity to be awesome if they would simply accelerate in unison. I don't get hot and bothered if people go quickly, but it's nice when everyone in line understands that they don't need to wait until the car in front of them is 50 ft. away before they can go. /sigh
Didn't read this whole thread but the idea that someone who brakes hard and accelerates hard is 4x more likely to be in an accident shouldn't necessarily be a direct correlation. I hard brake and accelerate all the time. This does not mean that I am going to be in many more accidents. If I hard brake and accelerate with no one around... there is no reason for me to get in an accident anymore than anyone else. Statistically this might be the case but it might also be the case that red cars are 63% more likely to be in an accident than other colors. So why not make people pay more money for driving a red car? Oh, right... http://www.tylervigen.com/ (Basically, you're not looking at the actual reason. You're just labeling cause and effect on things that correlate for any possible reason)
Also, -7.7mph/s < acceleration is considered hard braking? Wtf. That's gentle braking in my book! If I am in traffic on the freeway, you have to do that every time. There is almost never a time where I am not hard braking when I am traffic. Giving people space even makes it worse because they constantly merge into your lane with maybe 10ft between you and their car then slam on the brakes. Anytime you do the safe follow distance, you're going to have to go 20mph under the minimum current traffic speed to maintain it. Good luck ever getting to your destination in 20mph traffic.
It's basically impossible in moving traffic. In slow traffic? It's plausible but difficult depending on the place, you'll just get tons of people honking/road-raging at you.
This.
I could drive like that in Fargo, ND. Not in Minneapolis and not in Charlotte unless you are Ok with driving an extra 20-25mi each day to stay off any sort of main road. Lots of iSmug here from people who drive in lazy areas, of course you can do this.
Anyway- glad the OP got the place to fess up. Hopefully they reinforce with their staff to respect their customers cars more and document when longer drives like this are necessary. The insurance company should also look into better ways to handle these situation where someone else's liability is in-place and the normal driver is not driving. This could apply to something like a valet or a full-service car wash too. I know the car wsh I go to, they kill my car every time. (no burn-outs or crazy braking tho...)
I'm going to the dealership tomorrow morning to ask what they were doing with my car for 20 minutes and why it went 10 miles when it should have gone about 80 feet.
I thought that the point of this thread was to determine WHY the car was driven 10 miles off the lot...not whether it was driven off the lot...
OP never got that answer...too bad...I read 5 pages to find out too...
As to "hard" driving...I drive a stick, like a stick, and would "fail" the test in 1 mile....not 10.
I asked and they had no explanation because the guy who did it wasn't working at the time. I could have made a bigger deal out of it and/or gone back another time to talk to the guy who did it I guess, but my curiosity was satisfied with the answer I got from the manager. It wasn't supposed to happen, so the guy who did it obviously had no valid excuse.
You're decision not to make a stink about something like this doesn't mean you're taking the high road. There's no justifiable reason for them to have driven the car anywhere near that many miles. You're still missing a key point: the miles were put on the car before the oil was changed.
I would be more understanding if they had replaced the engine and needed to test it, but we're talking about an oil change.
When going in for service a person should be offered the 'free' evaluation you mention, crosshairs. You shouldn't just do it to cover your and the dealerships ass. I wouldn't want you doing this in my Mustang.
Question: why didn't you word it -> "I wouldn't want you doing this in my [car]"?
I think it's completely reasonable what crosshairs posted and completely agree with his reasoning, though I would put the % of jerkoffs at at least 80
The reasoning doesn't make much sense to me. Driving the car seems to increase the possibility of being blamed for causing a problem, or actually causing a problem. Driving it without permission adds to the perception of shady mechanics using your car to go pick up hookers and blow.
I also think a short test drive has limited value in evaluating performance/maintenance needs, other than the obvious. It's probably not going to expose something that is currently working OK but at risk of imminent failure, i.e. brakes. That requires an inspection that I have a hard time believing will be done thoroughly for free during an oil change. Mechanics are often terrible at making a well intentioned evaluation appear as anything other than an obvious sales ploy.
I work in a dealership and I drive every car I work on no matter what its in for,I do this for 2 reasons.
1) it covers me for when you come back 10 minutes after picking up your car saying its making a noise it never made before, or it runs rough, and it never did that before or any number of pre existing problems that people like to blame the dealer for so that they can get free stuff..
2) I can properly evaluate the vehicle performance and make the proper repairs based on that evaluation......just because all you came in for is an oil change, does not mean that's all your car needs....you would be just as pissed off if you drove home and the brakes failed 10 miles down the road.....except you would then be saying, "I just got an oil change and they didn't tell me my brakes were bad".
Disclaimer: When I say "you" I dont mean you personally, I mean customers in general..75% of people are jerk offs..
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 have a brother that works in the automotive repair business and people are jerkoffs. They will blame anything and everything on the tech working on the car. You do an oil change and then they come back saying the rear hatch is now squeaking and it never did that before you worked the car...
a pre/post drive in the car is equivalent to a walk around noting dings and scratches IMO.
We all have varying feelings about our cars. If you have issue with a tech driving your car, maybe you shouldn't be bringing your car to the dealer for service. Find a local repair shop you do feel comfortable with or do the repair yourself. I think dealers are scammers in general and avoid them when I can. If I bring my car in for whatever reason, I don't think it unreasonable for them to drive the car..... because that's all it is; and it is plenty replaceable. The OP drives a nothing honda that they made tens of thousands, along with Danimal's prized Rustang
It must suck to be your doctor.
It must suck to be your doctor.
I kind of want this device just for when I take it to the dealer, now if only it would record GPS location, audio, and rev #'s.
Screw the insurance discount, it's probably some lame 5-10% which is like 5-10$ on my already cheap as hell insurance. Paying $105 a month for full coverage on 2 newer vehicles, two drivers. I too am in the boat of, I would rather have to not worry about my 4 max aggressive stops and use as many as I want.