I thought it would be interesting to get some views on this thread from Pistonheads. Apparently somebody took his car into a main dealer for the brakes to be repaired (car very new under warranty), third time to try to get it resolved. He had tracker fitted and realised it was being used on the Sunday, so he called the dealership, and one of the sales guys said that the mechanics had taken it home (I suppose to try to resolve the fault).

When he picked up the car, the MD of the dealership denied that it had been taken home.

Lots of guys are trying to defend this situation, saying it's just good practice driving the car so as to diagnose it. I can't quite believe what I'm reading. I can accept that if there is a difficult to diagnose problem, you may be asked by the dealer if the car can be used by a mechanic to try to diagnose it. But without prior approval, and then lying about it?!

Well waddya think?

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.a...r+service+ Range Rover-less at the moment - Pining!

i would go mad... i would have that md in front of me and tell him what i think,
fact....the technician works up to 8 hours plus a day, so why didnt he take the car out for testing in work time..
i would not what someone driving my car around out of hours... V8 facelift Range Rover Autobiography 22" wheels.
1976 Harley Davidson Iron Head Sportster

There is no excuse for the mechanic to take it home. In addition who's insurance is he driving on? Ian

I too would be livid with this... No telling that the mechanic would have his kids in the back with Maccy D and god knows what. Or out with his mates down the pub.

Simply unacceptable in my eyes. Ash
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2016 SDV8 AB

I certainly wouldn't stand for it.

A mate of mine put his car in for an MOT and a ball joint years ago at Nissan, they had it for 3 days, the 2nd night they had it, I saw it out and about on the night time, (8pm onwards IIRC) some bloke picking his wife up from work, I was there picking up my sister in law from the same place. I know my mate went off it with Nissan and they knocked money off the bill to keep him quiet. 2006 Mercedes CLS
1991 Retro-style Mini
But really finding it hard to fight the urge for a S/C...

VERY WRONG. I'd go mental, especially as I know a couple of SE London BMW mechanics/service technicians who used to try and wing it regularly in the nice stuff...

These days, to be fair to most dealerships, they are pretty tight on that kind of thing.

I had about 115miles put on my Lotus Esprit once when it was in HROwen knightsbridge years ago... it only went in for front pads and a wheel refurb - came out about £1500!!! horrific!!

Many years ago I had this with a brand new MG Metro (ok, not quite in the same league as a FFRR ir a Lotus), The car was in the dealers for it's first service and I was told it was required to keep the car over a weekend. It had been collected from the house by the service manager of the dealership who lived 3 houses away from me so it wasn't a huge concern. On the Monday evening the car was returned with about 150 miles extra on the odo and when I lifted the paper footwell mats the garage had put down in the back of the car the red carpets were covered in oily boot prints. I immediately went round to the service managers house who claimed "testing" so I asked how many rear seat drivers they used to test the car which kind of floored him, so I explained and he ace to look. Couldn't really deny it, so he took the car back the next day, it was valeted but they couldn't get the oil out of the carpets so they ripped them out of a new car and fitted them to mine. IIRC I didn't pay for the service as well. I have also experienced being charged for parts that were not for the model of car I had turned out a mechanic was doing homers and charging parts he needed to customers who he thought ran company cars! 2018 Mini Countryman Cooper S E All4 PHEV in Melting Silver - it’s whisper quiet in EV and polluter modes

Out of work hours would that not qualify as theft? Discovery 4 HSE
1998 110 TUM HS FFR Hard Top XD WOLF
1982 Series 3 Hard Top

*Gone:L462 D5 HSE LUX, L663 Defender 110 HSE, Discovery 3 HSE, 2014MY Range Rover Sport 5.0 Supercharged AB Dynamic; L405 Exec Vogue SE 4.4, 5.0 Supercharged Autobiography, Defender TDCi XS CSW, Defender TD5 HT, Vogue SE TDV8, Vogue TD6, RRSport SC 4.2V8, Classic 3.9 Vogue Auto, Land Rover Series 3 SWB

As I posted on the PH thread, it's really no big deal. All this talk of theft etc is just plain daft and no employee is too bothered about enhancing their status among their friends by turning up in a customer's car. If anything you become 100 times more paranoid about potential damage to the vehicle while it is in your care and go out of your way to ensure it's returned spotless.

There would have been a valid reason to do an extended road test on the car, perhaps the fact that it was there for the third time to find a recurring fault had something to do with the extra miles required. Not sure you should be reading this bit.

GKP wrote:

As I posted on the PH thread, it's really no big deal. All this talk of theft etc is just plain daft and no employee is too bothered about enhancing their status among their friends by turning up in a customer's car. If anything you become 100 times more paranoid about potential damage to the vehicle while it is in your care and go out of your way to ensure it's returned spotless.

There would have been a valid reason to do an extended road test on the car, perhaps the fact that it was there for the third time to find a recurring fault had something to do with the extra miles required.

Really? and that would explain why the MD of the dealership denied that the car had left the dealership on the Sunday!
 Range Rover-less at the moment - Pining!

Simply wrong and totally unacceptable. It could end up being parked anywehere. If you trust a car to a dealer it must be kept safe and secure at their premises overnight.

I would kick up a real fuss

Might sound harsh but does it qualify as TWOC???

Whether they were road testing or not I have not had any vehicle in a dealership where they have not formally requested permission to road test (& I usually note in & out mileages).

Would you let anyone just go for a ride in your car? I can't see that many mechanics deciding to give up part of their Sunday off to 'help this client out who's had his car in 3 times as we cannot fix it'.

Not only free service / no invoice but I would want an apology from the MD of the dealership for blatantly lying to me and some sort of recompense.

totally wrong and unacceptable - cannot understand those on PH defending it?

it does happen frequently i'm told by a friend in the 'trade'

also heard of a guy getting a speeding ticket whilst his car was in for service

Dogman wrote:

Might sound harsh but does it qualify as TWOC???

Whether they were road testing or not I have not had any vehicle in a dealership where they have not formally requested permission to road test (& I usually note in & out mileages).

Would you let anyone just go for a ride in your car? I can't see that many mechanics deciding to give up part of their Sunday off to 'help this client out who's had his car in 3 times as we cannot fix it'.

Not only free service / no invoice but I would want an apology from the MD of the dealership for blatantly lying to me and some sort of recompense.

You're quite right. I think they are completely crazy to deny it, surely the Tracker records prove it was on the move, so IF the OP went to the Police, he would be able to prove that it's been twoked. Surely it would have been much better if the MD had just admitted what happened.

I'm not suggesting it should be reported to the Police, just to be clear, just pointing out that it's pretty stupid for the dealership to lie about it when the Tracker records will prove them liars.

It's a shame really, I would love to think that LR dealers are staffed by jolly conscientious mechanics who would willingly drive our cars carefully around during their time off straining to diagnose those difficult problems! But I'm afraid GKP, I can't really understand how you can stick with this belief given the fact that the MD states the car didn't leave the premises!
 Range Rover-less at the moment - Pining!

bozmandb9 wrote:

Dogman wrote:

Might sound harsh but does it qualify as TWOC???

Whether they were road testing or not I have not had any vehicle in a dealership where they have not formally requested permission to road test (& I usually note in & out mileages).

Would you let anyone just go for a ride in your car? I can't see that many mechanics deciding to give up part of their Sunday off to 'help this client out who's had his car in 3 times as we cannot fix it'.

Not only free service / no invoice but I would want an apology from the MD of the dealership for blatantly lying to me and some sort of recompense.

You're quite right. I think they are completely crazy to deny it, surely the Tracker records prove it was on the move, so IF the OP went to the Police, he would be able to prove that it's been twoked. Surely it would have been much better if the MD had just admitted what happened.

I'm not suggesting it should be reported to the Police, just to be clear, just pointing out that it's pretty stupid for the dealership to lie about it when the Tracker records will prove them liars.

It's a shame really, I would love to think that LR dealers are staffed by jolly conscientious mechanics who would willingly drive our cars carefully around during their time off straining to diagnose those difficult problems! But I'm afraid GKP, I can't really understand how you can stick with this belief given the fact that the MD states the car didn't leave the premises!