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That premium of a price should come with less trashy behavior.
Think so, huh?
Like the guy up-thread who mentions, "you wouldn't believe what the (mechanic shops) are doing." Yes, I would, since a friend of mine worked in one in college. And I know how motorcycle dealers roll, too. They only become contrite when they get *caught* which is obviously pretty rare. I saw a bike dealer get chewed out when customer caught the mechanic doing a wheelie on the road out back, which was actually pretty funny to witness. They calmed the guy down, he left, the whole staff started busting out in loud laughter at his dumb naive ass.
I bought a somewhat-exotic car w/very low miles from a dealer in Little Rock not many years ago. Either Foghorn, or Leghorn (not sure which) at the Dodge dealer shipped it up to Seattle, where the dealer I was working with took delivery.
What, someone didn't take a joyride in the above process? Oh, wait: one did, my salesman Steve. I found out because he was out "gassing it up" before I showed for pre-inspection, and gone 15-20 min. Odd, perhaps, considering there was a Union 76 station on the corner. He probably broke every speed law from Bellevue to Newcastle in that little jaunt. Yes, this is a top salesman at one of the top (brand) dealers in the area.
What the hell do I care? It's a sports car. Steve's done some competition driving, I'm just starting to. The car can take anything we want to dish out and laugh it off, on the street anyway.
That is irritating. If the car is in for something that requires a test drive then that is one thing but an oil change??
Last year we bought a JeeP that had to be located so we could get the options we wanted, we found one and the dealer sent the salesman to get it, we didn't know that at the time until we took delivery and found that he had entered his music and phone contacts into the system and even had the memory seat set for him, he was one big dude. The JeeP also had about another 40 miles on it beyond what it would have if he had simply gone straight up and back to get it. We think he was cruising around talking to all his friends and listening to music.
When I worked at a dealer we got one of the first Thunderbirds in that was a special order for a guy and the sales manager asked me if I wanted to go for a ride in it. I thought sure lets take a quick test drive and the next thing I knew we were on the highway going over 100mph!
Dealers and mechanics often see cars as just another product to move whereas we often see our cars as really personal objects that we care about.
It was wrong for that mechanic to take that womans car to get food.
Only on the internet will people actually argue with the position that that taking a customer's car without approval to a fast food drive through was wrong. Why is it in real life people seem much more reasonable?
BTW: Many high end shops allow techs to drive customer's VERY expensive cars ($150k+) home for drivability issues WITH the blessings of the customers. As a matter of fact the customers very much appreciate it.
Wow! What if my VERY expensive car is stolen after tech takes it home? I'm going to be hopping mad!
Seriously, you gotta be kidding.
I'm trying to remember the last dinner party I went to where people were saying things like it's perfectly OK for employees to take the customer's expensive car to a drive through without permission or where customers would be thrilled that a mechanic took their $150,000 car home for the evening and parked it wherever he happens to live.
Let's say I have a BMW 3 series which doesn't cost $150,000. It's still an expensive car to ME. I don't want somebody at the auto shop to drive it around like it's there own personal car.
I don't care if some of you are ok with this being done. I'm not ok with it.
Let's say I have a BMW 3 series which doesn't cost $150,000. It's still an expensive car to ME. I don't want somebody at the auto shop to drive it around like it's there own personal car.
I don't care if some of you are ok with this being done. I'm not ok with it.
Same here.
Similar thing happen to me.
I brought in my Jaguar to get a repair (alternator) and I got a call from the police stating that
my car had been involved in an accident. It had been abandonned after hiting a truck a couple of blocks
from the repair shop and there a case of beer in the back seat.
One of the mechanics must have taken it to get beer and clipped a truck and took off before the
cops came. I confronted the owner of the car repair garage and he denied it was one of his employees,
his theory was that someone came into the shop and took the keys when no one was looking.
Highly unlikely but I could not prove otherwise, my insurance covered the repairs, I was not to
thrilled by the whole thing, myabe it is not a good thing to have a cool or luxury car.
I now own a Camry, a good solid car but bland, perfect for me.
Most shops work out of the Flat Rate Manual. If the book says the job takes 2 hours, that is what is billable. If the tech take only an hour to do the work, they still bill 2 hours, and make out like a bandit. If the tech has problems, and takes 4 hours to get the job done, they bill 2 hours, and take a loss. If the tech consistently takes longer than the book says, he/she will be looking for a job soon. While a SHORT test drive may be included in the Flat Rate, anything more will not be billable time.
Attorneys and accountants do not have a Flat Rate Manual, but if they spend 35 minutes on your project, they will bill you for a full hour.
This is a perfect explanation of how the system works, & thank you for posting it, although techs seldom make out like bandits, but attorneys always do.
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