Mechanic joyride

[diesaroo]

Just got my car back from the dealer to check on a leak around the injectors...turned out to be cosmoline (maybe). We'll see if it returns.

Anyway, the dealer had it for 2 days and put 233 miles on it in the meantime. I mean ***??!! I know a mechanic needs to test drive the car to check it, but this is unreal!

Suggestions? I am thinking of demanding a buyback for this kind of misuse.

 

[740GLE]

did they pay for the fuel?

 

[oilhammer]

We test drive cars that much here a lot, just depends on what was done, what you are trying to insure is fixed. I often test drive cars home (which that alone will add about 100 miles to the odo), or we have one of the porters drive the cars during the day to do their normal errands. It has never been a problem, and we always replaced any spend fuel. So I'd not be sure how you would label this as "misuse".

 

[geektoad]

demand a buyback for that? drama queen much?

 

[40X40]

Just got my car back from the dealer to check on a leak around the injectors...turned out to be cosmoline (maybe). We'll see if it returns.

Anyway, the dealer had it for 2 days and put 233 miles on it in the meantime. I mean ***??!! I know a mechanic needs to test drive the car to check it, but this is unreal!

Suggestions? I am thinking of demanding a buyback for this kind of misuse.

They did it right. You are wrong. End of story.

Bill

 

[compu_85]

If you find a video on youtube of your car roasting tires then you have a problem..

Did they fix the leak? If so the long test drive probably helped...

-J

 

[740GLE]

Only time i've had that many miles put on my car after service was for an intermitant transmission indicator switch problem, the independant shop (Alan Auto, Volvo Repair Portland ME, THE BEST PLACE TO TAKE YOUR VOLVO), was very clear up front and stated they wanted to let one of the techs take it home and put some miles on it to be 100% sure the problem was fixed.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the dealer taking it for a drive, they probably just should have told you 100% what they were going to do. At that point you could have pointed out you thought they were just taking it for a joy ride.

 

[WVU TDI]

233 miles on the car and a hopefully fixed problem

vs

8 miles on the car and a "uh, we couldn't replicate the issue, sorry!"

 

[TwoTone]

Just got my car back from the dealer to check on a leak around the injectors...turned out to be cosmoline (maybe). We'll see if it returns.

Anyway, the dealer had it for 2 days and put 233 miles on it in the meantime. I mean ***??!! I know a mechanic needs to test drive the car to check it, but this is unreal!

Suggestions? I am thinking of demanding a buyback for this kind of misuse.

If they drove 10 miles parked it and the leak wasn't fixed, you'd be on here *****ing up a storm about how bad the service was.

Seriously, people wonder why people in service industries start to just get fed up.

As said above, they did it right. It's common practice to drive a car home as a long test drive. Now if they put 200 miles on it for an oil change then you can be pissed.

 

[oilhammer]

Seriously, people wonder why people in service industries start to just get fed up.

Quote of the day right there.

 

[diesaroo]

Ok I may have forgotten to include a little info. No actual work was performed on the car other than cleaning the fuel or whatever residue off of the injector/valve cover area. They kept my car for 2 days, drove it over 200 miles and simply stated the fluid didn't come back. I could understand if a major repair was performed, but no actual work was done...

If they wanted to see if the leak would return, all they would have to do is give it back to me and I would tell them if it would return.

 

[diesaroo]

We test drive cars that much here a lot, just depends on what was done, what you are trying to insure is fixed. I often test drive cars home (which that alone will add about 100 miles to the odo), or we have one of the porters drive the cars during the day to do their normal errands. It has never been a problem, and we always replaced any spend fuel. So I'd not be sure how you would label this as "misuse".

OH, I know the quality of your work and would not hesitate to let you add 100 miles after a repair. And no, they did not replace any spent fuel. I gave it to them with 3/4 tank and I got it back at 1/4. They did not do any real work other than clean the area.

IMHO this is misuse if there is no repair done that needs to be tested and more than 200 miles is added with no fuel replaced and then they say it's fine no leaks.

 

[Ski in NC]

The best way to check for a leak is clean area up, then drive it and see if fluid comes back. They did exactly that.

It would have been nice if they put some fuel in it, but we're talking what, twenty bucks?

 

[WVU TDI]

The best way to check for a leak is clean area up, then drive it and see if fluid comes back. They did exactly that.

It would have been nice if they put some fuel in it, but we're talking what, twenty bucks?

Seriously.

 

[HaveBulldogWillTravel]

Absolutely ridiculous. 233 miles equates to OVER 5-1/2 hours of driving at an average of 50MPH. Someone drove your car home 2 days and they live over 50 miles away from where they work? C'mon...totally irresponsible on the part of the dealer/tech(s)/sales staff/whoever was given the keys to your ride. I've done numerous complete engine rebuilds and NEVER needed anything close to 233 miles to properly test a car. Did you give them permission to allow a tech or anyone else to drive your car home?
I'd want to know:
Who authorized a tech to take your car home?
Who drove it?
How far from the dealer do they live?
Why was this deemed necessary?

NO dealer is going to pay a tech $120.00+ billable hours X 5.5 to test drive ANY car with a supposed fuel leak that didn't even exist or require any work to repair.

My guess is your car was used as a shuttle for 2 days until another chump(sorry) came in and dropped their car off. I'd find another dealer but not before you go back and have a word with the SA and ask for your wasted fuel to be replaced. You never know...he may come up with some half-way believable excuses for testing/using your car.
If he does I'd like to hear it.

As far as a "buy-back" is concerned...Forget that...not happening...ever.

FWIW, joy rides/test drives do go bad. In case you're not aware of this one, here's a particularly bad instance that, even after a year, is yet to be resolved. There are some shady dealers out there.

http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e6...ragged-my-car-wrecked-totaled-test-drive.html

 

[740GLE]

When you dropped of your car, did you ask what they planned to do to check for leaks that would require two days? Did the dealer do something other than what you agreed to when you handed your keys over?

Sounds like you handed the keys over asking them to take a look for leaks then found out two days later you didn't like what they did.

Granted is the service writers job to inform you of what work is going to be performed, but if you don't play an active role in the service they performed, you can't blame them.

Before handing the keys over you should have already known what they were planning to do and each step of their trouble shooting process. At that point you could have thrown the BS flag.

 

[diesaroo]

When you dropped of your car, did you ask what they planned to do to check for leaks that would require two days? Did the dealer do something other than what you agreed to when you handed your keys over?

Sounds like you handed the keys over asking them to take a look for leaks then found out two days later you didn't like what they did.

Granted is the service writers job to inform you of what work is going to be performed, but if you don't play an active role in the service they performed, you can't blame them.

Before handing the keys over you should have already known what they were planning to do and each step of their trouble shooting process. At that point you could have thrown the BS flag.

Actually all they said was they needed to check with VW Engineering to see what they should do. Call me crazy but I don't think this is VW's SOP.

 

[diesaroo]

The best way to check for a leak is clean area up, then drive it and see if fluid comes back. They did exactly that.

It would have been nice if they put some fuel in it, but we're talking what, twenty bucks?

So by saying that, you would be "ok" with the dealer driving your car for even 1,000 miles to "make sure everything is ok"? To me it was excessive, maybe some of you guys don't mind if they put on a few hundred at every service.

To me those are miles that I could have been driving.

 

[Ski in NC]

Dealers often have to send a porter to another dealer in another town to pick up parts, drop off a driver to pick up a car, etc. They probably used your car for the chore. They are not going to send a tech on the drive. But the tech probably checked for leaks on the car's return. Seems reasonable.

Edit- simultaneous posts. No, 1000miles would not be reasonable. Even 233 is a bit on the high side. They could have called you and told you of the plan, and at least replaced the fuel.

But at least they sorted out the initial complaint- No leak.

 

[diesaroo]

Absolutely ridiculous. 233 miles equates to OVER 5-1/2 hours of driving at an average of 50MPH. Someone drove your car home 2 days and they live over 50 miles away from where they work? C'mon...totally irresponsible on the part of the dealer/tech(s)/sales staff/whoever was given the keys to your ride. I've done numerous complete engine rebuilds and NEVER needed anything close to 233 miles to properly test a car. Did you give them permission to allow a tech or anyone else to drive your car home?
I'd want to know:
Who authorized a tech to take your car home?
Who drove it?
How far from the dealer do they live?
Why was this deemed necessary?

NO dealer is going to pay a tech $120.00+ billable hours X 5.5 to test drive ANY car with a supposed fuel leak that didn't even exist or require any work to repair.

My guess is your car was used as a shuttle for 2 days until another chump(sorry) came in and dropped their car off. I'd find another dealer but not before you go back and have a word with the SA and ask for your wasted fuel to be replaced. You never know...he may come up with some half-way believable excuses for testing/using your car.
If he does I'd like to hear it.

As far as a "buy-back" is concerned...Forget that...not happening...ever.

FWIW, joy rides/test drives do go bad. In case you're not aware of this one, here's a particularly bad instance that, even after a year, is yet to be resolved. There are some shady dealers out there.

http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e6...ragged-my-car-wrecked-totaled-test-drive.html

Agreed. No, I never authorized them to drive it. They supposedly wanted to drive it as much as possible to make sure there was no fuel leak. Talk about a load...
I'm opening a case and will let you all know/or not depending on whether they have bought my silence how it turns out.

 

[KITEWAGON]

Dealers often have to send a porter to another dealer in another town to pick up parts, drop off a driver to pick up a car, etc. They probably used your car for the chore. They are not going to send a tech on the drive. But the tech probably checked for leaks on the car's return. Seems reasonable.

Really, you think that having a dealership use your car to run errands with no disclosure at all is okay? We are not talking about a 20 mile trip around town. We're talking over 200 miles and 4+ hours of highway driving. This forum can be so strange. Normally everyone wants to draw and quarter the dealer and on this thread everyone is falling over themselves to defend them.

I think that driving the car for diagnosis is of course reasonable. Even having the tech drive the car home to check it out makes sense. So maybe they put 50 or even 100 miles on it (in OH's case because he seems to have a long commute). But 200+ miles with no disclosure is ridiculous.

Asking for a buyback is equally ridiculous, however.

And the lesson as always, expect to be pissed off when getting your car/bill back from the dealer.

 

[IMAAaron]

Maybe you can get a free oil change out of it? See if they use that 507-can-o-worms stuff?

 

[HaveBulldogWillTravel]

This forum can be so strange. Normally everyone wants to draw and quarter the dealer and on this thread everyone is falling over themselves to defend them.

I was thinking the exact same thing. Has it become infiltrated?

 

[740GLE]

Nahh it was just the comunitaction of the dealer failed short, but everyone here should expect that from them!

Everyone knows the dealers need to be looked at for everything. So its the OP willingness to give up the car for two days not know what the heck the dealer is doing that's just as bad as the dealer taking the car for a 230mile ride!

 

[TwoTone]

Here's the simple thing to do. Next time, tell the SA that they are absolutely not to use your car to drive home or any errands. That you are willing to pay $90-100 an hour for the Tech to only drive around town during work hours as a proper test drive.

NO dealer is going to pay a tech $120.00+ billable hours X 5.5 to test drive ANY car with a supposed fuel leak that didn't even exist or require any work to repair.
l

Hense the reason cars are taken to lunch, errands or home.
I'm the first to slam a dealer when deserved, but you 'customers' are full of **** if you think you'd be ok with a $200 bill for a tech driving you car around and getting a ticket with NPF across it.

 

[specsalot]

It's hard to write a good response on this. It would have been better for the dealer to have advised you that they wanted to run up extended miles.

The only way to identify this kind of issue is to drive the car. There was probably some ongoing debate internally about potential remedial actions to be taken. Likely why it took more than one day to evaluate.

I would give the dealership points for doing extend road testing. Their communication could have been better. Good customer service involves keeping the customer informed. When my dad was in the repair business he did road tests both as a diagnostic and also to validate work done. I don't think he ever did more than an hours driving without clearing it with customers first.

 

[fxgolf]

yes the Miles are a bit much. but think about it who rides in your car all the time? You and maybe loved ones. your car had a possible fuel leak, fuel + hot exhaust/turbo = Fire. If they had done a quicky test drive and not seen any sign of fuel leaking and they you take your car home and decided to drive it on a lil road trip and it caught fire because the fuel took some time to build up or right conditions for it to happen. who would you be mad at? when your safety is concerned don't you want that extra piece of mind to know they did everything they could to prevent an accident? they could have shared more info, bad on the SA.
But picture a lovely highway side fire staring your car. they should have replaced your fuel, mine went in for service a clunk of some sort and i recieved a full detail and a full tank of fuel (mine was at 1/4 when dropped off) for the test drive they did trying to reproduce the sound. i was happy that they did such a complete job.

 

[BMLO13]

Wow. An injector leak, 230 miles to clean the injector and make sure it isn't leaking... they think? I have taken cars on long test drives for intermittent problems, never 230 miles. To me a possible fuel injector leak would not need 230 miles of driving. After all that driving then think it was really only cosmoline. Do they even use cosmoline anymore?

 

[HaveBulldogWillTravel]

Wow. An injector leak, 230 miles to clean the injector and make sure it isn't leaking... they think? I have taken cars on long test drives for intermittent problems, never 230 miles. To me a possible fuel injector leak would not need 230 miles of driving. After all that driving then think it was really only cosmoline. Do they even use cosmoline anymore?

Can't remember where but I read somewhere that cosmoline has been replaced with a similar product ...probably more environmentally friendly...and more costly...and for US market only.

 

[c17chief]

Really, you think that having a dealership use your car to run errands with no disclosure at all is okay? We are not talking about a 20 mile trip around town. We're talking over 200 miles and 4+ hours of highway driving. This forum can be so strange. Normally everyone wants to draw and quarter the dealer and on this thread everyone is falling over themselves to defend them.

I think that driving the car for diagnosis is of course reasonable. Even having the tech drive the car home to check it out makes sense. So maybe they put 50 or even 100 miles on it (in OH's case because he seems to have a long commute). But 200+ miles with no disclosure is ridiculous.

Asking for a buyback is equally ridiculous, however.

And the lesson as always, expect to be pissed off when getting your car/bill back from the dealer.

agreed.

I would try to get the fuel replaced and call it a day, then of course not use that dealer again if possible.