is my mechanic joy riding?

carolok

hi all, left my car at the main dealers yesterday, got a call last night asking me why i was driving like a lunatic in the other side of the county. i wasnt driving it, it must have been some one from the garage, can they take your car home without permission? i think not, garage say yes! what do yea think thanks,:)

the_syco

Doesn't seem right. Remember to note when it's in the garage, for any speeding tickets, or visits by the Gardaí over doughnuts. Finally, do an inspection of the car, and check if there's any scratches, dents, etc, that weren't there before...

Sizzler

Surely you should be asking the mechanic WTF is going on instead of the people on boards?

I think you'll find compensation is in order at the very least, IF the garage is a reputable one. If its some fly by night lad doing a nixer, forget about it and just dont pay for the service and dont go back, lesson learnt.

Out of curiousity who called you to say your car was on the other side of the country

PirateShampoo

He said County not Country.

rebel.ranter

carolok wrote: »

can they take your car home without permission? i think not, garage say yes!

Did the garage say that to you that they have a right to take it home? That is utter bull! I would lose the plot if this happened. Fair enough if they are diagnosing a fault they should most definitely do a test drive to aid/prove diagnosis/fix.

They definitely should not be taking it home! In fact I have a real problem with the way some garages & other motor services treat their customers cars. I was in a local shopping centre (Mahon) & was watching one of the Crystal Clean drive the life out of a Land Rover Discovery around the car park, he was just moving it from the wash to the parking area but took the long way round at speed, tyres screeching, etc.

I don't want to tar all with the same brush but I have seen this happen too often.

carolok

Sizzler wrote: »

Surely you should be asking the mechanic WTF is going on instead of the people on boards?

I think you'll find compensation is in order at the very least, IF the garage is a reputable one. If its some fly by night lad doing a nixer, forget about it and just dont pay for the service and dont go back, lesson learnt.

Out of curiousity who called you to say your car was on the other side of the country

first of all its a ford main dealers, and it was a garda who seen him, he is recommending me on an application and wasn't to impressed when he and his college seen the car. and i have spoken to the garage, the say it was there head technician who would not drive like that, and was test driving at night so i wouldn't have to pay labour. doing me favour he recons,

run_Forrest_run

carolok wrote: »

i have spoken to the garage, the say it was there head technician who would not drive like that, and was test driving at night so i wouldn't have to pay labour. doing me favour he recons,

that's hilarious, god bless his little cotton socks, he's so selfless he tests cars in his own time to save you on the labour costs...I've heard it all now.

Colin_M

Doubt they can be doing things like that. I remember from experience that they can take your car for a test drive to check what they were fixing but not joy riding.

That all sounds a bit mad though. Have a look through the car repairs guide on the nca site, they might have something about it - http://www.consumerconnect.ie. I got some good info from them when renting an apartment a few months ago.

carolok

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

that's hilarious, god bless his little cotton socks, he's so selfless he tests cars in his own time to save you on the labour costs...I've heard it all now.

i know, the service manager is a creap. the the tank was full, so it will cost me €60. he not going to get a penny out of me, the is the third time he has tried to fix the problem, every time i brought the car home the same problem was there. and he tell me i will have to pay him again.

Tipsy Mac

Id demand at a minimum that the dealer looks after your bill of parts and labour or I would call Joseph Duffys Liveline about it.

carolok

Colin_M wrote: »

Doubt they can be doing things like that. I remember from experience that they can take your car for a test drive to check what they were fixing but not joy riding.

That all sounds a bit mad though. Have a look through the car repairs guide on the nca site, they might have something about it - http://www.consumerconnect.ie. I got some good info from them when renting an apartment a few months ago.

cheers

hobochris

I wonder if its the same north side ford dealer that had two of its apprentice mechanics caught rallying garda cars in for service.

Id ask the gard if he will make a statement as to what he witnessed and then speak to solicitor..

godtabh

Can you not just check the milage?

Black Swan

Gave a lad a lift to pick up his car from repair awhile back. They told him it wasn't available at the moment. This got him curious, so he said he wanted to see it, even if it wasn't ready. They then told him that the mechanic was testing driving it. So we waited for it to return. It never did that day, and it wasn't until late the next day that he finally got his car back. The pre- and post- odometer showed it had been driven over 50 kms.

hobochris

Tipsy Mac wrote: »

Id demand at a minimum that the dealer looks after your bill of parts and labour or I would call Joseph Duffys Liveline about it.

Whats the point in calling Joe Duffy??

A lot of companies don't care what anyone on Joe Duffy's radio show has to say about them, as generally the people who end up on his show complaining have a lot to be desired and tend to stretch the truth into tall tails and leave out certain facts to suit themselves..
Which makes for great radio but its hardly a good source to base opinions from.

aoibhebree

I've often heard of this happening - there's a mechanic who lives next door to us who doesn't even own his own car, just brings home a different customer's car every night! Don't know what the legalities of it are though.

GrumPy

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

Gave a lad a lift to pick up his car from repair awhile back. They told him it wasn't available at the moment. This got him curious, so he said he wanted to see it, even if it wasn't ready. They then told him that the mechanic was testing driving it. So we waited for it to return. It never did that day, and it wasn't until late the next day that he finally got his car back. The pre- and post- odometer showed it had been driven over 50 kms.

Dodgey bastids!! :mad:

Taken the piss and putting you at risk for getting blamed on traffic offenses.

carolok

kearnsr wrote: »

Can you not just check the milage?

yea picked the car up yesterday morning and got a receipt with millage on it. the same problem re occurred with the car so i had to bring it back in, i would have only put a bot 4 miles on it!

OldmanMondeo

Tell the guard who was driving it and they did not have premission to drive it outside the garage opening hours. See what happens then.

R.O.R

It sounds like you have a re-occuring problem that is difficult to track down.

Whenever we have one of these we generally ask that the service manager take the vehicle overnight to give it a thorough test drive to ensure the problem has been rectified. A 5 minute spin around the block might not trigger a fault, whereas the 40km motorway journey might.

If it's just in for general service I wouldn't expect any test drive, but with problem diagnosis I'd expect a good few KM's to go on. Isn't it better that the problem occurs when it's with the dealer rather than after you collect (again)?

Saying that though, there is no excuse for driving it like you stole it if it isn't your car. Customer cars here get driven very sensibly - it's only when they are coming back off lease that limits can be tested (within the law of course).

EPM

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

Tell the guard who was driving it and they did not have premission to drive it outside the garage opening hours. See what happens then.

It's what I would do also.

Screw them for this one. You dont hand your car in for the crap to be driven out of it. I would put a letter to the manager of dealership and service manager, a copy to Ford Ireland (Henry Ford & Sons Ltd, Elm Court, Boreenmaana Road, Cork) and for the sake of it the SIMI (The Society of the Irish Motor Industry, 5 Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin 2).

I hate anyone else driving my car and you cant know for sure that he hasn't casued premature wear etc on parts of the car.

carolok

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

Tell the guard who was driving it and they did not have premission to drive it outside the garage opening hours. See what happens then.

he knows, he didnt stop the car caus he thought it was me, he said he will make it official if i want, but i said no caus it looks bad for him, he's a good straight garda for 19 years and i dont want to cause any trouble for him, but he said if needs be he will make it offical.

carolok

R.O.R wrote: »

It sounds like you have a re-occuring problem that is difficult to track down.

Whenever we have one of these we generally ask that the service manager take the vehicle overnight to give it a thorough test drive to ensure the problem has been rectified. A 5 minute spin around the block might not trigger a fault, whereas the 40km motorway journey might.

If it's just in for general service I wouldn't expect any test drive, but with problem diagnosis I'd expect a good few KM's to go on. Isn't it better that the problem occurs when it's with the dealer rather than after you collect (again)?

Saying that though, there is no excuse for driving it like you stole it if it isn't your car. Customer cars here get driven very sensibly - it's only when they are coming back off lease that limits can be tested (within the law of course).

i understand they need to test drive it, and have no proublem with that. they should have told me he was taking it home, and the mechanic should respect the car, they have apologised for taking the car without my explicit permission, he said maybe the garda was exaggerating about how the car was being driven. but i doubt if the garda is. who would belive, the mechanic or the garda?

martinr5232

What was the problem with the car as ROR said some times cars need more than a short spin around the block and sometimes they have to be driven hard to try and replicate a problem I dont mean drive it like its stolen but harder than normal driving.

Its all well and good for some people to come on here and say you cant be doing this and you cant be doing that but then in another thread they are whinging and whining about "I left my car into a garage with a problem" and it wasnt sorted.

OP Your car shoud not have been off the premises without you permission but the service manager could be right that the mechanic was looking for a fault in his own time meaning he would be doing some long driving and he has the diagnostic equipment connected to the car to read the parameters in real time over along distance using differant driving types.

gofaster_s13

A vehicle should always be test driven(with respect) after a service, a service is not complete until a test drive has been carried out, mechanic would be able to pick up faults from driving a vehicle that the driver would not notice or that would not be picked up on a service.

brandon_flowers

I can remember reading in some car magazine about four years ago that a guy left his M5 in for a service in London. He had a GPS tracking device on the car as part of the security. Off he went to work after dropping in the car at the garage and got a text from the GPS tracker an hour later saying his car had just recorded a speed of 127mph on the M25. Can you imagine the horror if you were the owner or the joy if you were the mechanic.

I used work in a garage part time when I was a young lad and anything decent that came in for a service always got a good blast down the road. Its purely temptation and 99% of the time you will get away with it. Also every car must be driven by the mechanic (obviously not erratically), no matter what the owner may think.

legend365

Test drive to the chipper. Another test drive down to the mates. And again back home.

Yup car seems fine

OldmanMondeo

carolok wrote: »

he knows, he didnt stop the car caus he thought it was me, he said he will make it official if i want, but i said no caus it looks bad for him, he's a good straight garda for 19 years and i dont want to cause any trouble for him, but he said if needs be he will make it offical.

Ok, so you know the Garda in question. If he says he will not get in trouble for not stopping it, I would let him deal with it. At the end of the day, it was your car being driven by an idiot, like an idiot only could. He may have caused damaged to your car, that you are unaware off. Someone you know could have seen it and start telling people what a dangerous c*** you are in a car.

Also it is the word of the Guard against the accused, nothing to do with you. Tell the garage the guard's want to press charges and you have to forward the details.

If it had happened to me, I would be hopping mad and looking for the job to be done FOC and a new set of tyres, full tank of fuel and possibly new brake pads.

OldmanMondeo

martinr5232 wrote: »

OP Your car shoud not have been off the premises without you permission but the service manager could be right that the mechanic was looking for a fault in his own time meaning he would be doing some long driving and he has the diagnostic equipment connected to the car to read the parameters in real time over along distance using differant driving types.

Fair point, but the car should never be driven in a mannor that would come to the attention of the Gardai....

mik_da_man

I know a guy who dropped his car in to get a radio replaced.
He has a tracker on it and set it to send him tesxt if it went over 30Km/hr
Surely enough he got a load of texts ranging from 40 up to 120 km/hr where they shouldn't have been doing those speeds.

He asked the manager whe the car was brough out for a extended test drive and the manager denied all, he then told him about the tracker :P
The poor manager was speechless - I would loved to have seen his face.
Yer man had all the locations and speeds logged and nearly went to the guards with them, I think they worked out an alternative soloution though

Farls

I dropped a focus I had into the local ford dealership 2 years ago to get a turbo pipe replaced, it was an over night job so I thought no problems. I work beside the dealership and met my car at well over the speed limit going down the road. I rang the place and was told the car wasn't fixed yet! I thought ok test drive. The car was spotted a few times that day up and down to the garage, once with a lawnmower sticking out of the boot!!! When I went to pick it up that evening I asked about this and was told it wouldn't of happened...strange when I opened the boot and found a lot of grass/cardboard etc lying in the boot.

cL0h

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

If he says he will not get in trouble for not stopping it, I would let him deal with it.
...
Also it is the word of the Guard against the accused, nothing to do with you. Tell the garage the guard's want to press charges and you have to forward the details.

You're not thinking this through. Going to court suits no one here. No the guard won't get into trouble with his superiors for not stopping the car. The problem here is that the offence can't suddenly exist just because it's a different person driving the car. He should have stopped the car regardless of the occupant. Likely outcome would be costs awarded to plaintiff. My advice is to tell the garage the guard witnessed the infraction, (give them his phone number if they ask) and tear up the invoice.
Don't ASK for a discount. Just respond firmly. The garage will neither pursue this legally nor speak badly of you after.

robtri

Have to say reading the OP, this doesn't surprise me too much...

I have had the same problem before a few years ago with a dealer in Dublin I won't mention...
same thing we would send in car's for sevice or warranty work on a regular basis.. and likewise one day we recieved a call from the gaurds, telling us one of our cars was reported to them as driving like a lunatic the night before... when we checked the reg we discovered the car was in for warranty work in this garage....

I had a few words with the service manager about this, and off the record he said this was not un common... suffice to say they lost a lot of business...

and this dealer was a large main multiple franchise delaer ( not ford)...

cancan

Name and shame....
You have a guard on your side.
Garage does not have a leg to stand on.

Only by publicing bad service will customer service improve.

If they want to defend their actions, the can have their shake of the stick here on a public form.

OldmanMondeo

cL0h wrote: »

You're not thinking this through. Going to court suits no one here. No the guard won't get into trouble with his superiors for not stopping the car. The problem here is that the offence can't suddenly exist just because it's a different person driving the car. He should have stopped the car regardless of the occupant. Likely outcome would be costs awarded to plaintiff. My advice is to tell the garage the guard witnessed the infraction, (give them his phone number if they ask) and tear up the invoice.
Don't ASK for a discount. Just respond firmly. The garage will neither pursue this legally nor speak badly of you after.

The offence does exist no matter who is driving the car. Guard's are so snowed under with paperwork there can easly be a delay in gett summons out. Also the summons would have to go via the registered owner before it would be sent to the garage. It would be the garage responsible as they were in charge of the car over night.

As for going to court, no it never will get that far, as the garage will pay the fine and hopefully sack the person who was driving it. The garage will not want this going to court as it could well end up in the papers, naming and shaming them.

If it was my car, I would not be paying the invoice and I would leave the matter in the hands of the guard's. I have paid enough for me car without some little toerag taking it and driving the sh1t out of it.

cL0h

The guard didn't note an offence when he thought the owner was driving the car because he knew him, therefore there was no offence. Now it turns out it was someone else driving so he writes it up.
So the offense does depend on who is driving and whether they are "friendly" with the guard or not.
The rest of your post repeats exactly what I said.

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

The offence does exist no matter who is driving the car. Guard's are so snowed under with paperwork there can easly be a delay in gett summons out. Also the summons would have to go via the registered owner before it would be sent to the garage. It would be the garage responsible as they were in charge of the car over night.

As for going to court, no it never will get that far, as the garage will pay the fine and hopefully sack the person who was driving it. The garage will not want this going to court as it could well end up in the papers, naming and shaming them.

If it was my car, I would not be paying the invoice and I would leave the matter in the hands of the guard's. I have paid enough for me car without some little toerag taking it and driving the sh1t out of it.