Car was being driven but supposed to be serviced?

sidcon

Hi
I left my car into a well know tyre garage for an intermediate service that was given to me as a present, I went shopping and while walking back home about 30mins later my car was been driven by a "service engineer" up in my estate.

Normally I serviced it myself but surely there was no need to take out my car for a drive,

I have to pick it up later should I say something??

I'm not looking for anything just thought it odd.

El Guapo!

Its perfectly normal for a car to be test driven when being serviced.

biko

Sure, ask why it was driven. They probably had a reason.

colm_mcm

This is how to play it,

1 Come back and go "hang on, there's more mileage on the car now"
2 Get them to tell you what happened, where was I driven and why
3 If it differs from where it actually went, go ape.

dashoonage

My mechanic drives my car after a service. However he does always say..." I took it for a spin to X after it was done...."

Del2005

sidcon wrote: »

Hi
I left my car into a well know tyre garage for an intermediate service that was given to me as a present, I went shopping and while walking back home about 30mins later my car was been driven by a "service engineer" up in my estate.

Normally I serviced it myself but surely there was no need to take out my car for a drive,

I have to pick it up later should I say something??

I'm not looking for anything just thought it odd.

How far from the garage is your estate? If it's more than a few km then ask why it was driven so far.
Any garage doing a service should take the car for a spin, you'd be back here complaining if something falls off the car just after its been serviced otherwise.

George Dalton

If a garage services a car without test driving it then they aren't doing their job properly.

colm_mcm

Would they have the car serviced in 30 minutes?
Usually the driving would be done after the service.

cantdecide

You have to ask what kind of kick they'd get from joy riding your car. Unless it's something exotic or powerful that would incite some high spirits then I wouldn't have much reason to be suspicious from the OP's post.

It would surely occur to anyone driving your car that even someone you know might recognise the car. Maybe they wanted to test ride it and maybe at the same time they needed to go to the parts place. I love my car but it wouldn't bother me one bit what they did with it as long as it was the same way when I got it back and they hadn't burned up half a tank of juice. It might be different if it went in over a weekend and I saw it on a Sunday outside Tesco. Either way, if the OP is concerned about foul play, the only way to know is to ask.

George Dalton

colm_mcm wrote: »

Would they have the car serviced in 30 minutes?
Usually the driving would be done after the service.

We always test drive before a service or any work that is more involved than changing wipers or bulbs tbh. It is important to set a base line and identify any issues that need to be checked out, and also as a safeguard against any "since-ya" type complaints. We usually also test drive afterwards but not necessarily in every case.

colm_mcm

How far would you normally take the car beforehand George?
Say a car where you were doing a service on?

It certainly makes sense to do it, but if the OPs house is 30 mins walk from the garage, that's still a fair spin.

George Dalton

We have a few different test drive routes but the longest one would be about a 6km round trip.

sidcon

Spoke to them when getting the car back, claimed they went to get oil for my car as it fully synthetic and the only had semi left and that's what the vouchers I had was for.
When I asked were they drove it they said around the corner and back around the long way to see was anything wrong with car.
They odometer had 11km put on it.
I'm happy enough with explanation just found it weird seeing my car been driven on the road.

MugMugs

sidcon wrote: »

Spoke to them when getting the car back, claimed they went to get oil for my car as it fully synthetic and the only had semi left and that's what the vouchers I had was for.
When I asked were they drove it they said around the corner and back around the long way to see was anything wrong with car.
They odometer had 11km put on it.
I'm happy enough with explanation just found it weird seeing my car been driven on the road.

Their excuse is terrible.

It's reasonable for a mechanic to test drive any car they've serviced though.