Dealership rallied my car. What would you do?

tedpan

I dropped my Nissan Leaf off a year ago at a large car dealership for an annual service. I went to collect it after work and noticed that my dashcam had been disconnected, I plugged it back in and drove home.

I wanted to see why and when they'd disconnected it. I'd forgotten to even mention it was installed. Anyway, later when I watched back the footage, they used the car to drive to the motor factors to get spare parts for mine and other cars. The issue was their driving, they floored it and were speeding 40&50km/h over the speed limit, Driving all over the road and flying the car over speed bumps at 60-80km/h at times.

I wanted to do something at the time but put it off. Then I lost my phone and thought I'd lost the footage, this evening I found it on an old external harddrive.

Do you think I should seek compensation or what do you advise?

Thanks in advance.

Kenny Logins

You know that song from Frozen?

uck51js9zml2yt

A year on don't give them your business again!

xabi

tedpan wrote: »

I dropped my Nissan Leaf off a year ago at a large car dealership for an annual service. I went to collect it after work and noticed that my dashcam had been disconnected, I plugged it back in and drove home.

I wanted to see why and when they'd disconnected it. I'd forgotten to even mention it was installed. Anyway, later when I watched back the footage, they used the car to drive to the motor factors to get spare parts for mine and other cars. The issue was their driving, they floored it and were speeding 40&50km/h over the speed limit, Driving all over the road and flying the car over speed bumps at 60-80km/h at times.

I wanted to do something at the time but put it off. Then I lost my phone and thought I'd lost the footage, this evening I found it on an old external harddrive.

Do you think I should seek compensation or what do you advise?

Thanks in advance.

How do you know what they bought? I’d be emailing the footage to the manager for their thoughts.

tedpan

Kenny Logins wrote:

You know that song from Frozen?

Yeah, but watching the video back tonight really upset me. Maybe I should.

Yaretzi Inexpensive Cup wrote:

A year on don't give them your business again!

That's a definite.

xabi wrote:

How do you know what they bought? I’d be emailing the footage to the manager for their thoughts.

They had a great chat, it sounded like two young lads. Have about 10 minutes of video. I'm still not sure whether to send it to them or not.

colm_mcm

The fact that it’s a year since it happened won’t help. In order to get compensation you’d have to quantify any sort of loss you’ve suffered. If for example a year later you haven’t had issues with the suspension, it would be hard to say they damaged the car. In terms of the speeding, you haven’t had any speeding fines I assume, so again, no real loss.
Where you may have something, is in terms of potential bad publicity for the garage, but again this happened a year ago and you’ve never even rang them to complain.
It might be worth your while emailing the footage to the dealer principal of the garage and telling them your thoughts. You might get a free service or something out of it.

Atlantic Dawn

Not sure how much the dealer would offer in compensation, for me I'd prefer to release the footage, I'd post it on Youtube with the dealer in questions name mentioned in the upload.

JoeA3

This has got to be a wind up but anyway...

Nissan Leaf? Hardly the kind of car a young mechanic is going to be interested in rallying.

I’d say you’re good for at least €30k compo here OP. You can take that to the bank.

tedpan

colm_mcm wrote:

The fact that it’s a year since it happened won’t help. In order to get compensation you’d have to quantify any sort of loss you’ve suffered. If for example a year later you haven’t had issues with the suspension, it would be hard to say they damaged the car. In terms of the speeding, you haven’t had any speeding fines I assume, so again, no real loss. Where you may have something, is in terms of potential bad publicity for the garage, but again this happened a year ago and you’ve never even rang them to complain. It might be worth your while emailing the footage to the dealer principal of the garage and telling them your thoughts. You might get a free service or something out of it.

Yeah appreciate your input. I'm annoyed with myself that I left it so long. I'll have a look at the footage in the morning again and decide what I want to do about sending it in to them or not. It's a large dealership so I wouldn't guess they'd want the bad publicity.

tedpan

Atlantic Dawn wrote:

Not sure how much the dealer would offer in compensation, for me I'd prefer to release the footage, I'd post it on Youtube with the dealer in questions name mentioned in the upload.

Yeah, I was thinking that. I'll send them a mail on Monday and see what their response is. If I don't hear anything, it'll be on YouTube.

JoeA3 wrote:

This has got to be a wind up but anyway...

JoeA3 wrote:

Nissan Leaf? Hardly the kind of car a young mechanic is going to be interested in rallying.

They're quite a nippy car, you should test one out!

I'll upload a few seconds of video and let you decide.

bazz26

Not trying to be smart or offensive but how does one rally a Nissan Leaf?

JoeA3

tedpan wrote: »

They're quite a nippy car, you should test one out!

I'll upload a few seconds of video and let you decide.

No need. I’ve already long decided. Seriously.

colm_mcm

bazz26 wrote: »

Not trying to be smart or offensive but how does one rally a Nissan Leaf?

Drive over speed bumps at 80kmph

bazz26

I had visions of Subaru Legacy being dragged around a forest backroad.

Car99

Im more interested that a main dealer is buying parts from a motor factors than a rallying leaf.

tedpan

Ok, I understand, it's electric, but they're not slow cars.

Here's a partial clip, I'm sure you wouldn't like your 1 year old car to be driven like this..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXWkKoMa6wQ

colm_mcm

Car99 wrote: »

Im more interested that a main dealer is buying parts from a motor factors than a rallying leaf.

You’d often get trade ins of other brands that you’d be prepping for sale,

bazz26

Wasn't trying to take the piss, just wasn't sure what rallying meant in the context.

Anyway your problem is the time that has elapsed since the encounter and proving any damage has taken place as a result. I think the only real course of action you can take is to avoid bringing the car back there.

Cee-Jay-Cee

tedpan wrote: »

Ok, I understand, it's electric, but they're not slow cars.

Here's a partial clip, I'm sure you wouldn't like your 1 year old car to be driven like this..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXWkKoMa6wQ

I’d send it to them just to let them know the kind of people they have/had employed but looking for compo, why??? Was there anything wrong with the car when you got it back? Compensate you for what? Emotional distress?

robarmstrong

If anything I'd send it on and say that behaviour like that in a car is unacceptable, and ask that they let their staff know that customer cars aren't meant to be driven like that, think they come to close to doing 115 on what seems to be a 60 road?!

Y2K86

Contact them

Show the clips

Not happy with response, put vids on Facebook and tag them, share etc

Do they have a Facebook page, surely they do?

115 in a 60, contact Guardai

Dia1988

Maybe the apprentice mechanics were driving your Leaf with a heavy foot to blow out the sooth from the exhaust or to regenerate the dpf?

tedpan

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote:

I’d send it to them just to let them know the kind of people they have/had employed but looking for compo, why??? Was there anything wrong with the car when you got it back? Compensate you for what? Emotional distress?

Not sure if anything is wrong, but driving like that surely couldn't have been good for the shocks/suspension system. The speeding and lack of respect of somebody else's property is pretty upsetting I have to say.

bazz26 wrote:

Anyway your problem is the time that has elapsed since the encounter and proving any damage has taken place as a result. I think the only real course of action you can take is to avoid bringing the car back there.

Yeah, I haven't been back since. I'm still thinking of getting in touch with them as they contacted me for a service a few weeks ago. I'll call them Monday.

pablo128

I'm just glad dash cams weren't around back when I worked as a mechanic.

Atlantic Dawn

With that kind of trash employees the place deserves to shut down, I'd be bloody incensed.

deadanonymau5

Some of the reponses here are absolutely idiotic. Id be fuming. Id do what Y2K86 said above.

10-10-20

...and that used to be called an "Italian tune-up", but as there are clearly no burnt oil deposits to burn off in this case, the Italians are now out of the tune-up business.
Just cowboys now, Ted.

James Bond Junior

Car99 wrote: »

Im more interested that a main dealer is buying parts from a motor factors than a rallying leaf.

Don't dare believe a main dealer uses exclusively franchise parts. They most certainly don't.

parishsavings

Disgraceful behaviour, I would go in and show it to the manager to see his reaction first hand

fearrchair

tedpan wrote:

I dropped my Nissan Leaf off a year ago at a large car dealership for an annual service. I went to collect it after work and noticed that my dashcam had been disconnected, I plugged it back in and drove home.

Maybe this is a silly question how did you know if the dashcam was disconnected.

EPAndlee

To be honest I wouldn't really call that rallying your car

Larbre34

Its not exactly Ferris Bueller's pal's Ferrari, but I'd still be pissed off.

Its the principle of the thing, any big dealer will have a friggin van. If a serviced motor needs a test run, it should get one, no more no less.

Thanks to your clip, I know the general area of the dealer, and as your car is both one year old as well as a specialist service job, ill assume its the main dealer in that general area. Now as it happens, we are scrapping our old heap of a Ford train station / groceries car and were planning to get the new quite impressive Micra for those same tasks. So its any consolation, he wont be getting my business purely on your evidence.

Philb76

Car99 wrote: »

Im more interested that a main dealer is buying parts from a motor factors than a rallying leaf.

Why wud they be going to a motor factors maybe they wer going for the rolls or maybe a pack of Duracell

Doctors room ghost

Id send in the footage and ask what kind of animals they employ to treat a customers car like that.id be p1ssed off if that was my car.also state that you won’t be doing business with them again and that you will be showing the footage to anyone who will watch it to highlight their pr1ckish behavior.
When they offer you free service and a wash tell them where to shove it.
Country is full of scum.
What kind of a kip garage needs to use a customer car to source parts anyway.
What happens if the chimpanzee driving it wraps it around a lamppost.just doing a test drive is the go to answer I suppose.creat havoc down there op.say you just saw the footage now as you were looking for something else on the hard drive

kyote00

113 kph in an industrial estate is nuts....

banging over speed bumps not going to be easy on alloys or tires...

Personally, I would not let it go, it shows a total contempt for some elses property.

EPAndlee wrote: »

To be honest I wouldn't really call that rallying your car

Doctors room ghost

kyote00 wrote: »

113 kph in an industrial estate is nuts....

banging over speed bumps not going to be easy on alloys or tires...

Personally, I would not let it go, it shows a total contempt for some elses property.

I have several relations mechanics and they would gladly knock the boll1x out of anyone for doing that to a car not to mention a mechanic doing it to a customer car.total disrespect from half raised chimpanzees

anewme

Not sure why everyone is slagging off a leaf as if it can’t go fast.?

I’ve driven a fair few electric cars (not a leaf) but they are all very nippy and fast to accelerate.

OP I’d be absolutely livid over it. That’s not acceptable in any way.

Driving over speed bumps like that is negligent with your car. Do not let this go. Same people could be treating other people’s cars like this currently.

Irrespective of if was a year ago or not, you can still follow up.

I’d be sending a strongly worded registered letter and Link to footage to both dealer and Nissan Ireland HQ and ask for their feedback.

uck51js9zml2yt

I missed that it's a leaf. With this new information, a root and branch investigation should be carried out.

Cerco

You would make more money by selling the patent for a dash cam that records when it is disconnected.

Del2005

Doctors room ghost wrote: »

Id send in the footage and ask what kind of animals they employ to treat a customers car like that.id be p1ssed off if that was my car.also state that you won’t be doing business with them again and that you will be showing the footage to anyone who will watch it to highlight their pr1ckish behavior.
When they offer you free service and a wash tell them where to shove it.
Country is full of scum.
What kind of a kip garage needs to use a customer car to source parts anyway.
What happens if the chimpanzee driving it wraps it around a lamppost.just doing a test drive is the go to answer I suppose.creat havoc down there op.say you just saw the footage now as you were looking for something else on the hard drive

They are employing young people into cars. Yes the driving was terrible but I've seen plenty of owners driving their own cars with as little mechanical sympathy as they showed. If they crashed or damaged the car then the garage will be responsible.

As for people saying the Leaf is fast or nippy, you need to get out of the diesel. 11. 5 seconds to 100 is slow, especially since they have full torque from zero, and even the new one at 8 seconds is terrible for so much torque.

Comhrá

Have you considered showing that footage to Nissan Ireland, explaining the circumstances? It might be interesting to see if they show any interest.

Toyotafanboi

The issue is the year has elapsed. That kind of waives you're right to outrage as if you were properly outraged a year simply wouldn't have passed.

As others have said, if you do still feel bad about it, as you are entitled to, contact the service manager or dealer principal. They would certainly be interested in the footage and even at this point it would be very easy to see who had access to your car on the day. I'm sure they'd investigate it and take it seriously regardless of time elapsed. Im sure they'd like to meet with you and offer you a complimentary service and valet and tank of petrol something else, which would be fair I reckon.

If however you want to attempt to ruin the dealers reputation based on the actions of 1 or 2 of its lowest ranking employees, then share the videos on Facebook and YouTube. The fair thing to do though would be to bare in mind that the dealer probably also employs lots of honest people who don't do that who rely on the place for a living, so the mannerly thing for you to do would be to meet with those people and discuss the video first.

It is a shame to see that happen to your car, mainly for the reasons of trust etc. You expect them to take great care of your vehicle, thats what you pay them for and rule 101 in any decent garage, main dealer or otherwise is to not take a customers car anywhere without their permission. To try to allay your fears however, that particular passage didn't really show me anything that makes me think the car would be damaged/ compromised. Have you had any issues with it?

Y2K86

anewme wrote: »

Not sure why everyone is slagging off a leaf as if it can’t go fast.?

I’ve driven a fair few electric cars (not a leaf) but they are all very nippy and fast to accelerate.

Exactly

I'd put down good money that 99% of posters would not beat it from 0-50 in a manual car, it can be a fast manual car too

Car99

Car99 wrote: »

Im more interested that a main dealer is buying parts from a motor factors than a rallying leaf.

Not at all uncommon.
They often service other brands & motor factors often stock OE products.

malinheader

Augeo wrote: »

Not at all uncommon.
They often service other brands & motor factors often stock OE products.

I would of thought it would not be ok to use a customer's car to go for parts or anything. What would happen if the car was hit damaged or even wrote off.is this legal without owners permission

Fann Linn

malinheader wrote: »

I would of thought it would not be ok to use a customer's car to go for parts or anything. What would happen if the car was hit damaged or even wrote off.is this legal without owners permission

I left the works van into a garage which used to service some of our fleet. Not a main dealer by the way. When I got there he had no garage car available to give me which was part of the tender for our custom, so he gave me another customer's car.

A nice little suzuki which still had the coal and briquttes in the boot plus a pair of golf shoes.

He told me to have the car back by 11.00 am the next morning as the owner was coming in to collect his just after mid day!

Wibbs

deadanonymau5 wrote: »

Some of the reponses here are absolutely idiotic. Id be fuming. Id do what Y2K86 said above.

+1000. I'd be beyond fuming, I'd be murderous. Speeding and hitting speed bumps like that? Totally out of order. I'd agree with DA and do what Y2K86 suggests.

Y2K86 wrote: »

I'd put down good money that 99% of posters would not beat it from 0-50 in a manual car, it can be a fast manual car too

KPH or MPH? IIRC the 0-100KPH times for the Leaf are around the 9-10 second mark. Though I would say they feel nippy alright and are a damn sight more nippy than the usual shopping town car sector.

malinheader

Fann Linn wrote: »

I left the works van into a garage which used to service some of our fleet. Not a main dealer by the way. When I got there he had no garage car available to give me which was part of the tender for our custom, so he gave me another customer's car.

A nice little suzuki which still had the coal and briquttes in the boot plus a pair of golf shoes.

He told me to have the car back by 11.00 am the next morning as the owner was coming in to collect his just after mid day!

That's unreal. If it was my car I would be taking my business elsewhere

Y2K86

Wibbs wrote: »

KPH or MPH? IIRC the 0-100KPH times for the Leaf are around the 9-10 second mark. Though I would say they feel nippy alright and are a damn sight more nippy than the usual shopping town car sector.

kph

0-50 is like low-mid 3s for Leaf, hard to beat that in a manual car, unless a pretty good driver

If you gave me a Polo GTi, I wouldn't put my hard earned down to beat one at the lights, getting the power down, clutch bite, changing gear without limiter

anewme

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

The issue is the year has elapsed. That kind of waives you're right to outrage as if you were properly outraged a year simply wouldn't have passed.

As others have said, if you do still feel bad about it, as you are entitled to, contact the service manager or dealer principal. They would certainly be interested in the footage and even at this point it would be very easy to see who had access to your car on the day. I'm sure they'd investigate it and take it seriously regardless of time elapsed. Im sure they'd like to meet with you and offer you a complimentary service and valet and tank of petrol something else, which would be fair I reckon.

If however you want to attempt to ruin the dealers reputation based on the actions of 1 or 2 of its lowest ranking employees, then share the videos on Facebook and YouTube. The fair thing to do though would be to bare in mind that the dealer probably also employs lots of honest people who don't do that who rely on the place for a living, so the mannerly thing for you to do would be to meet with those people and discuss the video first.

It is a shame to see that happen to your car, mainly for the reasons of trust etc. You expect them to take great care of your vehicle, thats what you pay them for and rule 101 in any decent garage, main dealer or otherwise is to not take a customers car anywhere without their permission. To try to allay your fears however, that particular passage didn't really show me anything that makes me think the car would be damaged/ compromised. Have you had any issues with it?

I disagree that because a year has elapsed that he has any comeback. Nissan Ireland would be very concerned that anyone’s car would be treated like that while under the care of one of their dealers.

I was cringing on the footage when they flew over the bumps. I could imagine someone driving mine like that over them and I’d not find it acceptable at all. It’s not recommended to drive like this over them.

Fair point about the you tube and Facebook. I don’t think that’s fair on the Dealership or serves any real purpose to anyone. Certainly contact the Dealer Principal, I’d also send to Nissan Ireland as an FYI.

tedpan

anewme wrote: »

I disagree that because a year has elapsed that he has any comeback. Nissan Ireland would be very concerned that anyone’s car would be treated like that while under the care of one of their dealers.

I was cringing on the footage when they flew over the bumps. I could imagine someone driving mine like that over them and I’d not find it acceptable at all. It’s not recommended to drive like this over them.

Fair point about the you tube and Facebook. I don’t think that’s fair on the Dealership or serves any real purpose to anyone. Certainly contact the Dealer Principal, I’d also send to Nissan Ireland as an FYI.

Yes, It's tough to watch. Thanks for everybody's advice. I've contacted the dealership via Twitter this morning, they've asked me to send the footage through to the GM. I will send all the footage to him and let you know what they respond with.