What would you do?

Z

Z4Rick

Member
Well, the dealer I discovered in a small town in rural PA that I thought would be a little less arrogant and a little more hungry than your average big city dealer, has disappointed. (Shocker, right?) I left the car for 5 days to fix a 'swimming pool' issue I had under the passenger seat. They appeared to get it fixed, (drain for roof was clogged.)

I picked it up yesterday and hope they have fixed things - I'll find out when it rains, but a bigger issue surfaced within a mile of the shop. I am in the practice of resetting the trip odometer to zero when I leave my car for service, and noting the mileage, and a glance at the odometer a block after I pulled away showed 126 miles had been added!!!! I called the afable Service Manage immediately, and asked what the service paperwork showed my intake mileage was. His answer was 126 miles less than my odo showed, and I said, "Did you or anyone take my car for a drive over the weekend?" "No Sir! It never left the lot." Then I gave him the evidence. He said he had no idea and would get to the bottom of it. 24 hours later, he has not called me back as promised. The car shows no visible signs of abuse; wheels are not curbed, tires (NEW!) not overly worn, but I am still pissed. What would you guys do?
 
Not surprised you're pissed, I would be too. There may not be visible signs of abuse but you've no way of knowing that it hasn't been red lined in every gear for 126 miles. Ok the Rev limiters there to prevent damage but nonetheless would you want your car to be thrashed.

Ask the idiot what he thinks he ought to do about it, take it from there. TBH I think I'd want a money compensation, I hate things like this happening.

Not a nice thing to have to deal with, you have my sympathies.
 
+1 full refund for breach of trust.
Ur car has obviously been used by someone there as a nicelittle weekend runabout.
Not sure how it works over there but if there was an accident and ur car was written off you may not be covered by ur insurance. And if anyone was killed or injured, well.....
Full refund or threaten police/legal acttion.
 
Wow. Just wow. Understandable if they had to drive a couple of miles to diagnose a fault, but that's a blatant joyride.

Another forum member had an issue (too lazy to find the thread) when their less than there months old car was in an accident whilst at the dealer, and the dealer bought back the car at the original price.

How can you be sure that nothing happened? That's definitely a breach of trust. I'd be reticent to trust anything else the dealer says.
 
Keep on at the service manager to get to the bottom of it. Two possible outcomes.

One.. he does get to the bottom of it and comes back with a suitable reason, plus compensates you for the inconvenience. Unlikely but I'm an optimist.

Two... he eventually comes back with some made up lame excuse or continues to plead ignorance.

Either way I don't think I would be using them again. There's little point trying to pursue any sort of claim against them. You will just prolong the pain. So IMHO, time to try and forget it and move on.

Fingers crossed, when it next rains, they have actually fixed the fault too. :wink:
 
That is real bad form by the dealer, please don't assume that it was only someone having fun over the weekend.
Your car could have been used for all sorts of misdemeanours, from just simply speeding or parking offences to something more serious.
The dealer has to accept responsibility in writing that he or someone in his employ used your car, whether you go for compensation is down to you.
Best of luck what ever you decide to do.
 
That must have been some test drive at 126 miles, my twisted mind keeps thinking of the film "ferris bueller's day off" when they leave their Ferrari parked in car park in Chicago and the car park workers take it for a "test drive" :evil:

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Update:
The dealer called and he is totally flummoxed. He can not explain this since the keys were locked up or in his or his tech's pocket. Seems dealers can not copy the fob, so how someone could have purloined the car is a mystery. He SEEMS sincere. I suggested he have a come to Jesus moment with his Tech, check his security cameras and talk with BMW and his owner and call me early next week. If he makes an offer that looks reasonable I am likely to take it and find a new dealer. I feel like Diogenes must have....
 
Ha! A comment from another forum:

"Getting nailed by a dealership is a little like learning something new.......once it happens, it can't be undone."
 
My wife put her MR2 into a garage years ago to get a few problems fixed, one of them was an alarm problem.
On getting the car back we noticed that the T-bar roof covers were not sitting behind the seats as they were left.
The garage had given the car to an alarm specialist and as well as fixing the alarm problem they must have went on a jolly with the glass roof panels removed.
Its difficult leaving your car anywhere as you do not know what will happen to it once its in someone elses care.
Your pride and joy is just another car to someone else. :(
 
Bad news. I feel your pain. I like your idea about security cams. I have written down the mileage and left the notation on a sticky note on the instrument panel stating that I have a dated photo of the odometer as well. Setting it to zero doesn't work because they can set it back as well. They need to know up front as a deterrent that you recorded the mileage. I would go all the way to the top with this. I would ask for a new car and work down from there to a rental fee off say $1000. If they refuse ask them if you can take a high performance dealer car of equal value for a few days and do some track time. Your car can remember the recent usage. I believe it records red lining etc. They may have been able to delete that. Take it to another dealer and read the computer. Keep us posted
 
Well, finally i got a call from the Service Manager and co-owner of the dealership. She is a class act, I have to admit. In the last week they reviewed all their security cam footage and could not find the car being driven off the lot, BUT, there is one exit not covered with cameras... They held a management meeting on the case and decided that the 4 highly trained, long time Technicians are among their most trusted employees, (one is a family member), and the remaining staff are younger 'lot boys' who wash cars, jockey showroom cars and shovel snow. The culprit is likely in this group. They were gathered and read the riot act by the owner and his wife. For effect they brought in their lawyer to explain the ramifications if one of them had done this and an accident occurred or someone was hurt. They were then asked to sign a document attesting to the fact they had been at that meeting, understood their jobs were at risk with this behavior and that the dealership would sue them should they get stupid and try this again.

She said to me, "I take full responsibility for this, know you are miffed and I apologize profusely. We are a new, young dealership, we are mostly a family owned business and we know we can't make it without a loyal customer base. I want you to remain a customer and wanted you to know we take this seriously. Would a check of, say $200 be adequate to keep your business?"

I told her I was impressed with the way she had handled the whole affair. She had not tried to make her problem my problem, took responsibility and that I felt her heart was pure. I told her $200 seemed a minimal amount, but that I would remain a customer and there was no need for a cash payoff - I would expect she would give me the best deal she could when more service was needed. She said I was being very reasonable and that she would see to it that I was very well taken care of in the future. Time will tell on that....

I have added 600 miles since this took place and the car is normal in all respects. I had just put snow tires on before I took the car in and I measured the tread depth on the rear to be between 1/64th and 1/32 lower than new specs - so I felt confident a lot of rubber wasn't a dark spot on some country road. The car was carefully inspected and I found no signs of abuse or damage at all. The other possible dealer for me to consider is 40 miles further away, does not have a great reputation, and in the end, on the phone with this girl, I decided that being reasonable with her might be a good investment down the road.

Sometimes you are the bug, sometimes you are the windshield. Time to move on.
(But this dealer remains on a short leash.)
 
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