What would you do if you discovered that..........

[mgt]

......some a**ehole mechanic at the garage you took your Esprit to for a service (or whatever), had obviously been using your car for his own purposes (due to the excessive extra mileage on the clock) - eg taken it home for the weekend or just been taking it for joyrides?

Is there anything you can do legally? I know the problem is proving it - the garage could argue that they had to test drive it. Personally, if i could prove that someone had been taking the piss, i'd like to hang them by the testicles in public.

[Ye Olde Esprit]

Must be a fair bit of mileage they clocked if you noticed it!

My car's in at the shop at the mo, but whenever I visit I don't notice much mileage, but it should have since it has had many updates which need testing.

How much exactly have they put on?

Nicholas

[mgt]

Sorry, i should have explained, i haven't personally experienced anything like that, but i have heard many horror stories of "flash" cars being used by garage employees for their own purposes.

[funkihamsta]

There was a cracking double site thread kicking around about 12 months ago. A detailer in the US had thrashed the pants off this car and boasted about it to his mates on-line. The owner was alerted via an enthusiast forum and all hell broke loose. Great reading. Think the guy got fired.

[tarcus]

A chap on a mailing list I'm on was fool enough to put his car into a dealer to get some work done, and the dealer offered to deliver the car. What this means is that they will find someone who isn't doing anything useful and get them to drive the car to the owners house, this usually means a YTS employee who's only just passed the test and has been working there for a week.

In this case it was a car valeting chap fresh out of nappies, who drove the esprit all the way to the owners house with the handbrake on... Told the owner that "it's a nice car but it's got bugger all go"... Toasted clutch, knackered shoes, livid owner.

[mgt]

silver12r - you have my sympathy. That's exactly the type of scum I was talking about. In fact you have just described my worst nightmare. I bet that piece of sh*t (not the manager, the tosser who took your car) wasn't even sorry for what he did, because people like that usually aren't - they believe they have a god-given right to take advantage of other people's pride possessions. Do you know if he was reprimanded or sacked for what he did?

[Ye Olde Esprit]

mgt said: Sorry, i should have explained, i haven't personally experienced anything like that, but i have heard many horror stories of "flash" cars being used by garage employees for their own purposes.

Ah, I see...

So far, when I have got a car I get to know the people at the garages, then in future, for my service needs, I am familiar to them. Also I try to only deal with the main man, and his immediate assistant. This way, when service time comes, they 'know' me. I find this helps get the message across that they need to take care with my property whenever it is entrusted to them. I suppose I also pay a little more and go to more reliable garages.

So far, no problems, thankfully.

If I found such a thing as you describe had happened, I would then know the people there and be in a stronger position to be compensated.

But ultimately, it's tough on you if like that Corvette, the car has been that mistreated. Under those circumstances, I would be angry enough to take legal advice.

Nicholas