dealership rags my car and wrecks it on test drive!
Discussion
I doubt its uncommon, I'm pretty sure my M5 has been on the receiving end of some dealer abuse a couple of times over the last few months...
Incident 1, took the car in to my local dealership to have a knocking noise investigated on the front driver side suspension, happens around 15-20mph going around tightish corners, explained exactly how to reproduce it, left the car with them for the day, went back in the evening to pick it up and they couldn't find anything wrong on their 'test drive' that was 5 miles long and used an almost an eighth of tank of petrol... And I was charged £40 for the priviledge as no fault was found.
Incident 2, booked the car in for brake fluid change at a different garage, long story short, the car was picked up for me and what should have been a 60 mile trip ended up being just over 100, but they put half a tank of petrol in it for me (guilty feelings - ever heard of a dealer doing that for you?) and the giveaway, .2l of oil gone along with a whacking great dent in the mpg reading... But at least they found and resolved the problem from incident 1.
Incident 1, took the car in to my local dealership to have a knocking noise investigated on the front driver side suspension, happens around 15-20mph going around tightish corners, explained exactly how to reproduce it, left the car with them for the day, went back in the evening to pick it up and they couldn't find anything wrong on their 'test drive' that was 5 miles long and used an almost an eighth of tank of petrol... And I was charged £40 for the priviledge as no fault was found.
Incident 2, booked the car in for brake fluid change at a different garage, long story short, the car was picked up for me and what should have been a 60 mile trip ended up being just over 100, but they put half a tank of petrol in it for me (guilty feelings - ever heard of a dealer doing that for you?) and the giveaway, .2l of oil gone along with a whacking great dent in the mpg reading... But at least they found and resolved the problem from incident 1.
Edited by CSLchappie on Tuesday 31st August 18:28
I know of two people this has happened to. One guy had an E46 M3 Cab written off by a dealer on it's first service...they were still fairly new in the country at the time...dealership admitted fault but offered him something like a 320i as a loan car. I think his response was something like "Somewhere in the UK there is a BMW employee with an M3 company car on his drive, I want that car on my drive by the end of the week. Oh and I also want VIP tickets for the next Silverstone GP and a replacement car within 10 weeks". He got all of the above, it's amazing how the threat of bad publicity concentrates the mind. Another guy I know had his TVR written off during a test drive....he got a repalcement pretty easily too.
CarbonBlackM5 said:
It must happen all the time. I work near the AM/Lambo dealer in Reading and have seen mechanics (sorry technicians) going sideways coming out of roundabouts in customer cars
LOLIt's insane that the dealership would allow people to drive someone elses car like this!
Koing
I find the BMW dealers attitude to it very very odd. Something doesn't ring true/right IMO.
Whilst I know technicians who have damaged/crashed customers cars. In EVERY case a repair has been 100%. In fact one dealer actually bought the car off a customer after a technician started it by accident in gear and it drove at ~5mph into a tool box. Which personally I think was overkill.
Whilst I know technicians who have damaged/crashed customers cars. In EVERY case a repair has been 100%. In fact one dealer actually bought the car off a customer after a technician started it by accident in gear and it drove at ~5mph into a tool box. Which personally I think was overkill.
Phunk said:
I work for a BMW dealer, and there are strict instructions that no one under 25 can drive a customers car that is 6 cyl or more, all M cars are test driven by our workshop manager who is in his 50's.
Last thing we want is something like the above to happen!
Id be shocked if thats a nationwide policy becaus the BMW dealer opposite where I work is not adhering to that ruling!Last thing we want is something like the above to happen!
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