Dealer borrows customer CL55AMG

[glojo]

I'm not sure the dealer did anything illegal - the car owner entrusted it to them to repair an intermittant fault. They took it out and tested it. OK, taking daughter to the cinema is a bit naughty, but illegal?

I always thought illegal was a sick bird!! and unlawful was... against the law or perhaps 'naughty'? I agree with Swiss Toni but only in theory. The test to me is... If you merely asked for your car to be serviced, would you expect a mechanic to drive your car with say his girlfriend, to the cinema? or use the car to take a bride to her wedding? Would you have given permission and would the mechanic be covered by the firms insurance whilst he was not being employed by them? These examples are perhaps getting far nearer the CPS considering a prosection, especially as Swiss Toni has already stated, the car was involved in an accident. If a death by dangerous driving was a result then I bow to Swiss Toni.

Legal things are never cut and dried - as an example I always think of the case of the Ferrari owner whose car was taken from his house by the Police while he was on holiday. They then 'lost' it!! His insurance wouldn't pay out (becasue the car wasn't in his control at the time) and the Police refused to pay up. He sued the Police in the High court..and lost. The Police had no duty to take care of his car - how bizzare is that?

Now you have my attention. Could you possibly give more details on this one
please?

Take care,
John

 

[peterchurch]

The test to me is... If you merely asked for your car to be serviced, would you expect a mechanic to drive your car with say his girlfriend, to the cinema? or use the car to take a bride to her wedding? Would you have given permission and would the mechanic be covered by the firms insurance whilst he was not being employed by them? These examples are perhaps getting far nearer the CPS considering a prosection....

Its funny how you forget things as you get older but I was sitting in bed last night thinking about this and it suddenly it dawned on me that its happend to me !!!

I got rear ended in my Saab one morning. A little tit in a BMW 3 series. He was playing with his stereo at the time, and I watched him as he ploughed straight into me Unfortunately when we exchanged detail he forgot to mention that it was not his car and he "borrowed it from a garage to take his "Julie" out for the weekend My insurance company told me after the owner of the garage phoned to say "fcuk you hes been sacked and he was not insured in the first place <smug grin>" The insurance company went nuts and tried to do the little idiot for every thing under the Sun and got NOWHERE the poilice could not be bothered to lift a finger as it was not worth their paperwork... My old company got saddled with paying out the lot on my car as an uninsured loss

Beats me why I bother insuring, taxing or putting an Mot on my car...

 

[Pietre]

I just cant help thinking that if my W210 had an intermittent fault, that the same level of "helpfulness" would be applied to checking the problem out in their own time. I am hoping it had nothing to do with the particular car in question, as we all pay the same extortionate hourly rate, but now we have several tiers of customer service....... Can i please book my car for a service. I would like it to go to the cinema and go shopping before its returned full of sweet wrappers and also dirty inside.

 

[glojo]

"fcuk you hes been sacked and he was not insured in the first place <smug grin>" The insurance company went nuts and tried to do the little idiot for every thing under the Sun.

I'm afraid I'm not the sort of person to take that type of attitude. I would politely suggest that the dealership had a responsibility of care.

They are surely responsible for the security of your car. It is not left on the forecourt with the keys in the ignition!! The car should be locked when not being worked upon and the keys left in a secure key locker!! If their workshop caught light would they say it was down to you to claim on your insurance for any damage this fire caused?

Best shut up before I go into rant mode.

John

 

[peterchurch]

It was a back street 10 bob garage ran by a bunch of cowboys when it became apparent that the police were treating it as a "civil matter" I popped down and showed him the errors of his ways It was much more enjoyable than having him pay for damages, well for me it was anyway, he didn't seem to think so Turns out the owner of the Beemer had done the same thing the previous month

 

[Pietre]

Did you offer to leave him a lasting impression, I find a baseball bat best for this type of offer.

 

[shrekky]

Unfortunately this sort of things does happen everywhere,i used to work for a certain company,with dancing puffs in blue overalls.and very very often the manager or assistant manager would take cars out for a JOYRIDE !,and i use the word joyride as there was no reason for a test drive,they would thrash these cars to within a inch of its life,wheelspin,redline them so limiter would come in.
Remember one case in particular,a sales rep with a very very nice BMW 325i M3 came in because his exhaust was blowing,all it needed was a £20 gasket,but he was conned into buying ,4 shockers,4 springs,full brand new exhaust,4 dics and sets of pads,5 tyres..........over £1500 just for parts,then to add insult to injury,when the work was completed,the manager got in the car,wheelspun it out of the garage,fish tailing down the street on the rev limiter,missing other cars by inches.came back an hour later with blue paint on the bumper,and convinced owner it was already there when it came in.
So moral of this is,unless you have a garage you already trust,never trust anyone,always but ALWAYS !! get a second opinion for work to be done,and if you have to leave the car,tell them they are NOT ! allowed to take car for test drive unless you are present,because if they do and you find out,it is TWOC.because twoc is "taking without owners CONSENT".
And heres another bit of information not alot of people know,if a garage replaces something without informing you first or you saying "just do what needs to be done",you dont have to pay.and if you think a garage has been less than honest in replacing certain parts .YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO ASK FOR THE OLD PARTS BACK !!! by law.
I know all this seems very synical,and it probably is,and no i haven't ever been stung like a lot of unfortunate people,but used to work in these such garages,a few of them with very reputable names.which by the way i was either sacked for hitting the manager over such practices or i quit ! .my own conscience wouldn't let me work for such people.

 

[pentoman]

These dealers give proper garages a bad name (my family runs an independent garage).

It's worth remembering an independent place has a lot more to lose by mistreating its customers, compared to the 'staff' at some dealers... anyway best advice would be to get a recommendation from a friend or neighbour.

Then you can blame them if it's a bad one!


Russell

 

[Rory]

Now you have my attention. Could you possibly give more details on this one
please?

I struggled to find this as I'd remembered some of the details incorrectly - it was actually a Merc! Since mentioning it above I've found that there's more to this story than meets the eye - let's just say that the guy is 'known to the police'.
http://www.hastingstoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=479&ArticleID=258364

 

[stwat]

I also worked "in the trade" at a well known Nissan garage for a few years in the 90's and at a few other dealers up until i managed to get out of the, nasty, dishonest trade 5 years ago. And i can confirm that the abuse of customers cars happens day in, day out. One incident i remember is when a customer brought his 300zx twin turbo in for new tyres. Big mistake!!!!!!! I had the job of following the head mechanic(why did he have to take it? Because he wanted a joy ride!!)to the tyre shop and he laid lots of rubber out of every junction and had it completely sideways around one round about with the revs bouncing off the limiter!!!!!! When we'd dropped the car of he said something like, "if its having new tyres, i might as well burn the old set off, ha ha ha ha ha".

This is one of many i remember

Stu

 

[glojo]

I struggled to find this as I'd remembered some of the details incorrectly - it was actually a Merc! Since mentioning it above I've found that there's more to this story than meets the eye - let's just say that the guy is 'known to the police'.
http://www.hastingstoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=479&ArticleID=258364

I struggled to find this as I'd remembered some of the details incorrectly - it was actually a Merc! Since mentioning it above I've found that there's more to this story than meets the eye - let's just say that the guy is 'known to the police'.
http://www.hastingstoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=479&ArticleID=258364

Hi Rory,
Thank you very much indeed for taking the time to locate the article.

A picture does indeed paint a thousand words, and this 'gentleman' standing there with the keys in his hands might be misinterpreted

The value of the vehicle is interesting as it doesn't give details of the vehicles age, but I'm sure our SL experts can tell us if that key is actually an SL 'type' key and then when did the SL range change over to the 'new' Infra red type key? I only ask this to give us some idea of the true value of this alleged 'missing' car.

Thanks again,
John

 

[pammy]

It's the same type of key as my SLK

£71k seems very cheap for a brand new sl500 Designo I remember the SL500 I drove last year proced at £95k But looking at the article the story began 6 years ago so it might be about right

 

[glojo]

It's the same type of key as my SLK

£71k seems very cheap for a brand new sl500 Designo I remember the SL500 I drove last year proced at £95k But looking at the article the story began 6 years ago so it might be about right

Good spotting Pammy. Newer SL's have the more modern key. Can you remember the Jeremy Clarkson article where he put his SL55's key to his head to increase the range of the remote??

I read Rory's article, but failed to take note of the dates. So it is quite possible the car was fairly new at the time of the alleged theft. The vehicle would I presume have to have been lifted onto some type of trailer if the keys were not available??

Regards,
John

 

[SportsCoupeRich]

dropped the family 996 into dealership, cam back with dent in front bumper. they denied ever taking it out at which point my dad found a pick of cigars in the storage pocket that were, unsuprisingly, the same brand on the sales managers desk. Free repair and service. shocking