Just thought i'd share this with everyone.

Took the car (MY01) into be serviced and have the side skirts color coded on wednesday, upon arriving at the dealer, a very young chap was sitting at the service reception (obviously new as i had not seen him there before), I gave him my name, and he asked what car i had, i told him, his reply was "cool, nice car", I could sense he obviously liked fast cars.

Went back yesterday to pick it up, again, i have to tell him what my car is and again i get a reply of "cool, nice car", he then goes on to tell me he is 19 and the only reason he likes the job is that he gets to drive Impreza's and Evo's (it's a Mitsubishi dealer too), and his friends get jealous. He then goes off to bring my car round to the front, as he drives round he has a huge grin on his face and gets out of the car smiling like a cheshire cat! He come up to me and again says, "nice car"...

It was kinda a nice moment then, as i realised from what he had said that he wouldn't be able to drive car's like this unless he worked there, insurance cost etc, so to see him smile from driving my motor, however much it pains me to think a 19 year old has driven my car, made me feel good....

 

19 Year Old + not his car...

MAkes you wonder what sort of treatment the cars get when he takes them out for a test drive....

 

You mean like in Ferris Bueller's Day Off with the Ferrari? DOn't even think about it ;-)

 

Exactly!!

Just think what you are like when you drive a company/hire/courtesy car.

In my youth I remember borrowing my girlfriends brand new Renault Clio hire car (Under 100 miles on the clock) taking it down a dual carriageway and trying to hit the rev limiter as often as possible.

 

Exactly - isn't that an unwritten rule with hire/courtesy etc cars?

 

Which makes me laugh when you are watching something like driven and they go on about what excellent bargains can be had buying ex company/hire cars. Next you get a shot of some clueless late 30's 2.4 children type who is happy because he paid 4 grand less than it cost new for his year old Ford Mondeo.

My girlfriend borrowed a Saab from her work for a few months and even she used to pull out of junctions wheelspinning with the front wheel tramping just laughing...

If my company were stupid enough to give me a hire car I would feel sorry for any mug willing to buy it afterwards...

 

What's all this about test drives?

They've only changed the oil and painted his skirts for goodness sake.

If Robinson's said they'd given my car a "test drive" as part of a normal service, unless I'd asked them to, I'd likely see my ****.

They have a computer dooberry for checking anything wrong with the engine etc. they are a main dealer so they are advised what to replace in case of failure. Anything else I'll let them know, thank you very much.

 

My first job after leaving Uni was with Mercedes and had a placement with local dealership.

Part of that was looking after the website we had set up, and adding the details of our used (or previously cherished as Merc dealers like to say ) vehicle stock. So I'd have to go out into the forecourt and take pics of the cars we had in.

Unfortunately some of the car were positioned wrongly for me to take a pic, so had to move them about a bit .

Cue me driving assorted SL500s, S600s etc etc to suitable location for photography

Think I was about 21 at this point and as I'm quite a young looking chap didn't even look as old as this. Used to get some really funny looks when I was out and about. Probably the youngest person by about 40 years to drive some of these cars

Good fun tho' - some of those big Mercs can shift a bit once you lever the accelerator down a bit but C180's have to be the slowest car known to mankind! Even got whipped by a bus once

 

BarryK,

I wasn't implying he took your car for a test drive but you are not telling me all his friends are jealous because he gets to move the cars from the workshop to the front of the dealership.

 

I think we can take it as read that he probably 'test' drive some cars, but i think mine was not one, I always make a note of the mileage when a car goes in for a service, and check it when it comes out, anything over about 2 miles in addition and i would get very suspicious.

 

Joey, not raising issue with you mate. But I've noticed on here many times reference to "test drives" by garage staff, like it's some peculiar right "they" have even if a car has just been serviced.

I know of at least one case (Vauxhall dealer) where a bloke was sacked because the owner saw his Carlton having the nads thrashed off it in a 30, while it was supposed to be being serviced.

 

sounds like a really nice lad. i alway check milage before and after a service, a couple of miles test fine, but if your cars got an extra 20 miles on the clock!!!

next time take the lad out for a blast and really make his day

 

All.

I am not in least bit suspicious of the guy at the garage, as I said the car only had a couple of extra miles on it, so there clearly had been no 'test' drives.

The 19 year old I think i can say had genuine appreciation for the cars, and really would have liked one himself.

No doubt there are some garages that take advantage of decent cars when they come in for a service, but i am sure mine doesn't.

I originally posted the message as i thought it would be nice to share the experience with everyone, i was not implying excessive test driving in the slightest.

[Edited by BobaFett - 10/26/2001 12:33:04 PM]

 

Its interesting what some dealerships do. My brother once did a 2 week placement at Rover and here's a couple of things he told me about:

1. Some of the mechanics screwed the car so much they burnt the clutch out and then they called the customer to say that she needed a new clutch.

2. At lunchtime a group of mechanics went out to the fish shop in a customer's car. What they didn't anticipate was the customer actual seeing them in his car - nice one!

I wouldn't say that Subaru would do such a thing, but its an interesting story nevertheless.

 

When mine is serviced the garage always come and pick it up and return it, around a 30 miles round trip.

They can not abuse it any worse then I do ( i hope! )

 

I think generally speaking it can go from one extreme to the other. The aforementioned dealer I used to work with was really strict with the mechanics when test driving customers cars.

I personally know one senior mechanic who got a bawling out from the dealer principal because he didn't reset the customers radio stations after reconnecting the battery

 

I'm with Steve take him out for a blast. I took a 17 year old that works with my Mother out a while back - nothing too scary - and she said he grinned all day.

 

He grinned all day?

WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO WITH HIM!!!

 

Bobafett, cool story

Know what you mean, everytime someone else drove my car and said "thats a peach" etc etc it was a nice feeling, makes you appreciate it again..they are easily taken for granted.

Nice story to start the weekend off.

Ron