Dealership taking my cobra out for a quickie without logging it!? should I be pissed?

[Blakers01GT]

Ok, been having trouble with my battery, told them I would prefer a new one but they insisted it was just low and need to be charged back up for several hours etc, blah blah, had them detail the inside and just charge the battery up under warrenty, now this isn't a SVT dealership but it's the closest ford dealership, long story short, them having my car for less then 24 hours for a battery charge up, I dropped it off with 6,587 miles on it, picked it up it had 6,588.7 miles on it! :mj: now I understand if maybe 1/4 mile is put on the car by being driven around the lot a few times but 1.7 miles!?!? for a battery charge up!? now when I fired the car up, I looked at the workorder and it said mileage in was the same as mileage out, yet there was an extra 1.7 miles on my car, but they didn't log it, as I got in my car 2 of the service guys were staring at me with a guilty look, i looked at em', shook my head and gunned it, I was with my girl so i didn't have time to get out and bitch but last time i checked you don't need to take a test drive for a battery charge up, what would you guys do? thanks for reading,

Blake

p.s - the 15 or 20$ detail was suddenly free when I got there, the service advisor was being kind of etchy as well, when i got my cash out to pay for the detail he said, ahhh, no no, that's on us, don't worry about it. :dw: so who knows, I just hate this, what do I have to do next time, say "please don't drive it anywhere or go joy riding just because you can"

 

[lifter213]

I would be pissed. A dealership did the same thing to me once. The work order was wrong and and had the same milage in as the milage out. I had alot more than 1.7 miles added on mine though. And you shouldnt have had to pay for the interior vaccum anyways, its free for SVT customers. You are entitled to a car wash and vaccum when you bring your car in. Not that i'd recommend you let them do that if you have any kind of wax or polish on your paint. None the less, its still free.

IMO if everything is ok and you dont find anything messed up on your car i'd say with only 1.7 miles put on it just chalk that up to lesson learned. And next time specify when you bring it in you dont want it to be driven at all unless you are called or you are in the car with them.

 

[03BLKSNAKE]

I would have been totally PO'd. I would have gone to the service manager and gave him a piece of my mind. :mj: :fm:

 

[LTHL VNM]

I would have been totally PO'd. I would have gone to the service manager and gave him a piece of my mind. :mj: :fm:

yup, same here

 

[MidLifeC]

Do a search on 'dealership abuse'.

 

[FireRed04Vert]

This is a touchy area for ALL dealerships of ALL brands. What has happened several times in the past is something just like your situation. For example, they come in for a battery charge and drive away only to have something like the rear end sieze up a day later. The owner has gone to court for damages from the dealer and won. What the courts have said is since the car was in their shop, and since the diff was obviously low on fluid, they should have caught it...regardless if it was there for that problem. As strange as this sounds, it's absolutely true on a number of occasions. My family owned a Ford dealership for over 20 years and we constantly got bulletins from Ford detailing these types of things. So I guess it's in the best interests of the dealership to take a quick drive to make sure there isn't anything else noticably wrong with the vehicle.

That being said, if they abused the car, then they have problems. But if all they did was a quick and legitimate test drive, I don't see a problem...other than I guess you don't really know. When I take it in to my dealer for anything, the Service Advisor and one specific tech are the only ones who drive it...their choice. I trust them as they are very responsible people and aren't about to jeopardize their jobs for a quick thrill. If I were you, I don't think I would be too upset unless I have evidence of abuse.

 

[SlowSVT]

!.7 miles is not a whole lot of time to abuse your car. I've read horror stories where the guy sees 35 extra miles on his odometer.....now you know they are joy riding. One guy suggested that you install your tiny spare tire before you bring it in for service if you want to prevent them for getting carried away with the throttle (one guy screwed a block of wood under his accelerator). Ask the service manager up front if they will need to do a test drive which is often the case when they do repair work. Since they are not an SVT dealership your car is probably a novelty to them and the guys in the shop just got goose bumps just seeing your car leave the shop. I get those looks from everyone who knows what a Cobra is. I wouldn't sweat it too much.

 

[ddurnan]

Detailing is suppose to be free any time the car is brought in for warranty work...SVT perc...Even for a battery, I would still take it too an authorized SVT dealership...

 

[Silver2003Cobra]

that's why I only bring my Cobra to a SVT dealership.. the tech that works on it (supposedly) has had training for SVT products, and since he works on them all the time, probably isnt' going to "hot dog" mine..

 

[icu812]

my dad had a Saleen Sr-351 that he had a local shop do a tune -up to and when he got his car back (3 days later) it had logged 200 and some odd miles well he fussed about it and all that to make a long story short I have the service advisor walk to the car and check the miles and sign a paper stating the actual miles on the car when I dropped it off now if any miles are on the car that are questionable I have a legit complaint

 

[oldnfast]

It's too late to do anything now, other than write the Dist Mgr & copy the dealership.
1.7 miles not enough to hurt it? How many times can you cut off the fuel (red line) in that distance?

Don't let them off scott-free.

 

[SVT4ME]

I would have given it a quick once over. Any damage I could find I would insist they repair for free. Even if I caused the damage. Why because they yeahoohs ruin my tranny and two months down the road when it does finally give out am stuck!

 

[Juiced46]

!.7 miles is not a whole lot of time to abuse your car.QUOTE]

Sure it is. In 1.7 miles you can do a ton of things to break a car. Can go do a bunch of burnouts and what not. It only takes a few feet to roll out smash the gas, fishtail and wrap someones car around a tree, to an unexperienced driver wanting to go for a quick joy ride in a fast Cobra. Hell ive seen people smash up cars in the dealer lot screwing around.

Ive broken cars in .1 of a mile. Only takes one good powershift, or wheelhop and all hell can break loose.

When i bring my car to the dealership i document it and bring my camera. I may be a little anal but if the car isnt supposed to be driven, dont drive it. Had to bring my car in @ my dealer to paint part of my hood. I took pics of my car @ the dealership, and the odometer with a datestamp on the pictures. If i found 1.7 miles on my car for body work, there would have been a serious problem.

 

[dezracer]

1.7milles????BFD.... Mine had 300 on it and I bought it brand new from the dealer.Dont even want to think about "what could have happened" ...Dont wanna know,dont even wanna think about it.

 

[SlowSVT]

!.7 miles is not a whole lot of time to abuse your car.QUOTE]

Sure it is. In 1.7 miles you can do a ton of things to break a car. Can go do a bunch of burnouts and what not. It only takes a few feet to roll out smash the gas, fishtail and wrap someones car around a tree, to an unexperienced driver wanting to go for a quick joy ride in a fast Cobra. Hell ive seen people smash up cars in the dealer lot screwing around.

Ive broken cars in .1 of a mile. Only takes one good powershift, or wheelhop and all hell can break loose.

When i bring my car to the dealership i document it and bring my camera. I may be a little anal but if the car isnt supposed to be driven, dont drive it. Had to bring my car in @ my dealer to paint part of my hood. I took pics of my car @ the dealership, and the odometer with a datestamp on the pictures. If i found 1.7 miles on my car for body work, there would have been a serious problem.

True statement, But 1.7 miles is a whole lot less then 10, 20, 30 miles which would provide them a whole lot more oppertunity for mischief. Sure they could have driven the car right out parking lot and started to do brake stands and abused the hell out of the car. If the dealer is in a congested area the oppertunity to do so would be rather limited. That ride was less then 1 mile in both direction.

There is no reason for a test ride with just a battery charge. Putting the battery on a charger is pointless if the alternator cannot charge the battery on it's own. If the battery cannot hold a charge he would know that after letting the car sit overnight. I would have chewed the service manager out something wicked and loudly and told him I was contacting Ford stating that their mechanics are joy riding and abusing customers cars (an SVT) and now it makes a noise it never made before....AND that he will never bring his car to that dealer again (It's his word against thiers but regardless, it puts a black mark on the service managers record). My dealer is very sensative about making sure that I'm happy and I get a letter from Ford inquiring if I'm satisfied with the service the dealer provided. I'm sure Blake won't let this happen again.

 

[BenD]

Go back to that Dealer

...and insist on talking to the GM. Give 'em a piece of your mind about the issue. Then never, never go back.

I never have been back to the Ford dealer since delivery. I go to the local Lincoln/Mercury dealer for warranty. I do have an advantage though, since I'm retired, I never leave the car and they have specific instructions that no lot tech or service guy gets in the car. Only the specific tech that works on the car comes out to the Service entrance gets in the car under my watchful eye and drives it into the bay.

We have had our mutual PISSING contest at the outset to finally arrive at this procedure. They finally accepted the fact that I'm a nut when it comes to my car. Besides it can't be just put on a lift and raised, It has to be hand jacked by me on each side to get the lift pads under the sub frame and connector points to lift without damage because the entire suspension is modified.

All other mods and work is done by RMCR who are car crazy performance shop that deal with car crazy people like me. No drive, no finger prints on the glass, fenders or body. Careful getting in and out so as not to hit the door on the lift. Anyway you get the drift.

I know this is extreme, but I'm an extreme guy. To smooth over my eccentric behavior I took the Service Dept. a really nice sandwich tray for Christmas for putting up with me, so they don't think I'm a total asshole, close, but not total.