Driving cars on dealer forecourt

jozi

I walk by a car dealership with 2nd hand cars daily and noticed on a few occasions how badly the staff treat the cars.

Have seen them bumper to bumper many times, red nissan 350z had a mark on it as a result.

Worst of all, they rev the sh!te out of the cars moving (very slowly) them from front of the forecourt around the side of the building. Surly this has to be quite bad for the cars?

Is this comon practise at these places?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

jozi wrote: »

I walk by a car dealership with 2nd hand cars daily and noticed on a few occasions how badly the staff treat the cars.

Have seen them bumper to bumper many times, red nissan 350z had a mark on it as a result.

Worst of all, they rev the sh!te out of the cars moving (very slowly) them from front of the forecourt around the side of the building. Surly this has to be quite bad for the cars?

Is this comon practise at these places?

Certainly not in the Main Dealers I use. Just don't go to that dealship!

-Chris-

Not common practice at all. Every morning and evening we're parking cars up and setting up our display etc, but we'd never mistreat a car.

Every now and again you'll have a junior who's overcome with the excitement of driving this big metal and gets a bit full of himself and starts messing around and speeding, but it's not long before someone has a quiet word - this is our stock, it's for sale. Any damage comes out of our profits.

I've always treated any car I've driven, whether it was a company car or a dealership car, like it was my own (probably better than if it was my own, because if I damage my own car I don't need to go to my boss all sheepish and explain what just happened...).

+1 Don't go to that dealership

su_dios

The garage your talking about doesn't exactly sell great cars!..Also theres a serious lack of space there too but I always thought the same as you.

AsphaltRisin'

Lads don't kid yereselvels! Of course there are many dealerships where the staff behave in an appropriate manner and dont abuse the cars.. but there sure as hell are a lot where the assumed unwritten law that leads lads workin in car dealerships to believe they've a right to thrash the sh1te out of the cars for sale, and customers cars is invoked regularly.
I work in a motor industry related job, and regularly am at many car dealerships and have seen first hand some terrible treatment of peoples cars, and the cars for sale.
In some places where there's not a mentality of respect for other peoples property.

One garage in particular caught my attention when i was there waiting to see the sales manager and a newish audi a6 shot round the corner, was hanbraked around a blind corner at the back and disappeared, presumably int the workshop.
A few minutes later one of the mechanics took a pickup truck out for a spin up the road, as they do, to check how it drives etc, and he actually managed to smoke up the tyres on someone's 07 pickup as he took off into heavy traffic...

And that was a main dealership.

I go to a lot of main dealerships, and general second hand dealers also, and lots of them are well behaved and treat the cars well and professionally, but there's certainly enough f*ck acting done in in some of them to make you seriously question whether they should be allowed to operate. I could list out loads of examples, and name names, but i dont want to get a law suit against me, and id rather still be able to work in my current job... im just sayin there's plenty of abuse of peoples property outh there that they believe isnt happening

-Chris-

AsphaltRisin' wrote: »

Lads don't kid yereselvels! Of course there are many dealerships where the staff behave in an appropriate manner and dont abuse the cars.. but there sure as hell are a lot where the assumed unwritten law that leads lads workin in car dealerships to believe they've a right to thrash the sh1te out of the cars for sale, and customers cars is invoked regularly.
I work in a motor industry related job, and regularly am at many car dealerships and have seen first hand some terrible treatment of peoples cars, and the cars for sale.
In some places where there's not a mentality of respect for other peoples property.

One garage in particular caught my attention when i was there waiting to see the sales manager and a newish audi a6 shot round the corner, was hanbraked around a blind corner at the back and disappeared, presumably int the workshop.
A few minutes later one of the mechanics took a pickup truck out for a spin up the road, as they do, to check how it drives etc, and he actually managed to smoke up the tyres on someone's 07 pickup as he took off into heavy traffic...

And that was a main dealership.

I go to a lot of main dealerships, and general second hand dealers also, and lots of them are well behaved and treat the cars well and professionally, but there's certainly enough f*ck acting done in in some of them to make you seriously question whether they should be allowed to operate. I could list out loads of examples, and name names, but i dont want to get a law suit against me, and id rather still be able to work in my current job... im just sayin there's plenty of abuse of peoples property outh there that they believe isnt happening

I gotta say, I disagree with this pretty strongly. I've worked in a couple of dealers, in a distributor and have been in fleet for several years too - I've seen my share of dealerships.

Any service manager worth his salt would fire mechanics for the kind of messing you're mentioning - as much to reduce the hassle of getting these cars repaired as to safegard the customer's assets.

It's an inappropriate stereotype that exists and it's largely unfounded.

GHGW

Everytime I leave my car in a garage I warn them that my car has a GPS tracking system for the alarm fitted and it texts my phone if the car is moved from where i left it with speed details once activated etc. I tell them I have acvtivated it for the visit to the garage. Stops them from acting up bringing the car for a burn at speed etc. Now the car doesnt have the system fitted but they wouldnt know how to check that anyway because only two places in Dublin fit such a system.

Sorted.

WHat it doesnt stop....

Last 2 years Ive had engine covers broken and car paint damaged in two different garages they just dont care about cars as much as owners do so you need to let them know who the boss is if they are working on your property. My cars going in for a body work touch up soon and the owner will be getting a warning from me that if I see it driving in town if its damaged or tyres are worn when it comes back i will not be paying for the work and will happily go to court over it.



R

AsphaltRisin' wrote: »

Lads don't kid yereselvels! Of course there are many dealerships where the staff behave in an appropriate manner and dont abuse the cars.. but there sure as hell are a lot where the assumed unwritten law that leads lads workin in car dealerships to believe they've a right to thrash the sh1te out of the cars for sale, and customers cars is invoked regularly.
I work in a motor industry related job, and regularly am at many car dealerships and have seen first hand some terrible treatment of peoples cars, and the cars for sale.
In some places where there's not a mentality of respect for other peoples property.

One garage in particular caught my attention when i was there waiting to see the sales manager and a newish audi a6 shot round the corner, was hanbraked around a blind corner at the back and disappeared, presumably int the workshop.
A few minutes later one of the mechanics took a pickup truck out for a spin up the road, as they do, to check how it drives etc, and he actually managed to smoke up the tyres on someone's 07 pickup as he took off into heavy traffic...

And that was a main dealership.

I go to a lot of main dealerships, and general second hand dealers also, and lots of them are well behaved and treat the cars well and professionally, but there's certainly enough f*ck acting done in in some of them to make you seriously question whether they should be allowed to operate. I could list out loads of examples, and name names, but i dont want to get a law suit against me, and id rather still be able to work in my current job... im just sayin there's plenty of abuse of peoples property outh there that they believe isnt happening

JoeA3

AudiChris wrote: »

It's an inappropriate stereotype that exists and it's largely unfounded.

Perhaps so, but your colleagues in other Audi/VW dealerships are not helping your case in my experience. I've had damage inflicted on my car on more than one occasion, on my current car it was damaged during the PDI! Only when I kicked up a major fuss was something done about it. They treat cars like muck and I'm dreading having to leave mine back for its first service, as its almost inevitable that some idiot in there whack the door off a wall/smudge oil on the seat/break some trim - you name it. I'll certainly be warning them not to give me their "free valet" (i.e. a once over with a gritty sponge!)

I've had similar experiences in other dealerships in my area, so its not just VW/Audi I'm attacking. They're all the same - mediocre and careless in the extreme. So if anyone knows of a decent customer-focused, knowledgeable car dealership in the west of Ireland, let me know, cos I haven't found them yet.