This is gonna be long, but please read and think about it.

Most of you probably dont remember me but about 6months ago I was on this forum all of the time. Well instead of buying a truck, I bought the next best thing...SRT-4(due to lower cost). Just in case any of you are wondering, yes it is VERY FAST!!!

Anyways, I am a frequent of SRTForums.com and today I saw a post and here is what it is about. This guy took his SRT-4 into the dealer for oil change, tire balance-rotate, and to have his intercooler hose clamps tightened(on some cars their just loose enough to leak 1-2 psi boost). Well he was driving around with one of his buddies and saw his car at an intersection. He says a tech was driving it. It had the sunroof open, radio blastin, and when the light turned green the guy driving the srt-4 took of and spun the tires in 1st and when going into 2nd grinded the gears, then kept on going. So the guy goes to the dealership and rases hell. Now, another guy starts raising hell on when he took his to a dealership and had something on it fixed, when he got it back they had put 10 miles on it. Now everyone is raising hell about the fact that dearships are driving their cars.

Now, I work for a dodge dealership. And this is what I said in my reply. I do agree with you on the part about the guy burning out and grinding gears. But when we fix something like a tranny for example, we have to go drive it and at some point in the test drive we have to drive the car or truck hard to make sure that everything works fine. Same goes for the boost leak. You will have to drive it hard to build boost and see if it is still leaking. But they still ***** about dealerships driving their cars. They say that they should only drive them on the lot, no where else.

Seriously guys, if you took your truck in because it had a boost leak, they call you and say it was fixed, just a loose clamp. You pick it up and take it home and notice that it still leaks. You take it back and say it's still doing it. Then you would ask, didnt you drive it to make sure that it was fixed. If they said no, you would raise hell about them not driving it. It's simple if they want their cars fixed once and for all we will have to drive it.

Anyways, I just wanted to get ya'lls opinions on dealerships driving customer cars to verify the fix.

Thanks for reading,
sorry for it being long.

 

Yes, they need to drive them, BUT if I saw someone doing a burnout there would be ****edit to pay!!

 

Finally, someone is on my side. It seems everyone else on SRTForums doesnt want anyone else to drive their cars. They are just so ignorant. I hate ignorant people!!! That's why I still come to this website, cause everyone knows what they are talking about. You guys rule!!!

 

When My VP decided to go south, I TOLD the service tech to TAKE IT OUT ON THE FREEWAY. If it only does something when you are driving a certain way or place, then it should be similarly driven by the techs to duplicate the problem....My $.02

Gary

 

I took my custom van in to the dealership for some recall paint work a few years ago. I had to leave it for about a 10 day period.

When I went to pick it up my Blaupunkt stereo system was fried in it, the alarm system was damaged and the interior was filthy. There was sand in it and I checked the odometer against the figure I wrote down when leaving it, they had driven it approximately 600 miles

Yeah it got used as a party wagon to the beach and back apparently. I had a very serious sit down with the owner of the dealership and walked out with a healthy check to cover everything.

I agree that often the Dealerships take an unfair rap on the knuckles, but at the same time there are instances when they earn it.

In my case it was just a couple of employees taking advantage of the situation, the owner of the Dealership I am certain was not aware of their actions till after the fact. Even still I drove several hundred miles to purchase my next vehicle, not wanting to support this dealer any longer.

I don't think you could classify this as a test drive, but it is not by any means the only case of abuse to a customers vehicle.

Some places good, some places bad....

 

I've been on both sides... I had an expensive car with well over $20k in add-ons to it... Under no conditions was it to be driven farther than necessary, and they STILL managed to rub the front spoiler on the lift, and wanted to get out of paying for it! (Audi/Porsche dealer) When I pointed out that my car was no lower than the 911 turbo sitting next to it, they agreed to pay.

The mechanic testing boost pressure needs only to put the SRT-4 in 3rd gear and hold the brake while going WOT at around 3000 rpm to get max. boost.. Yes, it should be driven, but it shouldn't take more than a few miles.

I just hate when mechanics (like the one who tested my speedo) run the truck hard, and then shut it right off... You're (not you personally) a mechanic, don't you understand about turbos and cool-down?

I fill up my tank down the street from a huge autoplex, and watch the dealer jockeys as they fill up the cars... screaming in and out of there, going from drive to reverse at 5-10 mph, everything... makes me cringe, knowing how important the first few miles are.

 

Yeah, I do know about this, I do own a turbo car. One of the guys on this forum taught me that when I first joined in like 2001. I would like to buy a cool-down timer for my car, but I dont have the money yet.

 

I think the bottom line is this:

Of course they should test drive the vehicle in any way necessary to confirm the repair is complete and successful. BUT, they should drive it in a way that they would drive their own car, or if I was sitting in the passenger seat.

 

But still, even if you were sitting in the truck with them, if they needed to give it hard throttle at a low speed to verify the fix would that be ok to you. Like I said, we do this only to verify the fix then we stop, we dont keep doing it all over town like the guy on SRTForums thinks.

 

While I don't want a joy ride for joy ride's sake, I would PREFER that tech beat the crap out of it to test it. I WANT them to test if their repair is going to work or not.

I don't know about SRT 4s, but our CTDs *should* be able to take it. Case in point - see my "Belt Shredding" thread.

Today, they told me the tech test drove it 3 mile - I HOPE he did beat the feces out of it - I DON'T want that belt shredding or coming off again.

My $0.02.

 

When I had my 98.5 Ram and all the failed injector pumps I was told by DC to take it to another dealership then the one I bought it at because they had an expert there with VP-44 injector pumps.

I asked for a loaner since this dealer was way out of my way...no problem. So I figure they are helping out and arrange to drop the truck there the next day.

There I am at a light and I see my truck come around a corner sliding! I see theres two people in the cab...no coveralls or anything so I reported it to the police from my cell phone.

Then I turn around and these dim wits are going thru a drive thru with the duals up on the curb cuz the turn was too tight.

I just waited in the parking lot and called the cops again.
Now the stereo was cranked.

So I go back to the dealer and ask to see the tech and my truck.

"They are currently out diagnosing your problem." Just then in comes the truck driven by one of the cops and the two lads in the cop car with the other cop.
Cops witnessed the truck go over the curb, slide around another corner and run thru a residential area at over 50 MPH!
Whats real peculiar about all this is the service mgr tried to explain them out of it. He also accused me of exaggerating. But he changed his tune when the cops said that the truck was in the care and custody of the dealer for service and they are now getting the fines.
So to compensate me they offer to do an oil change...for free! WOO HOO. I hardly think so.
The wheel lip on the left dual was damaged and so was the sidewall. They also spilt a drink in the interior.

I was kind of over a barrel as neither of these guys were the tech that was supposed to work on the truck.

So I had to leave it there or go to a different city. I come back the next day and the truck is outside, windows down in the rain! I find the tech, he said he never noticed the rain even though the power was flickering on and off and the thunder was shaking the building.
As I realize the wattage in the heads of all that I encountered at the dealership were low, I went to the owner. Who in turn tired to pawn me off to the service mgr.
I told them I would wait there day and night until the DC rep shows up. Two of them did within a half hour. They told me to pick a dealership, pick a clean up place of my choice and also get the stuff repaired. In addition they gave me a MOPAR acessories credit for $1,000.00.
I got a new deburred injector pump the next day and all was well.

Too bad I had to see and deal with what I had to go through though.

As I tossed the keys to the service mgr from the loaner Neon I suggested he take it out of service as it did not take that curb as well as my truck.
I did not abuse the car but I did throw them some psychological scares about it.

 

I don't have a problem with my dealer working on my truck because I'm sitting in the showroom the whole time it's there! When a test drive is needed to check on something, I drive it with the tech in the passenger seat.

Why do I do this? On one particular service, a simple oil change, I was standing outside the bay watching my truck being worked on. Oil was drained, filter changed, tech was pouring fresh oil into the truck. No big deal!! Except on the 8th litre of oil, I decided to tell the tech that the reason that the oil level is not showing on the dipstick is because you haven't put the drain plug back in!!!!

During a fuel filter service, I was asked to come back into the shop. They couldn't get it started because it was air locked. They wanted to know if I could get it going, which I did.

I had a drag race against my buddy's truck one day. The coolest thing was that he was sitting in my passenger seat and the service manager from the local Chevy dealer was driving his truck. The Chevy was on my side of the truck so my passenger wasn't visible. After watching an impressive burnout from the Chevy, I made sure he beat me to the next set of lights. I changed lanes and pulled up with the Chevy on the passenger side and my buddy leaned out the window and asked "How his truck was running?"

Heads rolled on that one!!!

With the investment I have in my truck. The dealer isn't going to drive it, period!! Yes, they have looked after me over time and I can't really slam them for anything major, but I know my truck better than they do, so why wouldn't I do the test drive!!

My rant is over..

 

my dealer tells me he always test drives my truck after it is serviced. They know my "barn sour" truck well. not to long ago they did a cooling system flush and service. i picked it up after they called and said it was done, got about 5 miles from them and the temp gage pegged. took it back and the service mgr. put in two gals of straight antifreeze. a month later they put in a new engine (different dealer) because it overheated and lost a piston. restricted radiator flo and to strong a concentration of antifreeze.

 

You guys give me new confidence in being my own service station. I think that I would go into cardiac arrest and burn someones house down if some of these things had happened to me. I worked at a *********** years ago and seen bad stuff, but you folks can take the cake. All we did were some hotlapps around the building and an occasional burnout with special ordered vettes and 454ss's (I know a long time ago right). But, when I look back I almost feel guilty cuzz I know how you guys with "newer" trucks must cringe to think about it. Wow feels good to get that of my chest. just my .002

 

My father is a salesman at a GM dealership. I worked there in the wash bay while attending high school. I was always gentle on the cars for fear of my dad firing me. I once seen another salesman driving one of the new firebirds, squeeling tires and fichtailing all over the local strip. Knowing that if I had wanted to buy THAT car I would like to think that it hadn't been ragged on before the motor was even broken in.

Personally, I agree that you should at least ride with the techs as they might miss something that you notice.