Do you just HATE leaving your car at the dealer/garage?

I have to have the airbag replaced in 06 mustang.  My wife teases me about my car going on a "sleep over."  It has only had two sleepovers since taking delivery.  One was to a garage I totally trust, they know it is my baby and keep it inside at night for me.  When I have anything done at the dealership I sit and wait for the car.  We have seen the horror stories of cars being ruined, or taken for joy rides by techs.  I have the awesome schroth belts in the car, and you can see where the boost gauge is supposed to go.  I am always worried someone is going to try and do a burnout of see what the blower sounds like during a "test" drive.

Maybe I am just paranoid, but I know too many techs that have told me I am not.  I am rearranging my schedule to sit while the air bag is done.  It would be so much easier if this was my f 150.  It would have been there last night.

I get it.

The dealership has had my Focus for two weeks now to replace the head gasket. They claim the delays are all parts ordering related, but I'm not sure why they wouldn't just wait to have me bring the car in after the parts had arrived. I'm in a loaner, so it isn't a huge inconvenience, but I just want my car back.

My '07 Prius was at the shop over night and is still there now.  

Most of your concerns have not crossed my mind (like burnout, boost, etc. )  However, this does remind me that the dashcam is still in the car.  I'll review the film when I get it back.  

My 70 duster: feel the same way. I have a megasquirt guru coming for a house call tonight, and hopefully feel comfortable enough with him to hand him tge keys and a pile of cash.

In reply to collinskl1 :

At least my dealer waited until they had the air bag!  The dealer has had trouble finding parts for our fiesta st, but they should be able to get parts for a focus, is it an ST?  For sure they don't sell many fiesta st's, so I get it with lack of parts.   When we bought the ST, the kid who brought it in from another dealer was all thrilled with the car.  I don't know if that meant he hooned it or not.  I was in school with guys who worked at dealerships.  One guy told me that the abused cars that they had to transport.  

In reply to Dusterbd13 :

I'd bet that a Megasquirt guru is the kind of guy that respects other people's cars, unlike dealership lot monkeys  

My uncle bought a 1965 Shelby Mustang new and little things would be missing when he went to Ford for service.   Emblem once.   

OAN I contacted My cousin mentioning maybe me doing a story on my Uncle and the car.  They are really private about the car and don’t drive it much.  No interest in sharing details about the car.    

In reply to RealMiniParker :

I second that. You’ll know as soon as he shows up. If he has a flat brim hat, tats up the arms, and uses “bro, breh, or brah”, it might be a sign. I’ve met plenty of “Craigslist tuners”. I wouldn’t let them know my address. One guy I met carried a 9mm with an extended clip with him at all times...

This one was reccomended here and by diyautotune. So, a known quantity. 

But it's my baby......

In reply to Trackmouse :

Duster needs Megasquirt tuning, not Cobb. 

@theDoc. I called to have the recall done on my recently purchased 08 Mustang and the lady told me all the airbag parts are on back order and would call me when they came in.  But I plan on waiting on it too, and I don’t think it is supposed to take that long to replace. 

However, see my thread about the valets and I worry about the car too. I think as “car guys” our cars are important to us and no one wants to relinquish those keys to someone else. 

Took my 5.0 Mustang to get it aligned once, it was your typical heads/cam/headers/flowmasters car.  Was pretty sweet, great for doing big burnouts and running 13s.  Anywho, it had a big monster tach on the dash as was the fashion at the time.  Had a recall on it, which I had not reset since the last time at the drag strip.    

The lot monkey did respectably drive it, then I pitched a fit with the lot monkeys boss, hit recall, tach went to eleventeen, and the lot monkey turned white as a ghost.

Told the lot monkey and his boss I was just screwing with him, me and the boss had a laugh, lot monkey, not so much.  

On the other side.... the dealership probably sees many Mustangs so you car isn’t that exotic to them. That may limit the chance of someone giving it the old Italian tuneup. I’d still say that most techs take pride in their work, and it’s not worth them losing their job to drive your car in a way you’d have a problem with.

Nope.

If I was nervous about leaving my car at a particular shop, I wouldn't use that shop. 

Even when I took the 135i in for the airbag recall back in January. They gave me a brand new $70k X5 as a loaner and had my car done in less than two hours and went and picked it up at lunch.

Other than the fact it means it's going to cost me money for a repair bill, no I don't worry about the car when it's at the shop.

John Welsh said:

My '07 Prius was at the shop over night and is still there now.  

Most of your concerns have not crossed my mind (like burnout, boost, etc. )  However, this does remind me that the dashcam is still in the car.  I'll review the film when I get it back.  

I have to get the airbags done on both my WRX and my Sequoia. It's to the point where I've gotten 3-4 letters and the dealers are actually calling my house. Unfortunately, the dealers are not conveniently located for me, so unless they give me a loaner I'm stuck getting an Uber home or something unless the wife and kids come with. In the end, I'm like you...I just don't want to drop it off. 

WRX also has the "air pump relay" recall where they replace a relay. Last time there picking up a part, I asked them if they'd just GIVE me the freaking relay and I'll install and they said "no, we need the car for minumum 2 hours." I told them just give it to me and i"ll sign off that they did all the work.....that didn't work either. So I rolled and bought the relay online for $6 just to avoid the hassle. 

Will ahve to do the airbags eventually...

irish44j said:

I have to get the airbags done on both my WRX and my Sequoia. It's to the point where I've gotten 3-4 letters and the dealers are actually calling my house. Unfortunately, the dealers are not conveniently located for me, so unless they give me a loaner I'm stuck getting an Uber home or something unless the wife and kids come with. In the end, I'm like you...I just don't want to drop it off. 

WRX also has the "air pump relay" recall where they replace a relay. Last time there picking up a part, I asked them if they'd just GIVE me the freaking relay and I'll install and they said "no, we need the car for minumum 2 hours." I told them just give it to me and i"ll sign off that they did all the work.....that didn't work either. So I rolled and bought the relay online for $6 just to avoid the hassle. 

Will ahve to do the airbags eventually...

The airbags can only kill you in a wreck. I wouldn't worry about it.

I recently posted about the clutch replacement on my Fiesta.  No problems but then it is just a Fiesta.

As a former tech, you should worry hahahahahahaha. I won't torture you with the stories....

My experiences with leaving a vehicle at the dealership are different because the vehicle was different. 

In the 1st instance, I took my 94 Ranger to the selling dealer for what should have been minor work.  When I came back 8 hours later it ran pretty bad.  I stupidly assumed that I had a bad tank of gas.  After ruling that out, I got to looking under the hood and discovered that the tech that had (supposedly) changed the plugs had left the wires OFF on 4 of the 8 cylinders. (It was one of those twin plug 4 cylinder engines) Oddly, they left the wires off the more visible and accessible plugs. 

Took it in the next time to a dealer near work.  Same story with a small twist.  They dragged their feet on the work and when I showed up it wasn't finished.

Oddly, the same dealership did a clutch replacement on the same Ranger and they (apparently) bent over backwards to do the work on time and save me money by not replacing unnecessary parts.  Job was done before and cheaper than original estimate.

Trackmouse said:

In reply to RealMiniParker :

I second that. You’ll know as soon as he shows up. If he has a flat brim hat, tats up the arms, and uses “bro, breh, or brah”, it might be a sign. I’ve met plenty of “Craigslist tuners”. I wouldn’t let them know my address. One guy I met carried a 9mm with an extended clip with him at all times...

berkeley.

I have tats, says bro, sometime breh, wear a flatbrim every once in awhile, my 9mm doesn't have an ext clip though. 

Dealers often damage cars.  Dealers often deny damaging cars and say it was like that when you brought it in.

On the very rare occasions when I need to take my car to the dealer I wash it firt, take it in, tell them I am there but that they need to give me 5 minutes to document that there is no damage coming in, take pictures of all angles with my phone, get the dealer rep to inspect it and agree that there is no damage and sign off on it.  It is worth the trouble should you ever have anything - a scratch, a bent piece of tirm or what have you.

Guess I'll have to take the Solstice in for the seat belt sensor soon.......

See my post about valet parking, which was off-topic, about the mechanic trying to get my car into the shop. 

To finish that story, the tech didn't want to change the struts because he bounced the car (by pushing on the top of the fender, that almost got him injured) and said they weren't bad. I told him to run it up on the lift, and showed him how loose the top bushings were, and to change the damn struts. He grumbled and took out the left strut, then attempted to collapse it against the ground to prove how bad it wasn't. When it practically sucked itself down, he lost his balance, ran under the car, and was out the open shop door before he regained himself. I looked away before he saw me watching, and asked him after he was done how bad they were. He said, "Not bad, *I* wouldn't have changed them."  I said, "Really? The whole damn shop saw you go screaming out the door when you tried to push on one!"