Audi taken for 27 joyrides while in for service - Telegraph

A businessman has hit out at an Audi garage after he discovered that his car had been taken for 27 joyrides while there for a service.

By Vikki Miller

Last Updated: 3:27PM BST 06 Sep 2008

Mark Reece' date=' an internet entrepreneur, had taken his £50,000 estate car into a registered Audi garage in Bexley, south east London, for a routine service. But when he got it back a tiny security device attached to his car, which records every journey it takes, revealed that it had been driven 27 times since he took it in.

The tracker also showed that on several of these occasions the car had been driven at twice the speed limit on residential roads near schools.[/quote']

serves em right for abusing a customers car, hope he turns em over.

Hope Audi don’t squirm out of it:mad:

Yep, completely unacceptable if its true.

Does make you wonder who you can trust when even a reputable dealer does this. Can this sort of thing go on without the service bosses knowing?

Trouble is it may only happen in one dealer but everyone will be suspicious of their own.

halfords do it too when you take your car in to have a cd changer fitted.... or at least they did to a mate of mine's bmw 740

my parents get a motability car and when it when in for a service last year i saw it when cycling through town(3 miles from home and a long way from being on the route to take it back) waiting in traffic, so i stopped and asked the bloke if he was supposed to be driving this car at which point he squirmed and said he didn't know oxford and was lost. a quick call to the parents suggesting they ask where their car was, funnily enought eh service manager was surprised it wasn't back yet as he had left ages ago

cheeky sods.

Lol - Bet it's a lease car and has a device similar to that fitted to our Leon.

We once had the misfortune to own a Pug 206, on one of the many occasions it was in the garage we got it back with a chipped screen and stone chipped bonnet. As it happened Chrissi worked with a guy who was a Special Constable and he mentioned that he thought he and one of his coleagues had stopped our car speeding through a residential area.

http://briskoda.net/general-car-chat/advice-required-where-do-i-stand/108904/2/#post1271076

Yes I know someone who saw his 3 month old Civic Type R being razz'd past where he works, and telephone the dealer who said it was still on site (was in for warranty work). Mate turned up with CCTV few minutes before guy with sandwiches did. To make matters worse, they hadnt even looked at his car.

I wish I could have seen their faces!

I suspect such things happen a bit more often than owners think And how exactly can the data from the Tracker be 'inconslusive'?! :confused:

The Telegraph could have at least found a photo of an actual RS4 Avant though, rather than just a S-Line! :P

or

Steve

i always take down the mileage and if they collecting make sure its written down on their paperwork. on skodas you can use the mpg on the maxidot (and the other info there) to see how long its been driven, mileage, mpg etc and see if it all adds up

The Telegraph could have at least found a photo of an actual RS4 Avant though, rather than just a S-Line! :P

:confused: I just saw an ugly bloke with big ears?

I always remember the mileage too when I drop it off. Wouldn't surprise me if they use customers cars to take other people home or back to work, etc.

TBH they couldn't thrash the car anymore than I did, but thats not the point.

Many moons ago, my 130 Rapid was picked up by a guy from an accident repairers after being vandalised.The company where it went for its insurance assessment was next door to my then SWMBO's work.

As my car had a Group a Rally exhaust, Bodykit, lowered suspension, window louvre etc and all colour-coded white, it was very noticeable and you could hear it a mile away if you gave it hard welly.

Anyway, SWMBO was on her lunch break and my car went past her at full throttle, did a handbrake turn, went back past her, pulled into the carpark, and another little tw4t jumped in and did the same to it.:eek: (Only I was allowed to drive it like that;))

She phoned me up and told me, so I contacted the company - cant remember their name now, and they didn't want to know.

Needless to say, the new Ford Fiesta courtesy car they gave me to use was given 5 days of thrashing, constant wheelspinning, over-revving and clutch burning:D

Another company just as bad as that Audi dealer is TCH Ford of Peterborough.Where I lived in Parnwell, my house was on a 30mph road, and every few minutes a Ford with a mechanic would come screaming past at at least 60 MPH.I got so pi$$ed off one day I phoned the dealer principal and told him - it seemed to work for a week or so, they all went by really slowly, then went back to thrashing the cars again.Some of them were brand new cars on trade plates:eek:

When I worked for a Nissan Dealer, the salesmen would sometimes pick up the customers new car for fuelling and rag it around the large compound, often handbrake turning it and if the car was a performance model !!!!!!!! Luckily I was given the job of selling the 350Zs and wouldn’t let any salesman near any of them.

i think you will be shocked at how often this happens in main dealers. when i was in the trade it happend all the time from driving fast, using cars for none work related things, even removing fuel from some cars...

this was what some people did ( i did not partake in this)

it all common but we are to nice and expect these people to have respect for our propery and most clearly dont....

Got to a Skoda dealer near us early one day .....first person to turn up was a salesman .....he stopped, got out, looked around and then proceeded to swap his very worn spare tyre for a new one out of a nearly new fabia up for sale :eek: needless to say we won't go there or reccomend them

What I do when I drop it off, is note down the odometer reading and make sure that they know that I know....

Got to a Skoda dealer near us early one day .....first person to turn up was a salesman .....he stopped, got out, looked around and then proceeded to swap his very worn spare tyre for a new one out of a nearly new fabia up for sale :eek: needless to say we won't go there or reccomend them

Hmmm, would be interested to know which dealer this was, as I've had a very poor experience with a certain dealership in the area and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if it was the same one...

The car been taking out 27 is a criminal offence, I would be getting the Feds involved TBH. For starters its Taking Without Owners Consent (TWOC) and probably driving with no insurance too as they will have cover to drive all vehicles but only on authorised journies and not while on a jolly.

Steve

What I do when I drop it off, is note down the odometer reading and make sure that they know that I know....

Thats something I have done in the past too, but in more recent years I have found a garage I trust and use no-one else.

Any garage worth their salt will know that trust is a 2 way thing and it will help with return business.

That being said, i did work for ripspeed in Edinburgh some ten years ago and recall my first drive of a TVR without the customers consent :scared: it was in the service area round the back but looking back if the shoe was on the other foot I would have been ****ed.

The car been taking out 27 is a criminal offence, I would be getting the Feds involved TBH. For starters its Taking Without Owners Consent (TWOC) and probably driving with no insurance too as they will have cover to drive all vehicles but only on authorised journies and not while on a jolly.

Steve

The "feds"? I think we are talking about London here. Innit?

That headline 'Audi Taken For 27 Joyrides' is a bit sensationalist and everyone now assumes that it has been taken out 27 times. The reality is quite likely that during those 11 days that it was with the dealer that they stored it in the workshops, which means that they had to drive it out in the morming and put it away at close of business, that would account for maybe 20 of these 'Joyrides'. Still that leaves 7, which if the car was in for only a service which is still 6 too many. Customers cars should always be treated with respect, not because the garage always has respect for the customer, but because it's less work all round if nothing happens to it.

Some questions remain to be answered, why leave it for 11 days for a service?, is he too tight to pay for airport parking?, and did he needlessly tie up one of the garages courtesy cars for that period, thus denying it's use to another customer?

I know that the local Skoda dealer took my RS out for a 30 mile round trip at some point...presumably so they could diagnose bent discs. Muppets...

On the other hand, the local garage I use for most things I will gladly lend the keys to as I know that they actually treat their customers cars with a decent level of respect. They rebuilt the top end of the engine on my old ST200 and took it out for a 50 mile round trip to bed things down and make sure that it was all working as it should. They topped the tank up with Super, let it warm up, cool down etc and gave it a few beans as well. Called me up straight after to let me know how it had all gone too. If you can find a good local garage you can trust then I would gladly use them every time over a local dealer. Honesty goes a long way and from what I've seen, Skoda are a long way from achieving that with a fair number of their dealers. Sales? A breeze. Aftercare? Non existant. However, they are not the only brand. Unfortunately, the few who don't care are those who give the brands a bad name. I mean I travelled to bolton from Edinburgh to get my Vivaro a couple of years ago and couldn't have received better service from the salesman there who even came in on his day off when he lived over an hour away, knowing that I was going to be travelling from a distance and sorted everything out very nicely for me. he even stepped in for me when the local dealer up here failed spectacularly to sort something under the Network Q warranty.

Sorry for the essay!