I had a knocking noise when cornering slowly to the left on my 2008 golf gti so i scheduled it for warranty work. Left the car at the dealers at 12 o clock and went back to work, they called me at 3:30 to come pick it up. They said there was loose plastic beneath the left wing and i was happy it was solved. But when i sat in the car i saw that they had covered 28 kilometers(17.4 miles) and i was furious. Since there is like max 10 gti's in my country i'm pretty convinced they were doing some joy miles... Not to mention they didn't solve the knocking noise. When i said we have a problem they were really patient to convince me that it is normal for them to pass that many miles to resolve the problem. I proposed they should pay the full tank but they refused so i'm going to tell the managing director of the firm. Since it's foreign company(porsche) i hope they will do something about this.

I know they probably drove it like it was stolen and i'm not bothered because of that since i drive it like that all the time, but when someone does it without my knowledge i feel kinda violated

They have to cover some miles to establish the fault and I think you'd have a job complaining about 17 miles. I knew a guy who had a mk1 GTE Astra the garage he took it to did 150miles and emptied the tank. He didn't pay the bill.

I've heard worse stories about Audi dealers.

I've no doubt they rag the cars they get in. My Octy was delivered (brand new) with the wheels caked in brake dust from the salesman hammering it back from the off site valet, wax over all the rubbers and the interior covered in dust and greasy marks around the radio.

If they've not damaged it there is little you can do other than take your business elsewhere.

Yes but they could establish the fault in 2 miles and they did it in 17. It's clear they drove it to have fun. Or i am just paranoid

The likelihood of establishing a fault in less than 20 miles is pretty slim. The car will need to be taken over different surfaces, at different speeds and go round plenty of corners.

Thats like me driving to leeds from bradford and back. To me thats to much.

i used to work in a garage... they had a test route to check for itermitent faults and it was 15 miles long but usually told the customer if they were needing to do it and put in £2.50 of fuel to do so

Yes, I have head of garages having a set test route that is related to differnt roads and will vary in length depeding on their locality.

Steve

One of the garages I know uses a set test route beacuse they took my dad down it when he had a noise coming from his almera, the test route was down to the local sewage works!

Another member of briskoda took his car in to get something sorted on his furby and the mechanics were caught ragging it by his brother just so they could establish the fault I think.

It was reported to the dealer but nothing more was said about it.

Davy

I have a 10 mile road test route for checking knocks and noises.

So 10 miles to check for the fault, 10 miles to check its sorted.

And thats if its sorted first time and doesnt need to come back in and retested.