This could get interesting.

And that is why you only ever take cars to a dealer/garage/detailer as a last resort ... and if you do take them take them to a independent specialist with links to the owners club.
 
Unfortunately we will not know the name of the company due to PHs no name and shame policy!
 
Utterly pointless thread. He says someone has damaged his car yet gives no details as to how on a forum whereby he cannot even name the company. What's the point?
 
Housey said:
Bit of an over reaction I suggest.
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Have you read any of the owner forums for the "decent cars"?
Garages and other places taking cars for a joy ride is nothing new - not in UK, not in USA and so on.
If you want to read some stories (from USA though), look at NASIOC (scooby forum) - some of the stories there will make you cringe - garages that are simply meant to be doing alignment (which does require a test drive) taking a scooby for a test drive and writing it off at speed; another place that was doing BODYWORK doing WOT runs and launches in their car park on a modified scooby from a cold start.
We also have this gem (a Legacy that happened to have the camera automatically activated)

I can go and find the same sort of stories from UK owner clubs if you want
 
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rypt said:
Have you read any of the owner forums for the "decent cars"?
Garages and other places taking cars for a joy ride is nothing new - not in UK, not in USA and so on.
If you want to read some stories (from USA though), look at NASIOC (scooby forum) - some of the stories there will make you cringe - garages that are simply meant to be doing alignment (which does require a test drive) taking a scooby for a test drive and writing it off at speed; another place that was doing BODYWORK doing WOT runs and launches in their car part on a modified scooby from a cold start.
We also have this gem (a Legacy that happened to have the camera automatically activated)

I can go and find the same sort of stories from UK owner clubs if you want
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Have you seen the amount of decent cars I've owned....

Like all things in life a little perspective is best as the worst cases always come to the top of the pile. Plenty of good places out there, plenty of bad places too but don't tar them all with the same brush as that would be ignorant.
 
I don't tar them all, however as I said if you are going to take it somewhere take it to a place with some links to the OC
 
rypt said:
doing alignment (which does require a test drive)
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What?

I took my car into a garage on Sat for alignment, the only driving they did was from the parking area out the front, to the alignment machine, and then back out to the front parking area. There is NO need for a test drive with alignment.
 
InvaderGIR said:
What?

I took my car into a garage on Sat for alignment, the only driving they did was from the parking area out the front, to the alignment machine, and then back out to the front parking area. There is NO need for a test drive with alignment.
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It is advisable to have a test-drive to insure that it was done correctly and the car does not pull to one side and so on

Housey said:
If you think that guarantees better service you are again misguided.
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How so? A garage that gets a lot of custom from a certain car owners club would want to keep their name in good standing there - as opposed to a garage who just gets random people from local area coming in meaning that them having a bad name on say mr2oc has no effect on their business.
 
If it's been set up correctly there should be no issues of pulling to one side or other, that's the point in it.

Granted I took mine to a place with a Hunter machine, that does it properly, but when I've taken previous cars to ATS etc. for alignment I've not needed to let them drive it.

Maybe you garage just likes to take your car for a drive? :p
 
InvaderGIR said:
If it's been set up correctly there should be no issues of pulling to one side or other, that's the point in it.
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The whole point is to CHECK that it has all been done correctly - 99.9% of the time it is correct, but the other time would you rather have them discover that they've done it wrong there and then, or you to find out when you come to pick up the car and go home only to notice an issue?
 
rypt said:
How so? A garage that gets a lot of custom from a certain car owners club would want to keep their name in good standing there - as opposed to a garage who just gets random people from local area coming in meaning that them having a bad name on say mr2oc has no effect on their business.
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My point........"THE ARE NO GUARANTEES!"

There are plenty of good independents out there that have sod all to do with owners clubs and there are plenty of owners club members who have had poor service from well know 'aproved' garages. You asked if I had any experience and I would say compared to yourself my experience is vast having been a member of many well known owners clubs and forums for years and having owned a few nice cars that I have had serviced without and with issues.
 
:/ It took them an hour to do all the stuff on my car, I was sat in the waiting room for that time. Part of the time consisted of getting 4x new tyres fitted. I don't see the point in leaving a car when it's only an hours worth of work anyway.

It's also something that you can't always notice on a lot of the UK's roads around garages. A lot of garages that I know are on industrial estates with poor surfaces, so you'd need them to take it for a good long drive to test the set up. I'd rather drive home and speak to them later if there is an issue and take it back in myself. :)

Housey said:
My point........"THE ARE NO GUARANTEES!"

There are plenty of good independents out there that have sod all to do with owners clubs and there are plenty of owners club members who have had poor service from well know 'aproved' garages. You asked if I had any experience and I would say compared to yourself my experience is vast having been a member of many well known owners clubs and forums for years and having owned a few nice cars that I have had serviced without and with issues.
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Totally agree. The place I took my car to for the tyres was an independent I randomly found on the web via 192.com that happened to be near me, and it was brilliant place and will take it there again if I need wheel work done.

I've also had brilliant service from other independents, and from an ATS, but also shoddy service from reputable places. :)

Not had any issues with detaling as I haven't had that done. :p
 
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Hmm, around here at least there aren't really that many industrial estates.

Garages tend to be simply placed here or there (with dealership ones all located in the same area - purpose built with normal roads)
 
If the guy is who he claims to be then it could get interesting.

He might be trying to scare the guy into getting his money back by claiming he is lawyer.

When i got my car fixed in germany at the main VW garage the guy who fixed it wanted to make sure the job had been done correctly, he took it down some roads in the black forrest with me in the passengers seat looking at my speedo going past 120mph i was thinking, ok pal time to slow down, sadly he spoke no english and my only german is insults :p I'd hate to see how they treat cars when the owners arn't around!
 
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I believe the bloke is a lawyer as he is posting under another name and has made himself known to some of the mods on the site, who are letting it run. Having said this I have never been a fan of no name and shame as most forums will dig into any claims and usually a realistic conclusion will be formed.....well on ones populated with grown ups of course...;)
 
With the skyline I pretty much take it for granted that the car is going to get taken out for 'fun' when it goes to the body shop etc. Just make sure that it goes to someone who understands cars and will warm it up and cool it down properly and it should be fine. Those guys in the video with the Subaru weren't exactly bouncing it off the limiter.
 
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