BMW - Mechanic driving my car

nas

nas

nas

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I took my car into a BMW dealership this morning for some warranty work. (I have fully comp BMW warranty)

The engine management light is on ( I believe it's an emission fault ). My car was no longer in the space I parked it in so assumed it was in the workshop being worked on.

Signed the paper work and left with the courtesy car; surprisingly and I suppose thankfully, I saw my car being driven down an A road about 5 minutes after leaving (I obviously caught up with him) followed it and saw it parked at a sainsburys. (Wasn't far or parked for long but that's not the point).

The mechanic got back into the car and headed back to the dealership (followed it back) I have a photo of it at a set of lights, the lights referred to indicate that was it driven back down the A road to get to them.

I reckon he noticed I was following him as he slowed down rather significantly for each hump when arriving at the dealership and substantially veered right to avoid a plastic bag in the middle of the road.

Back at the dealership I asked (the customer service representative who I left my car with) why my car was being driven off site and further asked why it was taken to sainsburys. He responded saying that it wasn't on and it's a staffing issue they'd have to address internally; his tone did show a degree of shock and I suppose confusion.

What action can be taken here?

Tdlr - left my car with BMW for repair and saw a mechanic driving it prior to the works, where do I stand?
 
If it's prior to the works there is no justification for taking it out anywhere.

I suspect the person will get a ticking off. It's not on..but it's not a hanging offense.

Reminds me, wish i'd checked my in car cameras after I took mine in for a service.
 
Vanilla said:
If it's prior to the works there is no justification for taking it out anywhere.
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Well there is, it's entirely feasible for a workshop to take it out prior to working on it to confirm the diagnosis but that's not what seems to have happened in this case.

This just sounds like one of the mechanics picked one of the cars in the workshop to go and get his lunch with.
 
It's not uncommon for a car to be driven to establish what's going on. Whether it was needed in this case is up for debate.
Case in point: emissions fault on the Jag. Persistent requiring different interventions to assess. Best way of assessing if it's worked or not is to take it for a drive and see what fault codes are triggered - idling won't cut it, it has to be a drive cycle, and it doesn't necessarily make sense to be a drive specifically to diagnose it - if he's going to the shops anyway, he can make that trip but because it's on his own time, you get billed half an hour less labour.
 
/\ THAT

damn, no milk for the morning coffee john, get the live data from that BMW while you are out, see what you can diagnose.
 
If that was my car the most important thing would be whether he parked it in the 'safe zone' or in with the rabble of door banging housewives right in front of the doors.
 
Provided it was driven safely and not excessively far I wouldn't care. Plus it gives them time to see what's wrong with the car, too.

It's not as if a BMW dealer has a shortage of cars they can use to pop to Sainsburys in - so if they took yours its likely for a sensible reason.
 
nas said:
...why my car was being driven off site and further asked why it was taken to sainsburys. He responded saying that it wasn't on and it's a staffing issue they'd have to address internally; his tone did show a degree of shock and I suppose confusion.
Click to expand...

This is outrageous. Why on earth were they not visiting Waitrose?
 
I know when I did work experience years back at Renault they did take cars to go out and get food but they'd drive a car to see if they can hear anything wrong and test the car also so maybe he was killing 2 birds with one stone? And the customer rep person was probably in shock/put on the spot and just reacted badly just agreeing with you to avoid conflict.
 
Vegeta said:
I know when I did work experience years back at Renault they did take cars to go out and get food but they'd drive a car to see if they can hear anything wrong and test the car also so maybe he was killing 2 birds with one stone?
Click to expand...
Same here at BMW but usually after a service. I would be lying though if I said that one of the M3s was being driven slowly :o
 
Did the member of CS you spoke with even go off or speak to anyone (phone or otherwise) before saying it was a staffing issue/not on?

Seems highly improbable he would come out with such a damning statement about his own business having not actually gone to check what the score was.
 
They have plenty of cars to pop down in.

Likely doing the test drive.

It obviously wasn't being ragged around the place otherwise you would have kicked up a bigger fuss so stop trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.
 
Car has fault, owner takes car to garage, owner is surprised that garage take car out prior to "fixing it" without having an idea of what truly might be wrong with it.

Forgive me, I'm failing to see what's wrong here.

Out of interest, do you treat the courtesy car with the same respect that you think they should treat your car with? No, didn't think so.
 
Had this myself when I dropped my car off at an MOT once. Reset the trip computer before dropping it off, when I picked it up it had 3.something miles on it.

I wasn't happy but I couldn't be bothered kicking up the fuss. I didn't go there again.
 
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