Police: Repair shop employee wrecked customers BMW on joyride at 4am

[kingofthedemo]

When I hear stories like this, it always makes me feel paranoid to leave my car at auto repair shops unsupervised...
Link: http://screen.yahoo.com/popular/poli...230437720.html

[MisterSkiMask]

make sure they see the empty cut out in your center console, they'll get the message.

[PINeely]

This is the second time in three days that I've heard of a shop telling the owner to pound sand after a joyride gone wrong. That loophole has got to go.

Says that during the joyride he was involved in not one but two accidents. Is he in jail right now for fleeing the scene?

[kingofthedemo]

Originally Posted by MisterSkiMask

make sure they see the empty cut out in your center console, they'll get the message.

Yeah, that might be a good deterrent lol.

[kingofthedemo]

Originally Posted by PINeely

This is the second time in three days that I've heard of a shop telling the owner to pound sand after a joyride gone wrong. That loophole has got to go.

Says that during the joyride he was involved in not one but two accidents. Is he in jail right now for fleeing the scene?

I know, it's pretty ridiculous that these guys have carte blanche when it comes to customers cars; there should be reasonable limitations to what they are allowed to do. I think, that at a minimum, there should be a law, that would prevent employees from having the legal right to drive a customers car outside of the shops posted hours of operation.

[ShopVac]

I bet a loop hole in that would be the employee not being on the clock at the time of the accident.
The shop will end up paying for this, one way or another...unfortunately, the owner of the car will need to pay too

[Crimson92]

This is why we need looser gun laws.

[ybbiz34]

The civil side of the law (torts) will get the d-bag that did this.

And the shop. Hard.

[pacman.defense]

why is the shop at fault? from what i remember of business law, this is outside the hours of operations, and not in the normal course of business. it is the employees fault, but i dont see how they can nail the shop.

[Maestro]

This happen to a friend of mine, he took his M-coupe to Midas shop to have brakes and some other maintenance done on the car, only to find out the shop manager took the car home over night and totaled it the next morning on the return trip to work. The shop attempted to get it repaired and got it back 3 months later and found it not right had to take it to BMW and they refuse to touch the car, they said the car was not safe and failed to meet their specs.

He had to sue the shop and the shop manager, Midas refused to help since it was a franchise shop. It took him over a year to get his money.

I know when I my car in for service at my local BMW dealer they called me once and asked if it was okay if the mechanic could take it home to see if he could reproduce the problem I was having. I would hope if something happen the dealer would own up, but now that I am thinking about the fact they asked my permission could allow them a legal out to say I assumed the responsibility when I gave them permission.

[MidwestGolfBum]

I'm sitting at my BMW dealer right now and asked about situations like this. My SA and the GM both told me that at least here, if this was to happen, their insurance would cover it. Their insurance would then go after the employee or their insurance to cover their costs. I have known the GM of this dealer for years and he was telling me that they have had 1 tech get into an accident with a customer car after hours. They just owned up and got the customer their money first and foremost, which keeps them as a customer, and then took care of everything else internally after. The tech was fired since he took the customer car instead of the dealers car as he was supposed to. Apparently, had he been in the loaner, he would have just been reprimanded and, assuming he was still insurable by their insurance, would have had a job.

I had my Lexus GX get tboned when I had it in for service about 2 years ago. Granted, this is another persons insurance that will be paying, but the dealer did all of the fighting for me with the insurance people. I was included in most of the phone calls/email trails so that I was in the loop, but they spent the actual time fighting. They also gave me a loaner for the entire time as well as helping me find a new GX.

[325rider]

IMO Tuners should have a Valet setting when they code your car. Is that doable? Perhaps a sequence like holding the start stop button for 5 secs or pressing a steering wheel button for 5 seconds in neutral would turn it on, setting the rev limit at 4k…..

Does it exist? Si, o no?

[MediaArtist]

What kind of meth addict drop outs do they hire at these places? Is it really that hard to not total someone's car completely at a car repair shop?

[deadmn1337]

Originally Posted by 325rider

IMO Tuners should have a Valet setting when they code your car. Is that doable? Perhaps a sequence like holding the start stop button for 5 secs or pressing a steering wheel button for 5 seconds in neutral would turn it on, setting the rev limit at 4k…..

Does it exist? Si, o no?

Yeas there is a valet mode. Cobb made a valet mode that you can switch your tune to but its somewhat of a hassle to pull up at the valet, retune, and then reverse the process when leaving.

[Mr Tonka]

Originally Posted by pacman.defense

why is the shop at fault? from what i remember of business law, this is outside the hours of operations, and not in the normal course of business. it is the employees fault, but i dont see how they can nail the shop.

The shop better have measure set up to guard against that type of employee dishonesty. Like a lock box to keep the keys in over night or when the vehicle is not being serviced, etc…. The shop hired the employee and the employee had access to this vehicle through the shops business operations.

Originally Posted by Maestro

I know when I my car in for service at my local BMW dealer they called me once and asked if it was okay if the mechanic could take it home to see if he could reproduce the problem I was having. I would hope if something happen the dealer would own up, but now that I am thinking about the fact they asked my permission could allow them a legal out to say I assumed the responsibility when I gave them permission.

In my eyes that call put the dealer on the hook should something have gone wrong. Their tech has now taken your vehicle off site in the interest of diagnosing the problem for which you brought it in. It's not as if the tech acted alone without the shops knowledge or permission.

Originally Posted by 325rider

IMO Tuners should have a Valet setting when they code your car. Is that doable? Perhaps a sequence like holding the start stop button for 5 secs or pressing a steering wheel button for 5 seconds in neutral would turn it on, setting the rev limit at 4k…..

Does it exist? Si, o no?

Before long our vehicles will likely have users and user settings much like our computers. As the owner with the master password or finger print, you'll be able to assign users and the permissions the car is allowed to function with. At first you'll likely be able to limit revs and speed. Auto or DCT type transmissions will be able to limit gear selection as well. You can make a monster vehicle tame for a spouse or new drivers and likewise limit revs and gears for valets and service techs.

Your car will have it's own network and through an app you'll be able to see all data from your car as it's moving. Location, speed, revs, etc… That should limit the tom-foolery at the service department.

[Maestro]

Originally Posted by MidwestGolfBum

I'm sitting at my BMW dealer right now and asked about situations like this. My SA and the GM both told me that at least here, if this was to happen, their insurance would cover it. Their insurance would then go after the employee or their insurance to cover their costs. I have known the GM of this dealer for years and he was telling me that they have had 1 tech get into an accident with a customer car after hours. They just owned up and got the customer their money first and foremost, which keeps them as a customer, and then took care of everything else internally after. The tech was fired since he took the customer car instead of the dealers car as he was supposed to. Apparently, had he been in the loaner, he would have just been reprimanded and, assuming he was still insurable by their insurance, would have had a job.

I had my Lexus GX get tboned when I had it in for service about 2 years ago. Granted, this is another persons insurance that will be paying, but the dealer did all of the fighting for me with the insurance people. I was included in most of the phone calls/email trails so that I was in the loop, but they spent the actual time fighting. They also gave me a loaner for the entire time as well as helping me find a new GX.

To you point, my son worked for a local dealer who has number of higher end cars dealerships, we worked for Lexis, next door was their BMW dealership which he could have worked at as well. They told him as part of being hired and if he was driving a customer car and got in an accident, the dealership would cover it as long as he was not doing anything wrong or illegal at the time. They said he would not be fire up to 3 minor accidents or one major accident. I kind of felt that was fair with all things considered.

[silvergray545]

Originally Posted by Mr Tonka

Your car will have it's own network and through an app you'll be able to see all data from your car as it's moving. Location, speed, revs, etc…

My buddy's Tesla Model S has all that. He let his brother-in-law take it for a spin. He watched him hit 93 mph getting on the highway and then saw him come to a complete stop for a while. After he started moving again, the owner called his brother-in-law and asked "You got pulled over, didn't you?" The brother-in-law said word for word, "How the hell did you know!?"

Haha I still prefer gasoline powered cars but the features the Teslas offer are just awesome.

[N 5 4]

Originally Posted by 325rider

IMO Tuners should have a Valet setting when they code your car. Is that doable? Perhaps a sequence like holding the start stop button for 5 secs or pressing a steering wheel button for 5 seconds in neutral would turn it on, setting the rev limit at 4k…..

Does it exist? Si, o no?

On my previous MKV gti, APR software offered a valet mode option when flashing. I chose 91, 95, 100 octane profiles and a valet mode. That was for VAG. Not sure who offers that now. All settings were changed via the signal stalk.

[Maestro]

Originally Posted by silvergray545

My buddy's Tesla Model S has all that. He let his brother-in-law take it for a spin. He watched him hit 93 mph getting on the highway and then saw him come to a complete stop for a while. After he started moving again, the owner called his brother-in-law and asked "You got pulled over, didn't you?" The brother-in-law said word for word, "How the hell did you know!?"

Haha I still prefer gasoline powered cars but the features the Teslas offer are just awesome.

If I could buy a Tesla for half the price they are selling them I would jump on it immediate since I generally do not drive more then 300 miles in a single trip, i mostly use my BMW for going to and from work.

My only issue with a battery car is the fact the batteries will die in 5 to 7 yrs and will need to be replace and at significant cost. The other issue is the fact electronics are far more complicated and expensive to repair, and this is coming from and Engineer. Mechanical cars are usually easier to diagnose and fix.