Do the forward seat motor in my 17' TTS went out. Sucks but it is what it is. So my dealer had to order a whole new bracket assembly to fix the problem. Apparently on the 17' when replacing this bracket, there is a part of the interior/leather that needs to be "re-fitted". Still fine with that.

I know this as my service advisor called me to tell me the car wouldn't be ready the same day as it needed to go to their upholsterer. Fine.

As we were getting of the phone he said the car was being picked up shortly and he would call me when it got back. Ummmmmmm.....huh.

Apparently they don't have anyone in house to complete the job so they "sub-contract" to a shop that's a good 6 - 7 miles away and have someone from their shop pick up the car, take it back to their shop and return it. What the what??

1) I was utterly shocked that they didn't inform me that the car would have to leave the dealership to complete the work.

2) Someone other than a dealer employee would be driving the car around town weather it was only to and from or not.

I asked them if they could just send the seat and not the car for the upholstery repair. He said yes. If you could do that, why send the whole car??

I am extremely particular about my cars. Always have been. I don't really even like valet's parking it but if i can see the car that's fine. What if it was a 918 Spyder, would they have not said anything to the owner that the car would have to go to another shop? All i know is that our cars are amazing, and the heritage of the performance speaks for itself. I don't know many people that given the opportunity wouldn't Ferris Bueller the car between stops. I used to work for a leasing company and of course did the same.

Should the dealer have told me that the car would be collected/driven but a subcontracted company??

 

Not sure how it is in California, but here in Florida almost all sub-contractors who do work like that would come and do it at the dealership. Upholsterers, paint-less dent removal, mobile wheel repair, etc are all mobile and come to do the work on-site.

There are rare times when the car has to leave the dealership property for things like body work, etc. But in those cases either one of the dealership porters will take the car, or they'll use the in-house tow service. I've never heard of a case where the actual vendor comes and drives the car.

 

Cant agree more. Not like that have to rebuild the seat or anything. Thanks Tom.

 

Well besides that, it's a big liability for the dealership. Let's say the person driving gets hit by another car or has some minor fender bender. The insurance nightmare that follows hardly seems worth it. If it really needs to leave the dealership, I would ask the dealer to have their porter drive it (at least they're insured), or have it towed.

 

My head would explode... I can't even stomach the concept of this happening in real life.

There has to be a catch.

 

I would not be OK with this at all. I don't even want my cars washed by the dealership let alone someone else drive it off the lot.

Was this Newport? It definitely sounds like something they would do.

I go to Walter's after my bad experience with local Porsche dealerships.

 

Yep, NAC. Riverside is such a drive for me though.

 

It is for me too since I'm in Irvine but they actually care about customer service there.

Met a lot of OC forum members who make the trek out there ...

 

Sorry to hear that D. I know how much you baby your stuff. Now i can't get the valet driver form FBDO out of my head. I wish that on nobody!

 

Yes. You are kind of over reacting. It's just a car- - and just think, in 3 years, it won't be worth nearly as much as we've paid for these things. .

More importantly, it'll come back perfect or you can harass the dealer about it.