Apparent joyride by body shop tech.

[MichaelJohn]

It has been a long while since I last posted (distracted by motorcycles) but I have to vent a little. About three weeks ago I was slowly approaching the drop-off zone at San Francisco International Airport to send my son back to college when a knucklehead Uber passenger opened his side door without looking, the wind caught it and it slammed into the right side of my car. I hit the brakes but the edge of the door proceeded to pierce the back end of my front right quarter panel, rip off the mirror cover and dent the door. They had to replace the quarter panel and mirror, fix the door and repaint/blend the back door and hood as well. I also have a clear bra on the whole front of the car and most of that had to be re-done so all of the damage came to $5,000. Luckily, the Uber passenger was found to be at fault so I didn't have to pay for anything. I picked up the car today (they did a beautiful job) and noticed they had put 26 miles on it. I brought it up and they said that they had to take it to the dealership to reset the air bag light after working on the front end. That sounded fine to me so I got in the car and drove away. On the way home I noticed that the gas gauge was just above three-quarters and I had brought it in with a completely full tank with only 4 miles on it. That was WAY too much fuel consumption for 30 miles of driving, especially since the dealer was a freeway drive away. I immediately called the body shop and left a message. The manager called me back - he was very nice and offered to pay for the fuel and suggested that maybe the tech had let the car idle a lot (right!). I told him my fears of a performance car being hot-rodded by a worker and he agreed saying that he trusted his people completely and that extra-curricular driving was an automatic dismissal. He was so accommodating that I started to feel guilty and I really didn't want to get anyone fired so I thanked him for the call back and let it go. Later in the evening it started to bother me again so I drove the car a couple of miles to a gas station to see exactly how much fuel had been used. It took 4.9 gallons to fill the tank! I'll take resposibility for about 6 miles but that was gentle in-town driving. I always fill the tank the same way at the same station so I know that the usage is pretty damn accurate. I can't imagine how the car must have been driven to burn roughly 4.5 gallons in 26 miles - 5.7 mpg!? I don't even kow how that could be done - I have certainly never come close to that, my average is 18 mpg over 15,000 miles by the car's reckoning. Now I am mad all over again. I'm not sure how far I want to take this or if I should do anything at all but it pisses me off to think that some idiot was probably driving the snot out of my car.

Can there be a plausible explanation for this or should I raise hell?

[TrevorM3]

Hold on a second, they replaced the 1/4? Do u have a pic of the damage?

And why was the airbag light on?

[MichaelJohn]

Originally Posted by TrevorM3

Hold on a second, they replaced the 1/4? Do u have a pic of the damage?

And why was the airbag light on?

I should have said front fender instead of front quarter panel since stricltly speaking the quarter panel is the rear fender. I assume that when they replaced the fender It affected the crash sensors and tripped the light.

[TrevorM3]

Lol. Ok that makes more sense, i know alot of people refer to the 1/4 as a fender.

That was a nasty one.


Back to your original question, 26 miles is a bit excessive imo. The most id say for a car going in for bodywork is 10. I believe somewhere in my paperwork it gives the shop a mileage allowance. But i nevee go over 10, for any reason. Not sure what course of action u could take (if any) but maybe try to vent your frustrations, and have them install a mod of your choice or something along those lines.

[Reemas Dreemas]

smmfh

[texsn95]

Damn...makes you want to get a dashcam eh?

[phil_]

A valet key with lowered power would be great to prevent these situations.

Make it happen BMW!

[SpiderM5]

if it happened, it's done. if nothing is wrong with the car, try to move pass this. nothing can really help (not even money right?). maybe knowing it put a smile on someone else's face help you sleep at night.

"relax.... i'm a professional" - now you've done it. you made me watch that clip from Ferris Bueller.

[DRiFT_645]

That would really piss me off. I agree with the OP. It's never the same after you think your car may have been violated. Sure there was nothing done to damage it that you can see. But I can definitely relate to OP. Sucks bud.

[KMORGSM5]

Did they record mileage when you dropped the car off? Without any proof you can only really raise a fuss.

I used to not trust my Audi dealer with my RS cars and began taking pics of date and mileage, to make a long story short I caught them fudging the numbers on service tickets but not much could be done except just going to another dealer.

Anyways I agree it sucks but at the end of the day if nothing has been damaged it's almost impossible to prove someone beat on the car.

[c0nrad]

there are dash cams that look like they are turned off while recording, might be worth looking in to

[ur20v]

From my experience in the trade, they may well have had the car idle a lot plus they would have done lots of very short drives in and out of the workshop and paint booth plus the trip to the dealer it all adds up.

I wouldn't be worried but just do a check to see iff your discs are blued and iff there are any tell-tail cuts running around the tyre from spinning the wheels.

[beach48]

Originally Posted by ur20v

From my experience in the trade, they may well have had the car idle a lot plus they would have done lots of very short drives in and out of the workshop and paint booth plus the trip to the dealer it all adds up.

I wouldn't be worried but just do a check to see iff your discs are blued and iff there are any tell-tail cuts running around the tyre from spinning the wheels.

I would follow this advice.

[secretariat]

I believe turbo charged engines should not be idling for long periods of time. Doesn't that have an affect on the turbos. These vehicles are to be driven to warm up.

[beach48]

As far as i'm aware turbos are fine at idle, it's shutting them down when very hot is the problem as they cook the oil in the seals. The M5 keeps the water pump running to cool the turbos after shut down to deal with this issue.

[MnMnM]

Originally Posted by SpiderM5

if it happened, it's done. if nothing is wrong with the car, try to move pass this. nothing can really help (not even money right?). maybe knowing it put a smile on someone else's face help you sleep at night.

"relax.... i'm a professional" - now you've done it. you made me watch that clip from Ferris Bueller.

Hahahaha....thats excellent!

[Fast400]

Best is to get a CRecorder. It's a great little device that plugs into your obd 2 port. It records driving speed, rpm's, water temp,etc,etc. for up to 48hrs of driving.
Once you get your car back, simply remove then read out on your computer.
I've used it, and it put my mind at rest. I was also missing alot of fuel, but I could see that they idled for 30 minutes.

[TheHouseWon]

Is there a way to set the rev limiter to 3k? Temporarily of course

[13M5F10]

Originally Posted by TheHouseWon

Is there a way to set the rev limiter to 3k? Temporarily of course

Hopefully they think about a valet mode similar to the CTSV where it's turns on the dash cam and limits the speed.