Dealer Allegedly Takes Corvette Forum Member’s C7 on 90+ MPH Joyride
You might think any Corvette owner would be angry to learn someone took their car for a joy ride. But that apparently isn’t the case!
It’s a nightmare we’ve probably all had at least once in our lives. We drop off our car at the dealership for some maintenance or perhaps a repair. Of course, a mechanic needs to take it out for a test drive to make sure everything is working properly, then proceeds to drive it like they stole it. At best, maybe nothing will happen and we’ll never know. At worst, we’ve seen cars completely totaled or damaged. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case with Corvette Forum member Marcho Polo. But he’s still not too happy about how the dealership treated his C7 Corvette Grand Sport.
“So, while my car was at the dealer for four weeks, I reviewed the valet videos and found someone took my car to a Mrs Bairds bread discount store a few miles from the dealership. During the drive, he sped up on the freeway to 92 mph. Sure, I’ve done this a time or two. But what would you do upon seeing this? I had a slight shaking issue during braking over 50 mph. So they had a reason to road test it. But going to get food and going 92 mph didn’t need to be part of the test drive.”
We certainly can’t blame the OP for being a little upset about this. But dvilin doesn’t think it’s such a big deal.
“If they fixed the problem and didn’t damage your Corvette, I would mention it to the service manager and call it a day.”
Maybe the OP could even score some free stuff out the deal, according to C7&7.
“Agreed. Maybe use it as leverage to get a free oil change or something in the future.”
Of course, not everyone would shrug off such an incident. As Sconn points out, this was a careless act that could have ended very differently.
“No service department has the right to run personal errands in their customer’s car. Period. As to the speed, that’s nearing reckless endangerment limits. I’d be very angry. The fact you have it on PDR makes it very simple, and they need to do something to make it right.”
And as Big Lebowski notes, the dealership should, at least in theory, be concerned about these sorts of things happening on their watch.
“I’d mention it to a service manager. They would (and should) be concerned about it from a liability/ insurance standpoint. If there is no damage to the car, I’d be more pissed about someone having food in my car! A road test is one thing, but a food run for personal reasons is another.”
It’s interesting to see that there’s such a vast divide on opinions regarding this Corvette joyriding incident. So, we want to know what you think about it. Head over here and tell us if you’d shrug something like this off, or if you’d be raising Cane at the dealership!
Join the Corvette forums today!
