dealer crashes customer's Z

SwissCheese

I can understand keeping the mechanic on the payroll. Here's a story from personal experience:

Years ago, I worked at a Dodge dealership as a "lot attendant" for the summer (between high school and college). My job was simply to park the cars. I parked them when the customers brought them in, I retrieved them and parked them in the mechanic's lift, parked them when the mechanics were done, and pulled them around when the customers picked them up.

When things got slow, I would occasionally park the rental vans (mini-vans) when customers returned them. One afternoon, the rental desk guy gave me the keys to one of their vans and asked me to park it. I went ahead and jumped in and took it to the back of the lot. The rental vans were parked in a row of spots where there was an overhang from another parking area (where they parked the big vans).

My method of parking (learned from having to park big pick-up trucks) was to back into the space while sticking my head out the window and watching the tires to see how much space I have in the parking space. Well, what I didn't account for this time was how far out the back of the full-size vans stuck out over the over-hang. So as I backed into the space, watching the ground to check my distance, the back of my mini-van collided with the bumper from a full-size van. I was lucky, as the damage was only a big dent in the rear hatch, next to the handle (no broken tail lights or windows).

I went back in and told my manager about it. He was annoyed, but understanding (the week before, one of the other guys drove a customer's car off of the oil-change lift). I didn't find out until a month later that it cost about $500 to fix it.

It was definitely a learning experience for me. Every single car that I parked after that, I double checked myself on everything. I definitely put in the extra effort to make sure I didn't mess up anybody's car.

tl:dr I worked at a dealership parking cars, put a big dent in a rental van, double-check myself on everything after that to make sure I never damaged another vehicle.

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Current Ride: 2012 Nissan 370Z NISMO #0389
Mods: Fast Intentions Resonated Test Pipes and TDX Exhaust with 18" Resonators (#1054), K&N Drop-Ins, GTR Start Button