My guess is they'll throw it in for the same price as a good will item.

A Ford Taurus? I'm pretty sure she should have been arrested just for that.

Joy riding at the stealership? A road test after an alignment should be about 2 miles. I think you should contact the owner. Tell them you are contacting the media about service appointment joy rides. Tell them you want free scheduled maintenance for 4 years. Tell them you want the douchebag who went out for donuts on your dime fired.

Update: Just did some number crunching and I know for a fact the car was driven at least 18-19 miles during the alignment "testing" phase/joyride. Used my receipt and my current mileage, and subtracted the trip there and back after mapping it on google.

I am tempted to circumvent the service manager and talk to the owner. Any ideas? I mean 18-20 miles is ludicrous for testing alignment, correct?

Absolutely. If you want to hold him over the coals, start talking about the liability of one of their employees taking it out for a joy ride, what if he crashed it, etc. Like Dave said, start mentioning media and other outlets so he has to take you seriously

yah, it only takes me less than a mile to know if my alignment is off or not.

Go right to the owner. This is BS and I read/hear about it more and more. These dip$hit techs think they have a right to drive customer cars more than just a few blocks to check things out?

BTW, once an alignment is set up correctly and in spec on the rack, there is no need to test drive the car at all.

Raise hell with these clowns and demand redress!!!

When the revolution comes, guys like these should be the first against the wall.

Demand justice and do not roll over. Do not rest until the guilty are made to pay. If you want some help, then let me know.

Just my opinion, of course. Have a nice day.

I also noticed, quite cleverly, that on my receipt the in and out mileage is the same. Hmmmmmmmmm sound fishy?

yep, let the hammer of justice strike!

Check state laws. There is likely some consumer protection statute protecting consumers from false or misleading statements from repair shops. Use that hammer of justice!

Yeah this combined with the fender bender, all within literally 15 minutes of each other, really has me reeling. Thanks for all the feedback and help.

Is there someone other than the owner you guys would advise I speak with? Is it wise to circumvent the service manager? I spoke to him once and could tell he was protecting his employees, which is expected.

When I inquired about the mileage his response was, "Well they have to drive it once to see where it is off, and once more after aligning it to check it." Fine by me, but 18 miles worth? At the time I had no concrete idea on how many miles had been put on the car. He also threw in the choice quote of "this guys is a master technician". Give me a break.

I wouldn't mind as much if A.) The weren't 3 fresh rock chips on the car and B.) The clutch is making a weird clunking noise when engaging between gears—way more noticeable than normal. This is actually what clued me off that something wasn't right. Of course, the service manager says that is normal and that the Z has a noisy clutch, which I agree to an extent, but I know something feels different after driving off from the dealership.

I now have zero trust with them after all of this.

I am the same way. If I take it in for service, I keep the car in sight at all times. The service manager may think I am a pain, but it prevents joy rides and unknown damage.

Sorry to hear this happened to you. Like USINC97, I keep my car in sight at all times during service. But I understand that in certain circumstances you might not be able to.

Be careful if you go over the manager's head to the owner. He may very well become your enemy and recant his story.

That is bs. Major things like alignment (if needed) should be taken to the stealership only... better shot at getting semi-decent techs rather than your average Midas-type place. Either way, that ain't right. Ask for a full refund and to pay for them to fix the chip/paint at a place of YOUR choice. They just pay the bill.

Either way, your bumper will never be the same again :( Sorry buddy.

i used to work at a dealership and it was recommended practice at that dealership to do a (short) test drive before and after to see what the vehicle was doing alignment wise (as in pulling to the left or right, steering wheel off center, etc) and then confirm it was fixed with the alignment process (yes it should be but it's possible to still be slightly off if one of the sensors was slightly off kilter. having said all that, our test drive route was less than a mile and was a combination of rough and new roads so you could see what all the manners of the car were on a variety of surfaces.

You need to talk to the General Manager of the dealership and do not let the guy try to spot in the rock chips on your bumper. I am a painter at a dealership and constantly have to fix stuff that the service department paid some idiot to spot in out in the parking lot. It might look great at first, but without spraying clear coat over the whole bumper you will see a line where they blended the clear in after a couple months.