Have any stories of mechanics who just could not help themselves?
 

I have driven a bunch of very fast, and super cool cars over the years. Funny part is , when it is a customer car... I hate it. I am nervous as heck. A guy threw me the keys to his 360 last year, and told me to make sure that I take it for a nice drive before I service it.
I was pins and needles nervous. And as much as I love to drive p cars, I keep drives in customer cars short, sweet, and to the point.
I had a buddy who built a mean tubbed ,blown, 502 el camino. the owner of the body shop could not resist temptation, and while melting off the rear tires, he got sideways, hit a curb, rolled it, and hit a few pedestrians. Not cool!

Austrian Mechanic Can't Resist Lamborghini, Promptly Flips It

I drive rental cars like they are going to break at every turn. They are usually GM's though, so it may be plausible. :)

You, my friend, are missing out on the rental car experience. Needless to say, I'll never buy a former rental car.

A guy a worked with (sat right near me) got a phone call from the Nissan dealer saying that one of their mechanics totalled his 280Z (this was back in the late 80s). I still remember the look on his face.

He actually had to take them to court to get any money out of them. They foisted total responsibility off on the "ex-mechanic" that used to work for them....

Seriously this. As the saying goes, the fastest car is a rental.

Ever jump a Dodge Journey? I have.:D

so we can safely say drive it like if you are a mechanic and not like if you stole it?

I got a Fiat 500 for a rental car a few months ago. I beat that thing like a meth-amped drummer pounding out a solo in front of a herd of topless groupies...

Do NOT buy a used rental car - LOL!

angela

"There are no speed bumps in rental cars"

I never liked the saying "drive it like you stole it." because if I stole it, I would drive very carefully.

Now, "drive it like you rented it," has a very different outcome!

I once reformed a Dodge caliber to enterprise with a flat tire, complete and utter ABS failure, check engine light on and it creaked if you even looked at it wrong. .... and mastering my inner dick Cheney, I got the top apologize and give me a discount for giving me such a death trap. ..
Anyway, the caliber is miserable off road....I got stuck in 2 foot deep mud like 4 times

Add me to the Caliber off road club! Except I was in the desert on Jeep trails being chased by an airplane and some USAF guys in a truck. Every once and a while, my job is really fun.

The entire story is funny enough for it's own thread. Here's a quote/teaser:

P.J. O'Rourke

I managed a high-end body shop several years ago. My boss, the owner, took a customer's car out and ended up blowing the engine. My boss's brother owned a dealership that sold and serviced this particular make of car.

The body shop customer with a blown engine received a new, factory engine, and never knew anything about it.....

I'll just add to what others have posted....

"Would you like insurance coverage on this rental Mr. KC?

You bet I do! You don't think I want all of that damage to be on MY personal policy do you :p?

When I worked at the VW dealerships back in the day, one of the lot porters took the one and only Phaeton we received and was supposed to take it for gas. He flipped it on the on ramp to the highway which was no where near the gas station and promptly got out of the car and went home, no call, no nothing. I never did hear what happened to him but I bet he was getting his affairs in order.

i always take a cell phone pic of my oddometer before leaving a car with the mechanics.

Rentals - oh schitz and snickers! Pro-race crew members, have anything to share? LOL

Some I know of (not me and not guilty!! Got that?!). For start... high velocity bumper love taps on the freeways.... 70mph to slams into reverse. Rental vans... E350 club wagon driven by X-named pro driver and full of wealthy cliental + 2 will-not-name pro sports athletes runs off of tarmac on closed course (no rollover... OK) Biggie contractual violation... ah but that's life. Another van T-BONED by open cockpit s.racer WHILE van was CROSSING TRACK DURING SESSION! Don't ask but I still have a clear as yesterday vision of it.

FFRacing- Customer cars. We had a BB converted 930 trade. Euro spec flashy pants as swoopy and red as the police love. Returned from a test blast and into the shop. During the check over discovered the spare gone and you can only guess what was in its place!!! Heart drops thinking what might have happened if busted for speeding!

We had a rep who was new to this country and from Poland. While driving with a customer, rolled a new 944 turbo-S. Incredible neither was hurt. The rep was late hauled away in cuffs. I never heard or knew what happened to him.

How about coming home to this?

Mechanic wrecks out-of-town owner's $500,000 Ferrari F40

These mechanics couldn't help themselves, landed their employer in a nasty trial in the court of public opinion:

http://jalopnik.com/5949701/driver-records-south-carolina-chevy-dealership-trashing-his-camaro

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/zWEhelJrmeo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

UPDATE: General Motors says in a statement that if the recording is valid it does not condone the behavior described, and that it is "actively working closely with the dealer to resolve this situation to the customer's satisfaction."

UPDATE 2: According to Clark, the dealership has bought back the Camaro at a price somewhat above its value, and any proceeds from the transaction will be donated to charitable causes

It doesn't get much worse than this, Mercedes 300SL Gullwing wrecked by mechanic - Autoblog

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog....300-sl-628.jpg

And in the mechanic totals Camaro line of stories... here is one about a ZL1 from Delaware:

Dealership Totals Customer's Camaro ZL1, Owner And Dealer At War

What about car transport guys? Remember the perfect Speedsters and the train track incident back in '04?

http://flatsixes.com/wp-content/uplo...ain-wreck3.jpg

Years ago when I was very green about these cars I took my SC to have the original Blaupunkt stereo checked out because of a tape issue I believe. Anyway I was walking distance to the shop so I rode my bike to see how the repair was coming along.
As I'm riding up I see the radio wrench pulling out of the shop. He wanted to test drive my stereo. I basically said back up and get out! Never went back there..

Absolutely, lots of good times in rentals.
You paint quite the mental picture, Angela!
Oldsmobile Alero made a pretty good rally car. I washed the dust off (hills above Santa Barbara) and jb welded the fog light bracket back together.

When we were looking for a vehicle for our daughter, we found a great looking SUV with new leather seats and kind of high miles. When I asked if it was a rental and the guy confirmed that it had been, I couldn't get out of that dealer fast enough.

I wonder if this is the same car that Gas Monkey Garage (also in TX) ended up with and did a "resto-mod" job to.

I was wondering the same thing. Really sounds like it could be.

I might be a little different in the fact that I had to control myself. My boss recently purchased a 1 of 3 built Ferrari. The car has a price tag into the millions. When I was looking at the car with him he handed me the keys and told me to take it back to the garage about 2 miles away. I respectfully declined and ask that he drive it back. I just kept thinking that with my luck some old lady would pass a red light and hit me. But I have to admit as a mechanic in the 80's every chance I got to test drive a fast car I did and really drove it hard.

Instant salvage yard.

Back to topic and shop test drives:
When I had my Mustang, it had a complete failure of dash lights and entire rear exterior lights - running / turn / brakes! Ford dealer had the car for almost a week. Went in one day to check in and could see a major amount of looms were out, interior parts, etc.. Finally the following day the car arrives back to the Porsche store where I was and the service manager says its done. Fine and dandy and he needed a lift back to the Ford store. So, HE drives with me as the passenger... not realizing I'm the owner of the Mustang. This guy drops the clutch , lights the tires and hammers down! I'm like WTF to him!

To top it off, we get to the Ford dealer and I look at the repair work under warranty. THE MORON FORD DEALER RAN BIG FAT RED WIRES TO THE REAR LIGHT CLUSTER - bypassing the OEM loom! That's why I HATE GM and FORD dealers! Azzhat boneheads!

Funny thing about that last story, it was probably the headlight switch

Before I worked on my own cars I took my VW TDI in for glow plugs. I get a phone call that their " boy" that moves the cars had lost control of my car and crashed into a house. That totaled my car that I had just finished paying off. Took the insurance money and bought a wrx.

When I worked as a mechanic test drives were at least 15 miles for drivability problems. Always normal sane speeds though. Only bad thing that happened was I ran out of gas once. Customer didn't tell me the gas gauge was broke.

Oooo ooo, a good one that I forgot about.
I posted some time ago about my first commercial landlord. He was a dick, and ended up doing a 4 year stint for grand theft auto,and various other crimes. He was a real slime ball.
Anyhow, he was doing a custom radiator ( he owned a radiator shop) For Gabe, who was a local italian guy who owned a chain of Italian restaurants . He was a cool guy, and a lot of us worked for him as kids , but we all also knew he was connected, and for sure not someone to mess with.
His corvette was the most gaudy abortion I have ever seen. 1970 big block car, with tons of 70's airbrushings all over it, tuck and roll interior, wire wheels, side pipes, you know, all the tacky 70's corvette mods.
Rick ( my old landlord) had the car for a few days, and kept taking it out for test drives, it must have been fast, because , he ended up snapping the mainshaft in the m22, and when it broke , he lost the driveshaft which pounded up through the rear floor.
. He kept asking me " what am I gonna do?, he's gonna whack me". He was in near tears on the phone,sucking up to Gabe when he called him to explain what had happened. He did end up paying for all the repairs, probably out of fear for his life.

I know of two Vipers at my old dealership alone that were totaled by mechanic test drives back in the day.

Not a mechanic, but a shag left the drivers door open and backed out of a two post lift in my bay. Destroyed at the time a new 1993 Allante. Body shop attempted to get it straight but due to the rag top I suppose couldn't. Car was totaled before it was delivered to the new owner. It was in my bay because they needed an inside spot to park it overnight after it's detail.

I remember just standing their with my coffee and cigarette and thinking "oh well."

Don't remember what happened to the guy, but I don't remember him being fired.

I was there and it made me sick. The car in the photo was in one of the show halls with a sign that said "not for sale". Pristine cars..:(

Interesting tidbit from the comments section:
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Matt Hardigree
8/22/11 2:23pm

Here's a little nugget to consider:

During the brief time I owned a Quattroporte I went to Zeytinoglu FerMas, the Turkish distributors of all things Ferrari and Maserati to hunt down a wiring schematic for that devils concoction they call a suspension. While I was there, I noticed when owners brought rides in, the cars were placed on what looked like cafeteria trays. Apparently, vehicles which come into service are placed on trays with wheels and carted around, and their mileage is recorded on a card given to the owner. If that value has changed when the owner comes back, they get free service and someone gets fired.

Sometimes going that extra mile may be worth it, even if it seems over the top at the time.
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I've noticed a lot of these worthless "robot type" responses on threads lately....any way to filter/eliminate it? I'm not reporting it to the mods (just not my style)...just curious?