Ford dealer pleasure cruise

Panther dude

Panther dude

New member
Today I brought my car into the local ford dealership for an oil change, they called later and recommended a coolest flush. I agreed to it, returned to pick up my super prestine black marauder and discovered from looking at the odometer that the car had been driven two miles. I complained to the service manager and he told me that the tech had to drive it to properly bleed the coolant system. I have never heard of having to do this, worked on a lot of water cooled Porsches over the years and never had to do this to burp the system.

So I assume someone took my car for a high rpm joy ride, I hope I'm wrong.
 
I am a dealership tech. I drive customer's cars with the utmost respect. Wife has had her Challenger in and out of the Dodge dealer for a couple of weeks for the same problem, they haven't duplicated the problem yet. Asked for permission for the tech to drive the car home (I have done the same thing many times at the Kia dealer) but she respectfully declined their request for permission to drive her Hemi Challenger home. For obvious reasons. She doesn't trust it. As she shouldn't.
 
I have had several of my very high HP Mustangs "test driven" after an oil change at the dealership. If you think purging air from the system after a coolant change is odd, then please explain test drives after an oil change?

I now sit at the dealership and closely observe the repair bays.
 
meh 2 miles. I'd just let it go.

I always take it around a few blocks even for an oil change. Hey you never know.

I'm down with the hidden camera though. You tube pays you after so many hits. Just sayin...
 
Even if they did take your car for a performance test drive, I doubt they'd be "stoopid" enough to beat the p**s out of it.

(Try explaining how the customer drove the car to the dealership, but the rear end/trans/motor blew while in the shop?)

And, let's be honest, haven't we all put our cars through performance test drives more than once?

When I let folks drive my 03 TBird, I tell them, go ahead, nail it, otherwise they may as well be test driving a two year old foreign sedan.

(Now, my 64 Galaxie's a different story. Even with the new 390, I rarely nail that car. At 217,000 miles, it's still on it's second trans. Not pushing my luck)
 
Panther dude said:
Today I brought my car into the local ford dealership for an oil change, they called later and recommended a coolest flush. I agreed to it, returned to pick up my super prestine black marauder and discovered from looking at the odometer that the car had been driven two miles. I complained to the service manager and he told me that the tech had to drive it to properly bleed the coolant system. I have never heard of having to do this, worked on a lot of water cooled Porsches over the years and never had to do this to burp the system.

So I assume someone took my car for a high rpm joy ride, I hope I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

^^^I agree. In the end, though, probably not that big of a deal. But, you would think that these dealers would give at least a courtesy call that they "need" to take it for a drive. Not for all cars, but certainly for the limited production and/or high performance ones. That should be a given standard these days.
 
Panther dude said:
Today I brought my car into the local ford dealership for an oil change, they called later and recommended a coolest flush. I agreed to it, returned to pick up my super prestine black marauder and discovered from looking at the odometer that the car had been driven two miles. I complained to the service manager and he told me that the tech had to drive it to properly bleed the coolant system. I have never heard of having to do this, worked on a lot of water cooled Porsches over the years and never had to do this to burp the system.

So I assume someone took my car for a high rpm joy ride, I hope I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

They are all a bunch of crooks, I dropped a vehicle off for an alignment, it was a third vehicle, 4 months old, I was in no hurry, I got it back 3 weeks later with 300 miles on it, all the radio station presets changed and a bad alignment, I wonder who took a vacation?
 
secretservice said:
Nanny cam in a Teddy Bear in the back seat...
Click to expand...

Either that or a trunk monkey....

Trunk_Monkey_A.jpg
 
MarauderMax said:
They are all a bunch of crooks, I dropped a vehicle off for an alignment, it was a third vehicle, 4 months old, I was in no hurry, I got it back 3 weeks later with 300 miles on it, all the radio station presets changed and a bad alignment, I wonder who took a vacation?
Click to expand...

Not defending them putting all those miles on it, but why would you leave a car anywhere for 3 weeks just for an alignment??? Did you get refunded for the repair? Did you talk to the service writer? Service Manager? Owner? Ask to view any cameras the Dealer might have. We had a similar issue a few years ago. Checked cameras, car was only moved for repairs & a car wash. Turned out the writer didn't jot down the mileage & the owner was mistaken about how many miles were on the vehicle when it arrived.
 
Not trying to be a jerk here guys, but I am a senior master ford tech and have been working at a dealership level for almost 20 years. I know a thing or two about that 32 valve engine in the marauder. They are extremely hard in stock forum to get all the air out of the system with a standard cooling system flush.. I have had several over the years that have come in overheating due to not being properly "burped" so to speak after an a/m shop has had their hands on them. I always drive them after a coolant flush and I own one myself.. So as long as the tech is respectful and careful with the car really the two mile test drive that you are concerned about is pretty normal.
 
Miranda03 said:
Not trying to be a jerk here guys, but I am a senior master ford tech and have been working at a dealership level for almost 20 years. I know a thing or two about that 32 valve engine in the marauder. They are extremely hard in stock forum to get all the air out of the system with a standard cooling system flush.. I have had several over the years that have come in overheating due to not being properly "burped" so to speak after an a/m shop has had their hands on them. I always drive them after a coolant flush and I own one myself.. So as long as the tech is respectful and careful with the car really the two mile test drive that you are concerned about is pretty normal.
Click to expand...


Well, if that's considered "normal" the mechanic or service tech needs to tell the customer that up front so there won't be any surprises later on....


Any time the car gets a test drive.....
 
At least here, it's pretty much normal and understood that almost every car gets some kind of test drive, usually through our designated test drive route. That way if something does go wrong or fails, it happens to the tech and there are none of these "surprises" on the customer's way home.
 
Miranda03 said:
Not trying to be a jerk here guys, but I am a senior master ford tech and have been working at a dealership level for almost 20 years. I know a thing or two about that 32 valve engine in the marauder. They are extremely hard in stock forum to get all the air out of the system with a standard cooling system flush.. I have had several over the years that have come in overheating due to not being properly "burped" so to speak after an a/m shop has had their hands on them. I always drive them after a coolant flush and I own one myself.. So as long as the tech is respectful and careful with the car really the two mile test drive that you are concerned about is pretty normal.
Click to expand...

Thank you, feel much better about and I overreacted a bit, trust is difficult these days.
 
Miranda03 said:
Not trying to be a jerk here guys, but I am a senior master ford tech and have been working at a dealership level for almost 20 years. I know a thing or two about that 32 valve engine in the marauder. They are extremely hard in stock forum to get all the air out of the system with a standard cooling system flush.. I have had several over the years that have come in overheating due to not being properly "burped" so to speak after an a/m shop has had their hands on them. I always drive them after a coolant flush and I own one myself.. So as long as the tech is respectful and careful with the car really the two mile test drive that you are concerned about is pretty normal.
Click to expand...

Does a vacuum fill not work on these cars? Confused how driving a car helps burp a car versus idling or angling with a lift to force air in one direction...

That being said a few miles doesn't bother me... 15+ would be suspect!
 
I just find it odd that my 620 RWHP Mustang gets road tested and the vanilla Granny wagon does not.
Well I guess I would be concerned if several body fluids were left on the seats after testing the acceleration.
 
Dave2 said:
Well, if that's considered "normal" the mechanic or service tech needs to tell the customer that up front so there won't be any surprises later on....


Any time the car gets a test drive.....
Click to expand...

Read the invoice when you sign it. When you drop your car off at a shop when you sign the invoice you are giving permission to test drive the vehicle to diagnose, replicate, and finalize all customer concerns no matter how minor or major. If you are bringing your car to a shop and dont want them to drive it for some reason (read: you dont trust them) TELL THEM. Or here is another suggestion................. FIND A SHOP YOU TRUST. Plain and simple. 2 or 3 miles on the odometer is normal. My guys test drive EVERY alignment. If the steering wheel is off center they catch it then instead of getting the phone call or the car coming back immediately with a unhappy customer. Find a shop your trust and toss them the keys...............
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top