or settle for some freebies... a new set of floor mats, or maybe sme other options you want them to throw in for free...

 

Dealers take care of customers cars as if there were a camera following and recording everything.

This is because they forced to operate as if every customer that comes back will have the assumption that their car was brought out to orange county raceway with a nitrous kit installed in it as the dealer did nothing but pump 50 pounds of N2O through that customers engine that day during their too-numerous-to-count quarter mile runs. So guess what? Nothing happened on that test drive.

Mike

 

Well guess what buddy? There is no camera in my car that recorded everything they did while it was in their custody. That's the whole problem. When the invoice says something, and my odometer reads another, I have cause for concern. There's no way in hell you can be 100% sure that some idiot in the service department didn't decide to go take it out for a joyride. It would be easy to assume that they didn't do anything if there wasn't such a huge discrepancy between what the invoice said and what my odometer read.

 

What I wrote wasn't that a cameras was there. What I wrote was that they behave as if a camera was following after the car recording everything. Believe it or not, you aren't customer in any business that's made similar, paranoid assumptions about how their property was treated, buddy.

So what you're saying is that the mileage in question was recorded by you and this whole discussion is because what was written on the service sheet isn't what you recorded, correct? As it is obviouslty impossible that the tech recorded the number at the start incorrectly, isn't it. Or wrote down the mileage from a different toyota in for service.

Mike

 

You really know how _every_ dealer treats their customer's cars? Omnipotence is sooo cool!

Umm, would you care to try this sentence again? It doesn't parse except perhaps in some strange "All your base are belong to us" sort of way.

Doesn't an error of this sort run counter to your "dealers act as if they are under constant surveillance" argument? If they're so careful, then how could they make such an error in recording the mileage?

As an owner, I am very careful to record the mileage in the vehicle's logbook when I take my car in for service. The service writer sees me do this. This might reduce the temptation to do any impromptu "test driving" while the car is in their care.

George

 

You don't seem to understand what happened. Well here it is:

I brought the car in for service, took down the odometer reading. I came back 3 hours later and the work was done. They gave me an invoice with the odometer readings (in & out). The 'in' reading matched what I had but when I stepped into the car and compared their 'out' reading to the actual odometer reading on the car, there was a discrepancy. I hope you understand now.

'Out' reading on invoice different than ACTUAL odometer reading on car.

 

Apparently you didn't follow the thread from about a year or so ago where the MECHANIC at a FORD DEALERSHIP was braggin on an online mustang forum about how he took this brand new Cobra out and just hammered the sh*t out of it and everyone had a good laugh etc etc etc etc. Well... it seems he gave just a little to much info about who/what/where etc and the VEHICLE OWNER just happened to see the post - and it was a woman!! "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"!

As you can guess - sh*t hit the fan and she completely destroyed everyone that stood in her path, and yes, it is a true story - try google'ing it, it's there somewhere. it was in a Mustang forum (as I said).

The story made national news becuase it got so out of hand. I' m sure someone else here remembers this story as well. It was a really big deal.

So YES, SOME dealerships DO completely rag out cars when they get their hands on them, most just never get caught.

 

Of course they won't get caught because there's no one watching them. When I flipped a ____ about the mileage discrepancy, they completely denied everything and said that driving a car 44 miles while it's in service is 'normal.'

 

Rounder, I can understand how ya feel. I know this because of how my brother treated the TC when we test drove it. LOL. I wish he hadn't done the burn out because I might buy the car, but my bro is a dick. I can certainly say that you have a deffinate right to be upset with the dealership, but in those situations (like others said) you will just get some perks. You will never get a full refund. Hell, I wouldn't mind a free set of floor mats. $150 is steap.

 

I've long resigned to the fact that all I will get are freebies. I'm fine with that but I'm not fine with the fact that the dealer continues to deny any wrongdoing.

 

i'm curious as to if you would still be this concerned had the mileage out read 714 the first time. you still wouldn't know who had done what in it for those miles. if the mileage out had read the same as the odometer you still wouldn't know what happened for those miles. so worrying about that seems to be kind of silly, especially given the nature of why your car was brought in. my TRAC unit xB was overheating after highway speeds of 60+ then slowing down to stop and go. we had to get out on the highway and get the car going for 15 minutes then bring it back. each time we thought we fixed the problem we brought it back out and had the same problem. it was trial and error until it was fixed. who knows how many miles went on it to fix it.

a creaking sunroof is a similar problem. drive it around until you hear the noise then try and fix it. then drive it around even more to make sure you actually fixed it. if you didn't try again. after you try and again drive more to make sure it's fixed. would you rather the dealer only put 10 miles on it, assume they fixed it and give it back only for you to find it's still messed up. it sounds like an honest clerical error, which i'm sure they will be strict on reinforcing from now on. selling new cars we have to record the mileage for the final paperwork. i could be pretty sure of the mileage because i thought i saw it earlier and record the wrong mileage. you come out and think someone added 10 miles to your car while you were in finance. wrong. just a goof the first time. i'd be more worried about the damage to your dashboard, but you say they are taking responsibility for that.

 

At least they are compensating you! So far as test driving goes! Ya im a mechanic and trying to find anoying squeeks and rattles are a pain in the a@@ I have taken vehicles on 30 min test drives with another mechanic in the back of the vehicle where the owner said the squeek was and still had a hard time locating the problume! Than after you fix or work on the problume you have to drive it and see if you fixed the problume, it is concivable that the miles are legit! Deffinitly demand that the scratched bezzle is replaced and if the are going to give you the better warentee for free dont sweat it man!!!

 

I feel you dude. When I bought my xB it had 52 miles after the test drive. After F and I it had 64. 11 miles to clean it up! ____ that. I flipped and didnt' take it.

Just kidding, I drove home in it and couldn't be happier. You need to chill out. Sure you will get some free stuff (foglights IMO), but I couldn't imagine a dealer not laughing you out of the building if you asked for a refund.