I used to have my 996 serviced at Bert Smith. I personally hated Bert Smith's service.Ended up going to Reeves after 1st service with Bert Smith. I made friends with one tech and only scheduled to let him work on the car. Bert Smith= BS
For anyone who knows the area of St. Pete Bert Smith, 14 miles is a TREK!! Hell 5miles in that area is more than enough of a test drive haha.

-Matt

 

+1 ... This thread has been entertaining. If you can't trust the techs at your dealership to take care of your car, you simply should be going somewhere else. Our techs and clients are all on first name basis' and are always welcome to see what's going on. Keep in mind, you probably don't see many cars like yours often... But those guys see many of them every single day. If it was a Porsche dealership they'd have a lot more fun with the e-brake handle in someone's Geo than your 997tt- There's way too much at risk to just snag someone's keys and take the car for a spin. I can garuntee you someone just wrote the mileage wrong or wrote it down before they drove it.

And yes, there IS a reason to drive the car after replacing O2's to make sure it is properly reading AFR's, heat cycle the car twice - no CEL and you're set.

I'd ask for clarification from someone who knows what they are talking about before building a head of steam and ruin a relationship with the place you seem to be most comfortable with taking your car too. Just my .02

 

Install a hidden GPS tracking device in your car that will track the car's every movement. Also doubles as a theft recovery device. They can be set up to automatically notify you if the car exceeds a certain speed or goes beyond a geographical boundary.

 

Similiar to my thoughts, if I trust someone to work on my car...i definately trust them to drive it (I unlike most encourage them to drive it, they don't get to drive cars like it often)

 

I wouldn't worry so much about the techs but it's the kid car jockies in the back that would worry me.

Had a friend who had an E55 and upon delivery he felt as though there were more miles on it than a new car should have (forget the number). Anyway, on the way home he turned on the NAV system and started playing around and noticed a restaurant in the next town entered into the system. He didn't think anything of it; figured someone just entered in their favorite restaurant when they were going over the car for delivery.

His first time in for service something similiar happened - more miles on the car than he thought were necessary (for the job it was in for) and same thing with the NAV - some shopping center was the last destination

Now he's getting pissed. The next time it goes in he puts some kind of data logger in the car and doesn't say anything. Gets the car back, notices his radio is set to some hip-hop channel, and both seats are waaaay reclined in the "cruising" style many of our young people like to use LOL!

I'm no techie but whatever he used gave him all kinds of info. - max braking, top speed, top rpms, etc. Not to mention the final "cycle" (the kid who brought his car up from the back to hand off to him) had hit some kind of crazy speed (given he was in a parking lot) and rpm.

He went back to the GM of the dealer and showed him the print out. THEY were pissed at him for "snooping" on them. They denied it at first and said this tech would never do such a thing. He told them he had no doubt it was not the tech, and would not care if it was, but he did not take kindly to some kid in the back joy riding in his car.

I think they offered him an extended warranty at no cost.

 

hey i sympathize with you, however i own a few repair shops and a problem like an 02 sensor should be test driven, to see it is reading properly under normal driving conditions. My techs usually test drive for about 1-5 miles depending on how the vehicle was before repairs. also an airbag light can be triggered by sensors which are all around the car. driving on bumps and rough roads can trigger a faulty sensor to flash the light again, so i think that they did the right thing...that doesnt mean to say that he didnt joy ride, but i would think that they see tt's all day and its the last thing they would want to do.
in addition it can be a typo, which ive done and meant to hit a 5 and hit 8 or 14. I say give them the benefit of the doubt, especially if ur happy with the work.

 

Evo dealer would put 15-20m on mine when it was in for troubles, miles rack up fast. It took me 500m to try and nail down where the sound was coming form, if the dealer did it in 20 hats off to them! Of course I made sure who got to drive it (head tech).

 

I wouldn't worry about it either. I trust that the porsche techs are so sick of driving them, that my car is to them is just like another stack of papers to me.

 

unless I personally checked the miles when I dropped the car off I wouldn't be too upset. easily could have been a recording mistake. that said, if they were joyriding your car i would be VERY upset but I don't think 5 miles gets anybody much of a joyride in a TT... that's like 3 minutes of drive time.

 

Yea it looks like half of you guys are backing up the dealer.

It was my 1st time & My last. For my 2yr service I'll be taking it either to Reeves or Suncoast. I have a really good tech that works at suncoast so ill be heading south to Suncoast.

 

Goodluck. I hope everything turns out well.

 

My posts are geared with your best interest as the main focus. I do feel that somtimes "winning" is knowing when NOT to argue . In your case , the car is precious to you and these guys work on it . They value their jobs too . Now I am not suggesting that you adopt compacency and allow them to take advantage but what I am saying is that tactful considerate discussions might resolve more than a pissing contest. Just my 2 cents .

 

It's All Good

I learned my lesson the 1st time.

 

I couldn't agree more.

Honestly, who cares? Dealerships have to test drive EVERY car that goes into service. Technicians are REQUIRED to test drive any car that gets ANY warranty work performed. If a radio **** is replaced under warranty, the technician has to first verify the concern, then replace part, and then verify the repair. Just like your o2 sensor, the technician has to verify your concern, check engine light, or missfire? Then fix the problem. The technician then resets the check engine light, and takes a long test drive. The reason he takes a long test drive is to make sure that the check engine light doesn't come back on. Sometimes a intermittent check engine light will only come on after the car is warm under certain conditions, accelleration, decelleration, etc. The fact that he test-drove your car is just so you don't have to come back the next day to tell them that changing the o2 sensor didn't fix the problem. If your car had a curbed wheel, or body damage it would be a totally different issue, but a few miles won't hurt the car a bit.


John

 

Ok Mr. Know it all. You win. I guess you know everything.
It's customers like you that dealers hate and that's probably why they will do some of the things you say they do to your car

As for me, I took my brand new 997tt to my dealer with $$$ of mods with no worry in the world. They did a test drive after some work and actually scraped one of my brand new 20" forged wheels. I didn't go balistic. **** happens. They offered to fix it or replace it. I simply asked them to make it right and they did.

I'll tell you what though. The next time I go there for service, they will make sure they take good care of me for not being such an *** like you.

It's just a car. If you are that paranoid about it, either don't buy one or leave it parked in your garage.

Your other option. Since you don't like having dope smoking techs working on your car, you should start classes at UTI or Wyotech so you can fix your own car. That way you can assure yourself that no joy rides were taken