Acceptable dealership behaviour?

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MonteCristo

New Member
Posts
6
Location
Oxford, UK
We bought a brand new Range Rover Evoque HSE 2.0 Dynamic a few weeks ago but experienced some intermittent problems, such as the ignition starting but the screen remaining blank. We dropped the car off with Marshall Land Rover in Oxford last month for them to check it over and it was just delivered back to us as we were away for the Christmas period.

The car came back filthy dirty and with an empty tank of fuel (I filled it up just before dropping it off) and, even more surprisingly, had clocked up an extra 180+ miles, i.e. 50% on top of our total mileage so far. We checked the onboard tracker and it looks as if the car has just been used for someone's daily commute over the last couple of weeks back and forth between the dealership and a residential address. It was clearly parked outside someone's house in another town each night and the onboard computer was even left synced with another person's smart phone!

I spoke to the dealership today who were apologetic but sticking to their guns that the engineer used the car during this period as part of the testing process. There are other journeys to random addresses according to the tracker, which I suspect are either personal trips or suggest that the car was used to ferry customers/staff around during this time.

Has anyone ever encountered anything like this? Is there any level on which this is normal or acceptable? All our previous cars have been BMWs and we’re pretty surprised by this experience!
 
Last edited:
MonteCristo said:
We bought a brand new Range Rover Evoque HSE 2.0 Dynamic a few weeks ago but experienced some intermittent problems, such as the ignition starting but the screen remaining blank. We dropped the car off with the dealership last month for them to check it over and it was just delivered back to us as we were away for the Christmas period.

The car came back filthy dirty and with an empty tank of fuel (I filled it up just before dropping it off) and, even more surprisingly, had clocked up an extra 180+ miles, i.e. 50% on top of our total mileage so far. We checked the onboard tracker and it looks as if the car has just been used for someone's daily commute over the last couple of weeks back and forth between the dealership and a residential address. It was clearly parked outside someone's house in another town each night and the onboard computer was even left synced with another person's smart phone!

I spoke to the dealership today who were apologetic but sticking to their guns that the engineer used the car during this period as part of the testing process. There are other journeys to random addresses according to the tracker, which I suspect are either personal trips or suggest that the car was used to ferry customers/staff around during this time.

Has anyone ever encountered anything like this? Is there any level on which this is normal or acceptable? All our previous cars have been BMWs and we’re pretty surprised by this experience!
Click to expand...

A stiff e-mail to BMW CEO would do it for me ... they need that franchise more than you need them ...
 
Perhaps they gave it to a customer who was thinking of buying one, for a long term test drive.
Your vehicle should have been in their compound each night I would have thought, wonder whose insurance would have covered it, had it been nicked.
I would be looking for the fuel costs back as well.
 
outrageous behaviour , infact the person driving it had no insurance as if I im right they have insurance to test drive etc to check brakes but not a daily commute, I would be fuming and as other forumites have suggested go above
their heads

p.s which dealership was it
 
MonteCristo said:
We bought a brand new Range Rover Evoque HSE 2.0 Dynamic a few weeks ago but experienced some intermittent problems, such as the ignition starting but the screen remaining blank. We dropped the car off with Marshall Land Rover in Oxford last month for them to check it over and it was just delivered back to us as we were away for the Christmas period.

The car came back filthy dirty and with an empty tank of fuel (I filled it up just before dropping it off) and, even more surprisingly, had clocked up an extra 180+ miles, i.e. 50% on top of our total mileage so far. We checked the onboard tracker and it looks as if the car has just been used for someone's daily commute over the last couple of weeks back and forth between the dealership and a residential address. It was clearly parked outside someone's house in another town each night and the onboard computer was even left synced with another person's smart phone!

I spoke to the dealership today who were apologetic but sticking to their guns that the engineer used the car during this period as part of the testing process. There are other journeys to random addresses according to the tracker, which I suspect are either personal trips or suggest that the car was used to ferry customers/staff around during this time.

Has anyone ever encountered anything like this? Is there any level on which this is normal or acceptable? All our previous cars have been BMWs and we’re pretty surprised by this experience!
Click to expand...
Ok you got a new car,You take it to the dealer and tell them the problem. They test it can't find problem. So the next option is drive the darn thing to try to replicate the problem.
I had that 1 time had a issue, mechanic hooked computer to the vehicle not problem, then we went for a drive and well 10-12 miles later the problem surfaced. Back at the dealer part replaced and have never had a problem again
 
The dealership in Cheltenham done this on a supercharged sport .... The service manager used it to drive home and get a haircut, then circumnavigated with an additional 1/3 tank used, the car came back hot and ticking away .. obviously been using his right foot heavily.
The dealership seemed non plussed and said we could take it elsewhere if we liked in future, not bad on a 80 k vehicle new !
 
Thor1950 said:
Ok you got a new car,You take it to the dealer and tell them the problem. They test it can't find problem. So the next option is drive the darn thing to try to replicate the problem. I had that 1 time had a issue, mechanic hooked computer to the vehicle not problem, then we went for a drive and well 10-12 miles later the problem surfaced. Back at the dealer part replaced and have never had a problem again
Click to expand...

That's fair enough. We expected them to drive the car to try and replicate the problem. We did not expect someone to use it as their personal car for a period of time and 180+ miles seems excessive. If they'd have driven a 30 mile round trip then we wouldn't have been surprised at all... but used for daily commuting and parked outside someone's house? The dealership have confirmed that the address it went back and forth to each day was an engineer's house. I'm only guessing about the other journeys as they were to strangely specific locations but the whole experience is not at all what we expected.
 
The driving the car to establish a fault is one thing, personal commutes another... To me it shows a lack of transparency and bordering on deceitful
 
MonteCristo said:
That's fair enough. We expected them to drive the car to try and replicate the problem. We did not expect someone to use it as their personal car for a period of time and 180+ miles seems excessive. If they'd have driven a 30 mile round trip then we wouldn't have been surprised at all... but used for daily commuting and parked outside someone's house? The dealership have confirmed that the address it went back and forth to each day was an engineer's house. I'm only guessing about the other journeys as they were to strangely specific locations but the whole experience is not at all what we expected.
Click to expand...
Well did the problem get fixed? I think you could be over reacting. But if the car was dirty they could of washed it for you. Have to say my Ford dealer is very good, when my O5 with 230k miles gets it oil and filter changed, I get a car wash out of the deal
 
MonteCristo said:
That's fair enough. We expected them to drive the car to try and replicate the problem. We did not expect someone to use it as their personal car for a period of time and 180+ miles seems excessive. If they'd have driven a 30 mile round trip then we wouldn't have been surprised at all... but used for daily commuting and parked outside someone's house? The dealership have confirmed that the address it went back and forth to each day was an engineer's house. I'm only guessing about the other journeys as they were to strangely specific locations but the whole experience is not at all what we expected.
Click to expand...

Save yourself any hassle and ignore this guy - he's a Ham Shank and a Supertroll ;)
He's just miffed as he was runner up in a recent poll we had.
 
stew laws said:
The driving the car to establish a fault is one thing, personal commutes another... To me it shows a lack of transparency and bordering on deceitful
Click to expand...
What if the issue wasn't found in a short test drive? What choice does the dealer have, but to drive on different roads and weather condition to find the problem?
 
The answer lies in informing a customer of the need to prolonged test drives ... But be mindful we are talking about vehicles with more electronic aids, computers sensors etc that are storing information.... the fault was electronic and I'm sure a laptop not a joy ride was more de rigeur!
 
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