Shady Mechanic or Necessary Procedure?
 

So I took my car in to a quick lane service place that does tires, brakes, oil changes, etc to get my blizzaks put on my car. The blizzaks are already mounted and balanced on a set of cheap rims I use for the winter. When I brought it in it had just a hair under an eighth of a tank of fuel.

I got my car back with the tires on, and I think everything is fine so I start driving off. As I leave I look on the reciept at how many miles I had on my car when I brought it in. I look at my odo and it says I have 5 more miles on than when I brought it in. What's more, my gas tank is on E and my gas light is on.

tl;dr: do they need to drive a car after putting on rims that have the tires already mounted and balanced? and why would they need 5 miles to do this? I think someone took my car for a joy ride.

No!!

no as in what?

That's why when I have to drop my car off, I make sure to let them know that I recorded the amount of fuel, and how many miles, the car has and that they are not to drive the car.

j00 got screwed

Agreed, but in this case, they could've driven it to see if it was handling okay and whether or not they thought it needed an alignment? I don't think you can go open loop on them if you didn't say not to drive it.

It just pisses me off. I wish I didn't have to leave town so quick I would've marched back in and asked them about it. As it is now I don't know what to but suck it up and live with the fact my car was probably violated. I won't be going back there.

That's understandable, but why would the need FIVE MILES to do that? It seems like it was "spirited" driving too given the fact my gas had disappeared.

A few miles is reasonable as its really a short distance when you stop and think about it. 5 is pushing it a little especially since all was setup beforehand. Since its on your receipt I would go back to the shop and POLITELY ask about the numbers. Listen to their reasoning then decide whether you wanna get pissed at them or not.

I agree....I was just saying it was possible.

BUT...they took it for a joy ride! Sorry about that!


BTW..............NOBODY drives my car but me!

No they don't need to take it for a joyride. No, you don't need to do a test drive for the wheel change.. tire shops don't test drive your car even after new tires are installed, at least I have never had one do it.

Very strange. I will have to give them a call tomorrow. I wish this would've struck me as strange before I had left the lot.

An eighth of a tank down to E in 5 miles of driving? I don't think so. My guess would be someone siphoned a gallon and a half after a little joy ride. Although with gas being half as expensive as 3 or 4 months ago I dont know why they'd bother.

thats the best way to handle it, but for now i see no need for driving it, it was PRE-BALANCED.

the most you'll get out of it, is a 10 dollar gas card, or 1 free service and a sorry.

or they had it idling for some reason, maybe a coffee run w/ long drive thru :)

You seriously brought it to someone else to just take the rims off your car and put the new ones on??

Your car comes with the tools you need to do this yourself. I suggest you learn to do this yourself if you're going to get pissy about 5 miles.:icon_no2:

Honestly 5 miles is no big deal. I would assume they would take it to the highway or somewhere they could get it up to highway speeds to make sure there is nothing wrong with the balance or alignment. You can't really tell if there's a problem at low speeds.

I took it in for an oil change too. This was a last resort I didn't have the time to swap all the rims. I also live in an apartment in my college town so I wasn't going to sit outside while it was snowing and do all this.

I was asking a question, I wasn't expecting them to have to drive my car at all I was surprised when I got my car back and it had no gas and more miles on it. All I wanted to know was if they need to drive a car after putting tires that are already mounted and balanced.

So if the car had come back from them wobbly and driving like crap would you have been pissy with them for not checking it out?

My point is 2 fold:
1)Any mechanic that take the tires off a car will most likely take it for a test drive to make sure it drives okay. A good mechanic will make sure it drives okay on the highway. That may or may not be more than 2-5 miles of driving.

2)If you're not going to do your own work you are going to be at the mercy what mechanics will do to your car. You can complain about it to the management and not go back there but pick your battles and complain about something that's worth complaining about. 5 miles is not when changing tires.

I would actually be more likely to question the work a place did if they didn't take it for a test drive after changing wheels/tires.

I think your case is understandable, just like what Shaunv mentioned. Me, on the other hand got my car worked on the body (painting, scratches, etc) last year. When I dropped it off it had between half and quarter on my gas tank.

When I picked my car up, the gas light was turned on and I found my climate control chipped (it was cracked before though)!! Those guys must've driven the car but I'm a regular customer and know the owner good. So I just let it go...

Come on.. it just 5 miles :)

joo got the free right foot decarb treatment mang

I don't get why you are saying the guy is getting pissy for having his car driven without authorization to do so. I would be "Quote" pissy if anyone drove my car for no reason without checking with me first. 5 miles or 15 miles,doesn't matter. I have had my car in for oil change and tire rotation ,transmission lube and rear end lube. There is no reason to drive it for what they did. Somebody just wanted to drive an RX8 if you ask me. Make it a point to find out if anyone will be TEST driving your car if it goes in the shop and mark this one up as a lesson learned.

I agree you should find out what your mechanic will be doing ahead of time and set expectations so you're not surprised later. I disagree with you that there is no reason to drive the car after what they did. What if the guy who worked on the car forgot to put the lug nuts on and a wheel fell off while the customer was on his way home? They would have caught that in a test drive themselves and been able to fix any damage and not place the customer or their reputation at risk. You should ALWAYS test your work before handing it over to the customer. Using the customer as a guinea pig is bad business and will get you in trouble.

You should expect that a mechanic will always test drive your car after they work on it to make sure it is working properly and safe.

For 5miles? :eyetwitch

If he has to go 1.5 miles to get to the highway, 1 mile to the next exit, 1 mile back on the highway and 1.5 miles back to the shop then yes I'd expect so. I'm just speculating though so if it's really bothering you then ask the shop. Bottom line is you should expect it and if it bugs you out then find out up front what to expect.