We won't charge you for the test drive?

Say what?

We took Clarence (my PT Cruiser; his name is Clarence and I love my Cruiser) down to the shop last night....his engine light had come on and I was a bit worried about that. It turns out that "something" had chewed five wires and was triggering the light to turn on. Last year, a similar "something" had chewed through the windshield fluid hose in DH's truck. Whatever our "somethings" are, they're nasty little buggers. Mice, squirrels, whatever.

But what kind of angered me was that I was hearing some funky-sounding thuds and thumps coming from the front end. That turned out to be a loose tie-rod and they've ordered a new one for me. It should come around the end of the week and I can take Clarence back down to the garage then. Meanwhile, for as much as I'm driving right now (basically to physical therapy and to my dr appt on Thursday), it will be OK.

OK, got that? So the tie-rod has been ordered and things are peachy. And then I hear, "So we won't charge you for the test drive to find out what was wrong with your Cruiser." Huh? Charging me for a test drive? For cryin' out loud! Talk about nickel and dime-ing one to death!!! Is it just me or does that seem wrong? And pretty stupid to boot? I understand the need for the test drive. But, geez, it was probably just a drive around the block or so!

When i worked in the motor trade we used to charge for test drives....because people would come in and the tech would say what was wrong with the car and the customer would go to another garage and get things done cheaper which is fair enough that is the customers desicion, but the tech has come off one job to jump in a car for him 50% of the time not get the job.

but as a car owner if a garage had told me they would charge me for a test drive i think id be a little upset

so i see it from both sides

I can see it from your point of view, AJ, but this is the garage that we go to all the time. Whenever the vehicles need anything, that's where we go....I wouldn't even think about going anyplace else. I guess I could see it if I was a new customer, but heck, when I called and said, "Hey, this is Pam", the guy said, "Hi Pam, how are you doing? How's that Cruiser?" I didn't even have to give them my last name....he knew by my voice! We've been going there for, oh, about 20 years or so. And this is where I bought the Cruiser. So it's not like they don't know me.

Oh trust me Pam, I understand COMPLETELY. We just recently had the check engine light go on as well but our's was a bad cam shaft sensor. Dana found the code ON HIS OWN and did the troubleshooting on his own and TOLD the mechanic what the problem was. We get the bill to find out the put Peppy (our car's name ) on the diagnostic machine, even THOUGH Dana told him what the code was! I was SO mad.

haha yeah i do see where your coming from Pam

see its nice and handy having blaine around hes a fully qualifed technician and we have the equipment to read the cars ecu's so we do all our own work on Meg (our cars name)

Originally Posted by Winchester

OK, got that? So the tie-rod has been ordered and things are peachy. And then I hear, "So we won't charge you for the test drive to find out what was wrong with your Cruiser." Huh? Charging me for a test drive? For cryin' out loud! Talk about nickel and dime-ing one to death!!!

Is it just me or does that seem wrong? And pretty stupid to boot? I understand the need for the test drive. But, geez, it was probably just a drive around the block or so!

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If a mechanic has to test-drive a vehicle to see if there is a problem, it is part of the diagnosis of a problem, and is an expense to the dealership. They have to pay the mechanic's time whether he's under the car or behind the wheel. Yes, they're actually doing you a favor by writing off that expense.

I don't know if there's a listing in the flat-time manual for a test drive or not.

Originally Posted by Kailie

Oh trust me Pam, I understand COMPLETELY. We just recently had the check engine light go on as well but our's was a bad cam shaft sensor. Dana found the code ON HIS OWN and did the troubleshooting on his own and TOLD the mechanic what the problem was. We get the bill to find out the put Peppy (our car's name

) on the diagnostic machine, even THOUGH Dana told him what the code was! I was SO mad.

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OK, let's turn it another way. You come in and tell the mechanic what the problem is. He takes it in the shop, spends 30 minutes replacing the part, gets your money, gives you the key, and you drive off.

Two blocks down the road, your CEL comes back on. You turn around, head back to the dealership, and chew them out for not fixing the problem.

It happens all the time. Give them a break; they're doing business the way it should be done, to avoid the fewest comebacks.

OK, I guess it's just me. Maybe they've always charged for the test drive and just included it in the bill. I just never realized it. It just seemed funky to me.

Originally Posted by Winchester

OK, I guess it's just me. Maybe they've always charged for the test drive and just included it in the bill. I just never realized it. It just seemed funky to me.

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possibly as its something that can be easily hidden on an invoice as in your dont label it as that

thats one of the reasons that i left the motor trade i felt like we were ripping customers off

Originally Posted by mrblanche

OK, let's turn it another way. You come in and tell the mechanic what the problem is. He takes it in the shop, spends 30 minutes replacing the part, gets your money, gives you the key, and you drive off.

Two blocks down the road, your CEL comes back on. You turn around, head back to the dealership, and chew them out for not fixing the problem.

It happens all the time. Give them a break; they're doing business the way it should be done, to avoid the fewest comebacks.

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That's the reason they do it! So you don't come back accusing them of not fixing the problem.

Just like if you were to go to a doctor and tell him that you have been having chest pain and insisting it's a heart attack and that you googled all of the symptoms and found out that you need a triple bypass heart operation.

A good doctor will obviously insist on doing some tests in order to determine the actual cause of the chest pain, and not automatically schedule you for triple bypass surgery. And hopefully you will appreciate the doctor's efforts, even though they are costing you money, in order to make sure that you don't have something else, such as gallstones, wrong with you. Gallstones are much easier to fix than a damaged heart....and cheaper too.

I get where you are coming from Winchester. I live with a mechanic and taking the car for a test drive and making sure you got the problem fixed right is just standard common sense. Where BF used to work (all the garages and even his dads place) is that once you find the problem, fix the problem, drive the car to double check!!! They even do this with alignments. Personally Id be p.oed too if my mechanic charged me for something that is basic common sense IMO. Not like he really could charge me cuz Id just threaten to not make him dinner LOL.
The way the economy is I think that small businesses like joe the mechanic are taking a hit because more people are taking the time to do small stuff themselves like oil changes, brakes, the little stuff they can do while parked in front of their house instead of making it easier on themselves and taking it to a garage. So they gotta get their buck where they can. I keep telling BF he needs to get the machine for CEL so he can do odd and end work from home on the weekends for a couple extra bucks. He always checks my moms van, step dads explorer, my sisters car all before their inspection so they can just pay him to fix the stuff before they take it to the inspection sticker and end up paying out an arm leg and kidney because their regular mechanic jacked his prices up. I guess this makes me sound like a jerk especially living with a mechanic but Im not on the mechanics side on this one, I think its a stupid charge when IMO its basic common sense.

I imagine the test drive would just come under the "labor" charge. If you were charged 45 minutes labor with your car, the test drive is included in that 45 minutes.

Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

That's the reason they do it! So you don't come back accusing them of not fixing the problem.

Just like if you were to go to a doctor and tell him that you have been having chest pain and insisting it's a heart attack and that you googled all of the symptoms and found out that you need a triple bypass heart operation.

A good doctor will obviously insist on doing some tests in order to determine the actual cause of the chest pain, and not automatically schedule you for triple bypass surgery. And hopefully you will appreciate the doctor's efforts, even though they are costing you money, in order to make sure that you don't have something else, such as gallstones, wrong with you. Gallstones are much easier to fix than a damaged heart....and cheaper too.

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Well you want to know something funny? Even after all that they STILL didn't fix the problem and we had to take it to another mechanic. I don't mind paying for things if things are done properly, but when you waste my time and money with BS tests when we've already done the leg work and STILL don't fix the problem? Yeah, not impressed. Dana wasn't just blowing smoke about what the problem is either. On his model car, there is a trick with the ignition where the error code pops RIGHT up on the dash. He wasn't just guessing, the dash DISPLAYED the code. Why then, did they have to charge us $65 to put it on the machine to display the EXACT same code?

That being said I do understand where you guys are coming from. They want to cover their butts, just don't do it at MY expense, especially if they can't even fix the problem correctly!

My dad never charged for test drives when he owned his shop, and hubby doesn't charge for them either. He's actually been pretty generous with the computer scanning lately too

I do see where you are coming from, if you've been going there for 20 years, I could understand maybe not even worrying about getting charged for a diagnostic drive. But I also see where some shops come from with it, like AJ said, a tech has to stop a job to drive the car, and it doesn't mean they're guaranteed the work.

Hubby doesn't charge because chances are the person will bring their transmission to him anyway, not really anywhere else nearby that will net the quality they'll get if they go with him.