Is it odd for shop foreman to take my car home?

[whitex]

Exactly. Huge NO NO. Not just driving around for testing (without the owner knowing??) or even worse, parked at someone's house? must be a joke.

Never seen anything remotely like this in Switzerland. No dealer would do it, let alone Porsche Zentrum(s).

Actually, if you do not feel like driving it yourself to the dealer, they offer to pick it up by a tow truck. This service is sometimes also included in the full insurance package (only in case of accident, clearly) even if the car can still be driven safely.

So, in Switzerland the dealer is never allowed to drive the car outside of the dealer premises? Do all dealers have test tracks to test things such as brakes, driver assistance systems, etc? Or do they fix things and just ask the customer "let us know if the fix worked for for you, be careful though, we only tested the new brake fix under 5km/h so far"?

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[whitex]

What good diagnosis does parking a customer's car at a tech's home overnight help achieve?

In my case the car was randomly turning on in the middle of the night in my garage. Never happened at the shop.

 

[Skilly]

A shop foreman? This is 1000% normal. Especially if the problem is difficult to diagnose or is persistent and random.

 

[Sidicks]

I would have no problem with this provided:
- they told me beforehand
- they explained why this was needed

As neither of these was carried out, it’s totally inappropriate.

 

[whitex]

Maybe some customers would feel better to have the foreman sleep over at their homes? ?

 

[Fsudoles]

Chick magnet move? Don’t cancel me….

 

[Fsudoles]

Where are you located in Florida? What dealer? That sounds NOT SO GOOD.

Date night! LMAO

 

[PorscheCH]

So, in Switzerland the dealer is never allowed to drive the car outside of the dealer premises? Do all dealers have test tracks to test things such as brakes, driver assistance systems, etc? Or do they fix things and just ask the customer "let us know if the fix worked for for you, be careful though, we only tested the new brake fix under 5km/h so far"?

Of course they do on public streets (though some have enough space within their premises to test cars). When you say "allowed" you mean that the dealer asks the customer if it's ok for them to do it? Or you mean that without informing the customer the dealer takes the car and parks it at his own house? To test what, if I may ask (maybe op can chime in)? The latter, afaik, no, it's not normal here.

 

[Goldent]

To clarify, I was not informed anyone would be taking my car. Only update I’ve received since they have had the car was high voltage charger issues, and battery issues, which was vague. I brought it in due to a flickering (white flashes) on the Lower console display, and due to the red “motor failure stop in safe place warning” at another time.

 

[whitex]

Of course they do on public streets (though some have enough space within their premises to test cars). When you say "allowed" you mean that the dealer asks the customer if it's ok for them to do it? Or you mean that without informing the customer the dealer takes the car and parks it at his own house? To test what, if I may ask? The latter, afaik, no, it's not normal here.

Ok, so they allowed to drive on public streets to test but customers must agree in advance (perhaps in writing)? Same for overnight test drives? If so, I suspect the work order you are signing then dropping off the car already has that permission built in, or else the service times would be unnecessarily prolonged by waiting on customer permission to test the car on public roads.

I think this issue arises nowadays because people can suddenly track their cars. I'm sure this has been happening in the past except some customers never knew. Could this be abused, of course, but at the same time you have be practical. I agree with people that keeping the customer in the loop should be standard practice by the way. Also, as far as insurance, as long as the car is in their care, it's their insurance which covers it, not yours.

I suspect before long, Porsche will add "service mode" just like Tesla. While your car is in service, it stays in "service mode" which does not allow you to connect to your car to track it or control it.

 

[chrisk]

It happened to my Macan when it was in for an oil leak. They asked if the service manager had my permission to driveit to his home and I explicitly said no in writing (text). However they ignored my response and the car spent the whole weekend in the manager's house. When I got it back it had +150miles and the gas tank was totally empty. It had barely enough gas make it to the gas station. Of course I stopped doing business with them.
I think they save gas and miles on their own cars by driving ours.

I would not accept them driving my car to their homes and have it there overnight. The car should be driven only for the purpose of the repair/diagnostics and it should be parked at the dealer overnight to make sure their liability insurance covers any damage, thieft, etc.

 

[PorscheCH]

Ok, so they allowed to drive on public streets to test but customers must agree in advance (perhaps in writing)? Same for overnight test drives? If so, I suspect the work order you are signing then dropping off the car already has that permission built in, or else the service times would be unnecessarily prolonged by waiting on customer permission to test the car on public roads.

I think this issue arises nowadays because people can suddenly track their cars. I'm sure this has been happening in the past except some customers never knew. Could this be abused, of course, but at the same time you have be practical. I agree with people that keeping the customer in the loop should be standard practice by the way. Also, as far as insurance, as long as the car is in their care, it's their insurance which covers it, not yours.

I suspect before long, Porsche will add "service mode" just like Tesla. While your car is in service, it stays in "service mode" which does not allow you to connect to your car to track it or control it.

I agree on the element of people being able to track the car (vs past when it was not possible).

And yes the customer should also be informed, if these are not just short drives around the dealer's premises (in my opinion, it s about deontology more than what the dealer is legally entitled to do).

Although I struggle to understand what kind of tests would require the car to be parked overnight outside Porsche's buildings. At someone's house? A very marginal number of cases? this, I have never experienced on any car or heard about it in CH. It would smell quite bad.


As about insurance, here, the dealer will have special dealers' plates ending with letter "U" (so not the customer's original plates), and corresponding insurance, which allow him to drive customer's cars for the strict necessities related to transfer the car (e.g. from the customer s house to Porsche, etc), test it, etc. Abuse, ie. use beyond this scope, will be punished. One of the famous incidents is that of Richard Hammond from "The grand tour": he destroyed a Rimac (with dealer plates) during filming on Swiss roads - and injured himself. The authorities took action, if I remember well, against the dealer/owner of the car, as the car should not have been driven with such plates.

 

[DANgerous]

For me the lack of consent is the red flag here. Plus another dimension I'm not entirely comfortable with is the dealer "taking work home", essentially passing on the cost of their daily transport to you. Also would the dealership cover the cost, and hassle, associated with anything that happens to the car on the journey or overnight?

Personally I'd be furious to find my car in a place where I didn't know where it was, where I had no control or knowledge. Imagine the nightmare if there was a break-in, or a joy-ride. You'd have no idea and would have to pick up the pieces and sort it all out after.

 

[Bry5on]

Have any of the folks posting that this is nuts ever actually diagnosed a car that’s intermittently failing? A short test drive around the block often doesn’t reproduce customer stated failure modes. Many failures occur under normal driving circumstances, which for most people is driving around to get to and from work at the beginning and end of the day. A little unpressured time also makes diagnosing easier in many cases, which can be (gasp) during non working hours when the roads are clear to experiment.

Damn, I never thought I’d be in a position defending a dealership!

For sure they should have asked for consent though.

 

[whitex]

Although I struggle to understand what kind of tests would require the car to be parked overnight outside Porsche's buildings.

In my case it was an intermittent issue where the car randomly turned itself on at night in the garage. Never happened at the shop during the day.

As about insurance, here, the dealer will have special dealers' plates ending with letter "U" (so not the customer's original plates), and corresponding insurance, which allow him to drive customer's cars for the strict necessities related to transfer the car (e.g. from the customer s house to Porsche, etc), test it, etc. Abuse, ie. use beyond this scope, will be punished. One of the famous incidents is that of Richard Hammond from "The grand tour": he destroyed a Rimac (with dealer plates) during filming on Swiss roads - and injured himself. The authorities took action, if I remember well, against the dealer/owner of the car, as the car should not have been driven with such plates.

In the USA Rimac would have a manufacturer plate (says MGF on them - IIRC they are even the same plate number for a particular manufacturer for a state or maybe even US wide), while dealer have dealer plates (say DLR on them, I think each one has a different number). That said, service is not required to put on any of these plates for a test drive of a car which already has valid plates, such as customer car.

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