Joy ride worries

[tosugrad]

These are the exact kinds of reasons why I'm getting a bit tired of the NSX.
Taking such steps for such routine things is not really all that fun to me. I have more important things to do with my time than taking wheels off cars, watching over people touching the car, etc.
It is afterall, just a car.
flame suit hasn't been used in a while so it is now on.:wink:

I understand your concern. The question is what car would you NOT care about?

I have a 5 year old Highlander that the wife drives. I had wash it once a week. I still get upset about every new minor scratch on it. I still get (generally) paranoid about taking it to a shop. Any shop.

So what would it take? A $300 clunker?

 

[LJSB]

I have a 5 year old Highlander that the wife drives. I had wash it once a week. I still get upset about every new minor scratch on it.

Once a week you wash your wife's car, examine it, and get upset if you find any new minor scratches? What a lucky girl:biggrin:

 

[MC36]

It pays to know who is working on your car. My tech is also a one person shop. There is only guy that touches my car and if he breaks it I know that he can fix it. I left mine for almost two months with him with no worries. If you are concerned babysit your car for however long it takes or take it some place else!

 

[Big_D]

One place that is good at putting on tires is Costco. At least where I live they are. They use proctective covers for the tire equipment and actually use a torque wrench to tighten up the lugs. Afterwards a second person verifies the lugs were torqued correctly.

 

[4AU4LIFE]

I understand your concern. The question is what car would you NOT care about?

I have a 5 year old Highlander that the wife drives. I had wash it once a week. I still get upset about every new minor scratch on it. I still get (generally) paranoid about taking it to a shop. Any shop.

So what would it take? A $300 clunker?

I care about all my cars but I'm not going to let that care consume me. I have to trust the fact that the shop I take it to will respect me and my business enough to not do something like that. If they do, then I will deal with it at that time. One less thing to have to worry with.
I do my research and checking into any shop that I plan to take my vehicle to for repair/maintenance. I feel comfortable enough with that having been done that I don't need to stand there and look over their shoulder, write down mileage, drive the car in and out of stall, etc. If you choose to do that then that is fine. That is when you will earn that type of reputation of a 'rich guy with fancy car' and then people are more tempted to do things just to be spiteful.
Quite honestly, if you wouldn't trust me or my business(not that I have one) to leave your car there or to have it out of your sight, then I don't think I want the business. It isn't worth the hassle sometimes when the owner is going to nitpick and critque and bird dog everything that is being done.

Greetings

Always write down the mileage to the nearest .1 mile and let the vendor know that it costs $100/mile if they drive it. For tires they should take it on a 1 -- 2 mile test drive. Make it clear up front and the vendor will appreciate you.

Cheers,
Martin

Couldn't disagree with this more. I promise you that you won't get a vendor to agree to pay you any money for test driving the car. If they have to get the car up to speed (50-70mph) to test for vibrations, I can assure you that they can't do that and bring it back to shop in 2 miles or less. Appreciate it??? Surely you can't be serious. If someone asked me to do that, I would tell them to take business elsewhere.



I guess I just have a different outlook on cars now that I'm a dad and had my favorite car stolen. It felt so personal to me that have it taken, stripped and 'left for dead'. I really loved that car and planned on keeping it forever. however, that experience taught me a valuable lesson. Don't get so consumed and wrapped up with material things that can be taken away. Now I have a great little DD that has made me forget about the NSX entirely. The wife loves her DD and she doesn't mind if it gets a ding or sratch in it so why should I fret over it? Things WILL happen no matter how hard you try to avoid them so just move on and enjoy life.

 

[flaminio]

I take my car to Don's. I trust him. I've left it there for a week without worry.

With this kind of car, it's important to have a mechanic you can trust. The community can help out a great deal in this regard. I never would have found Don without the aid of the NSXPrime community.

 

[lithiumus]

Find a shop you trust. I've left my car at Autowave for days. Shane tells me they need to take it out and test the clutch, etc... I welcome it. That's the kind of place and people you want working on your car.

I've left Cali and now back in Canada. I've left my car with Factorynsxtech (Rob) for a week with full confidence. If Rob said he needs to take it out for a test drive, I welcome it.

Would you leave it with pbassjo or Larry Bastanza? Of course you would! That's what I'm talking about!

I had my tires changed at Mr. Tire in Buffalo. I stayed within sight of my car and chatted with the techs. They were pretty cool and let me inspect the alignment machine's settings and let me ok the final alignment before I left. They had a hell of a time with the RPS clutch and asked me to pull it in and out for them anyway.

The only bad experience I had was when I shipped the car from Cali to Buffalo. I really had no choice nor control since I had to leave it in the shipping compound. My car was definitely taken for a joy ride and I wish I had Prospeed's valet program at that time... I was just so glad to get the car that I just let it go. The car clocked an additional 30 miles, I had a nick on my Momo shifter and though it was transported in a covered container, I've got some salt water spots (winter time) and I think they washed the car though I specifically instructed them not to. My newly color matched roof now had swirl marks. It was a once in a lifetime type of ordeal so I just let it go.

 

[MartinSD]

Couldn't disagree with this more. I promise you that you won't get a vendor to agree to pay you any money for test driving the car. If they have to get the car up to speed (50-70mph) to test for vibrations, I can assure you that they can't do that and bring it back to shop in 2 miles or less. Appreciate it??? Surely you can't be serious. If someone asked me to do that, I would tell them to take business elsewhere.

Greetings

What I meant is that I ask how many miles the car will be driven. I let them know that joy riding costs money. I don't know of any service center owner or manager that would not want to know if one of his/her people are joy riding customers cars -- insurance if nothing else could be an issue in the event of an accident. Everyone I have dealt with has been fine with this -- mine was taken for a joy ride once.

Cheers,
Martin

 

[ashman]

I have to agree with 92NSx on this one, while I see where many owner's are proactive and constantly monitor everything about their car but I personally never enjoyed my car more then once I stopped sweating the small stuff.

 

[raven]

flame suit hasn't been used in a while so it is now on.:wink:

LOL:biggrin:

 

[Sketch]

I've always had good luck with Discount Tire (except for one particular location that didn't seem to be able to balance tires to save their life, but that's a different issue). They always say "you can pull the car into bay X", and use a flat bay with floor jacks rather than a lift. They've never even asked for me to give them the keys.

On the other hand, I took my beater to an independent exhaust shop for a replacement muffler. It was conveniently located just a couple of blocks away from train station that I take to work, so I had planned to just walk there. When I dropped the car off, they offered me a ride so I took them up on it. When I went to get out of the car, the doors were locked and the guy said something like "sorry, this is a customer's car, I don't know how it works". Admittedly, it was a beat up old Buick Regal, so it wasn't anything special, but still...

 

[LJSB]

What really happens after you leave your car.

 

[EuroBoutique]

Interesting post by OP and I think there are different groups of people since not everyone is so anal about cars.

A true car shop mechanic will rarely even want to drive your car since the risk is too great. I have clients/friends leave 6-figure sports cars with us for various work and quite frankly I don't even want to move it unless I have to for some reason.

In terms of tires and alignments, I am lucky to have a local shop where the owners and all the employees are on a first name basis with me. I trust them 110% with all of my cars and I just drop it off with no issues. If there is any trust issues with a shop - I simply won't go there.

It's pretty obvious by the posts that all of us have different "degrees" of what is considered safe and reasonable. Costco was mentioned above and I almost had a heart attack! haha

As a car owner you can request certain things but you also have to be respectful of the shop. If you are too anal about everything and insist on looking over my shoulder, I too will ask you to go elsewhere. People who do that come on the borderline of a stuck up a$$ hole so just be careful how much you insist. I agree most managers are responsible but you never know....

 

[mlambert890]

Im with 92NSX in a big way... No chance Im letting a car consume me. I recently took my cousin to Target and when we were loading the car (my daily driver), the cart got away from her and rolled about 6 inches into the door.

She nearly had a stroke. There was no damage that I could see anyway, but she just couldnt comprehend that I wouldnt be FURIOUS and thought I was really just "holding back" LOL

The reason? Her husband is insane with cars. No matter WHAT kind of car. If that had been their car they'd have been fighting about it for like 10 years.

To me, that is NOT fun. Its metal and plastic and it can be fixed. Crap happens and, sure it sucks, but really... Life is too short and there are too many other things already conspiring to cause ulcers to add another one to the list!

 

[flaminio]

Crap happens and, sure it sucks, but really... Life is too short and there are too many other things already conspiring to cause ulcers to add another one to the list!

This may be the most sage piece of advice I've ever read on this forum.

 

[TomCat]

Let's assume that we do all of the recommendations that are listed here and find out later that your car still being driven regardless of the warnings . What other actions can we take against the owners of the shops? Just curious

Vote with your $s/feet...never go back to that shop and NICELY tell them why.

 

[NonStopReaper]

everytime i got my tire changed or what not i was there. Only time i actually left my car to someone was when i moved to japan. I had my now Mechanic take it to get it registered and emmisioned tested.but he had it on a flatbed truck the whole time so he really didnt drive it. He was amazed to see a US spec NSX in japan. Only time i let someone joy ride in my car was having my 18 year old lil bro drive it to a family gathering back when i was home( with me in it of course)