No comment!

A friend emailed this to me today. No, it wasn’t his car.
:smack:

5 Likes

And they drive on the same roads with us… :grimacing:

I hear a faint water sound from the right rear when it is raining out. I can’t figure it out. It’s like the door or window is cracked open slightly. But it’s more a water splashing off the wheel type sound. Maybe it’s normal.

saw a video yesterday of a customer complaining of ringing in the cab of her car. Mechanic got in, and found 20 or so running medals hanging from the glove box. That was her ringing…

something like this, but hanging from her glove box:

4 Likes

Lexus dealer would have charged for the visit.

1 Like

I’m guessing all the rear windows appeared to be up, but one of them was actually slightly down, enough to create a wind noise.

I’ve had multiple customers complain about making noise going over bumps sometimes but not always… I would tell them to bring it buy and see me next time it made noise… Drive to confirm customer complaint, then get out and shut rear hatch, inform customer of findings… :rofl: :rofl: :man_facepalming:

1 Like

Yeah, but you drank their cappuccino and ate the croissants in the luxuriously appointed customer suite while waiting for their diagnosis. :blush:

2 Likes

The local Toyota dealership in these parts has no capuccino, but they have a coffee machine. They usually invite me in to refill my carafe, even though they know I’m just on a walk-a-about. The BMW dealership is even more friendly, “come in, have some coffee, sit down, take a load off, etc” but I don’t drink their coffee b/c it is unlikely I’ll ever buy one of their cars. Mercedes, they seem a little suspicious, not inviting me to sit down & partake in any coffee … lol … Ford and Chevy dealerships can take me or leave me, don’t seem to particularly care one way or the other. I enjoy looking at the new Ford trucks still.

common sense is NOT so common, after all :laughing:

2 Likes

I suspect there are a lot of people who go to the dealer to report things like this “wind noise”, and they aren’t embarrassed or offended when someone simply closes a window fully or points out the medals on the glove box door. Cars are, to them, mysterious and complex devices they must own, but resent them anyway.

I hate that helpless feeling, about anything. I’d rather try to deal with it myself and mess it up than depend on someone else. I can’t do my own dental work, and I wish I could.

1 Like

As well they should have. Stupidity should be expensive.

1 Like

Let my sister borrow our car, it is a nice car but it keeps dinging, Lane departure warning :slight_smile:

1 Like

I wonder if there are funny repair logs for cars like I’ve seen for aircraft?

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement. S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.
P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear. S: Evidence removed.
P: DME volume unbelievably loud. S: DME volume set to more believable level.
P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick. S: That’s what they’re for.
P: IFF inoperative. S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.
P: Number 3 engine missing S: After brief search, engine found on right wing.
P: Target radar hums. S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

5 Likes

8 Likes

With the price of new cars today, why wouldn’t you take it to get looked at for things you’re not sure about? For that kind of money, you want it to be in top shape, and weird noises can be anything from a simple open window by accidentally pressing the button to “she needs a new engine”.

If it were me, though, yes, I would probably laugh at being told my window had been open- had probably hit the button by accident and didn’t realize it. Even tell the service guy that I’m glad I could make everyone’s day by giving the tech a good “stupid customer” story to tell. I would also hope there wouldn’t be a charge for it since it was so simple, but that would depend on the shop.

Just read a story about how some repairman got called to service someone’s dryer not working and the owner kept going on about how he was a professor at a local college and that he would have repaired it himself, but he had too many other, important, things to do. Turns out the dryer wasn’t even plugged in, and that’s all that was wrong with it. The repairman said he normally wouldn’t have charged someone for that, but because the professor kept running his mouth, so he got charged the “ID-10-T tax”.

I would rather have a paying job than another story.

To obtain the key, walk through the parking lot, road test, another trip through the parking lot and filling out the repair order, the tech lost 30 minutes of pay.

Also, most dealers want the technicians to perform a complete inspection on each vehicle: brakes, tires, filters, fluids etc. That is another 15 minutes on the lift.

As mentioned, it would depend on the shop, but I do get what you are saying, and am not denying that fact. As the saying goes “Hope in one hand, $%! in the other and see which one fills up first”
I would expect to pay for it, but be thankful if they didn’t charge me.

Dad did a drop in on our mechanic’s once to demonstrate a stalling problem with our Mazda, ended up fixing it by spraying some cleaner in the throttle body while dad worked the throttle, said it would take more time to write up a bill than it took to diagnose and fix so no charge and we’ll se you next time. Dad was more than willing to pay to fix the problem but it allowed the shop to go back to what they were already doing and made a loyal customer happy in the process.

1 Like

People that have never worked flat rate do not understand that concept… Also you spend all that time checking it out , turn in the paper work and then wait another 10-15 minutes or more sometimes to see if the customer is going to make any repairs your may have found just for the customer to say nope I can do that at home later or bring it back… Now you have to back start all over on the next vehicle… If you have multiple bay to work out of it is not as bad but if only one you can loose money fast playing the waiting game… Or you pull it in check it out and back it out and move on to the next one, waiting on the sales guys to wright it up and try to sell it the job…