Garage took my R32 home...

Anyone with a socket set can fit coilovers - you take it to a garage as you trust them to take care of your car - that includes work, service and after sales. The key word there is trust, clearly the OP hasn't got any for this company and form the rest of the comments nobody else would do either.

There is no justification for the manager taking the car home. If it had been crashed I think that the companies insurance would have been extremely reluctant to pay out. 99% of the time they cover the cars in the garage on the forecourt and on the road exclusively for test drives - taking the car home comes under none of them. If the car had been stopped without insurance Pete is equally liable for points and a fine as the person driving it thanks to some screwed up loophole in the law. The only way he would have saved himself from that would be by pressing charges against the driver or reporting it to the police when notified it was 'off site'.

I also find it highly suspicious that the car was taken home before the garage was shut, nobody would have been there to answer the phones after hours!? :huh:
 
I would not be happy at all if i found that someone from the garage took my car home.

I've been tempted to get a couple of spy cameras that I can hide in the car so i can see exactly where its being driven and how its being driven if it's ever got to go into a garage.
 
You also have no idea if it was actually the boss who took it home, just because that's what they told you doesn't mean there wasn't a 17 year old lad taking it home with him. You would never know
 
Basically i work away during the week mon-fri so asked to leave it sat - sat. Im going to gie them the benifit of the doubt as i know i would rather the car was on his drive than in an unlocked compound just wish i had been told.
 
Basically i work away during the week mon-fri so asked to leave it sat - sat. Im going to gie them the benifit of the doubt as i know i would rather the car was on his drive than in an unlocked compound just wish i had been told.
I think you're being very sensible. That also explains why they took the car in when maybe there wasn't space at the garage.

I'd certainly raise the issue though.

And you would of been covered had he pranged it, I know of a trader that pranged a customers car driving it back from an overnight stay at his house, there was no issue, insurance paid up.
 
That particular car, as you know Pete, is a beacon for scumbags - I very much doubt he'd have taken anything else home - it'll be to do with the car itself.

In a garage on a quiet industial estate which will be scoped by scumbags every night, it says 'smash your way in and take what you can fill the boot with'. I know lots of people who won't have these cars on site due to the trouble they cause.

At his house, there's very little chance someone will see it and it's a much bigger risk for them to come into his home for the keys.

If they do come into his house, he's lost the car. If they come into his premesis, he's lost much more.

I think there'll be a decent enough explanation and he maybe didn't want to panic you with the tale of why.
 
Indeed.. two types of situations:

1) Someone genuinly cares and takes the car home carefully to look after it for you.
2) Someone who sees your car as a free loaner to use at will whilst in his care.

I suffered no. 2 when having my car(s) converted to LPG a few years back. The installers just seem to use their customer cars as run abouts in the days they're 'installing' the kit. When they hand over the keys the fuel was used in test drives and tuning - apparently.

The fact that they were honest about the cars locations puts them firmly in 1) in my mind.

Rich
 
On a related note has anyone seen the video that made it onto various forums a few years back where the mechanics were caught doing 120+ MPH in a customers car because it was fitted with a gps black box video recorder and they decided to take it out and got caught out.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZbQ_KOGBcQ