Mechanic 'hoons'

[Xrfranjo]

(Extracted from this mornings daily telegraph)

A CAR service turned to heartbreak for Colin Chaffen when his beloved Expensive Daewoo Monaro was written off by two joy-riding mechanics.

Residents in May's Hill were shocked when the $45,000 V8 jumped a gutter and spun through a fence.

The mechanics, from Heartland Expensive Daewoo in Parramatta, then drove the damaged car several kilometres back to the workshop.

A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said the car only narrowly missed his house.

"I was sitting on the lounge when I heard this huge bang," he said.

"I thought it had gone straight into the house. I rushed to the window and saw them take off really quick. I only just had time to get their rego."

The car's owner, Colin Chaffen, a self-confessed "car fanatic", was in tears when he returned to the workshop to discover ten's of thousands of dollars worth of damage to his impeccably maintained vehicle.

"My car was my pride and joy. There wasn't a scratch on it," Mr Chaffen said.

"I had put $60,000 into that car and these guys only had it for 15 minutes and they wrote it off. It makes you wonder how many other cars they have taken out for joy-rides."

The Daily Telegraph has learned that the incident was not a one off, with a former Heartland Expensive Daewoo employee blowing the whistle on mistreatment of customers' cars.

"They're hoons," the mechanic, who asked to remain anonymous, said.

"Whenever a nice car came in they were all itching to take it for a drive.

"I saw them do burn-outs, speed and drive erratically on test drives, and their attitude was 'it's not my car'."

Mr Chaffen's anger was made worse because the service was only booked after Heartland Expensive Daewoo wrote a letter threatening to void his warranty unless his car was urgently taken to one of their service centres. He had also been assured that there was no need for the vehicle to leave the workshop.

Mr Chaffen's poor treatment continued, with management from Heartland Expensive Daewoo unable to explain the cause of the accident and what action, if any, had been taken against the mechanics.

"They have just told me a lot of lies. At first it had been side-swiped, then they had swerved to miss a car, and finally they said they had tried to dodge a runaway dog," he said.

But the worst was still to come, with Heartland Holden's insurer then refusing to pay the insured value of the car, offering Mr Chaffen almost $10,000 less than its agreed value.

Late yesterday, following inquiries by The Daily Telegraph, Heartland Expensive Daewoo agreed to pay Mr Chaffen the full value of his car.

Heartland Group CFO Neal Duggin refused to answer question from the The Daily Telegraph regarding the accident, including if other customer cars had been involved in accidents while being driven by employees.

"Any time a vehicle is on the road it is at risk of being involved in an accident." Mr Duggin said in a statement.

A police investigation continues.

[ms700]

Doesnt suprise me.

that's why whenever anyone gets their T/FPV serviced, I recommend flashing it onto valet mode. I do!

[Butto]

Have heard about this a lot, never happened to anyone I know but if it happened to me id would be making a pretty big f*cking scene over it. Wats valet mode?

Every time I take my car in anywhere I always take down the kms, current fuel consumption average, and current average speed, any major difference and id be asking some questions but nothing so far.

[jsmith]

Prob the worst I have heard was a Ferrari Testarossa that was involved in an accident while being driven by someone other than the owner. 50k zone, ran into the back of a trailer, skid marks about 130m long, flat spotted all 4 tyres that are upto 365 wide for the rears AND bent the brake pedal. Car was actually repaired although don't think the owner ever took it back (not that I would either)

[senna_T]

I know City Ford rockdale wrote off an AU3 XR8 a few years ago - it got flattened by a semi

[R-SPEC]

What a bunch of unprofessional ars*h*le bogans. He'd get quite a lot if he sued for damages, it'd be costly though.

I'm definately flashing my valet tune when I take mine in anywhere from now on. It limits the revs to 3000 Butto

[nang3]

f*ck I'd go nutter if some apprentice asswipes were thrashing my car.. or even fully qualified mechanics for that matter...

fo this reason alone I always have every car serviced by a mates dads mobile mechanic business - they dont even drive the car unless there is something specifically wrong that it needs to be driven to diagnose

[SCRIBR]

after hearing my mechanic mate speak about all the "f-ing sick rides" they get through & how people take them for a spin, it doesn't surprise me!

As I've said before, I had a FORD apprentice back my ute into a pole (which I'm told by 1 of the other people working was caused by him trying to hit about 50km/h in reverse in the workshop )

[ZAP]

When I was a apprentice for Toyota, we used to lust over the Supra Turbos, 16 valve strolas and turbo landcruisers (late 80's).

I admit that it was common for cars to be flogged, especially if they were granny cars. We would clean the cobwebs out of them....so to speak.

Looking in hindsight, it was not the right thing to do, but it is common. I once followed my brothers WRX through the backstreets of Artarmon thinking it was my brother driving only to find out it was a hoon mechanic doing a lunch run. He managed to get a major service Free and several other accessories to satisfy his anger. I once had my car driven for 2.5km in a valet parking station. The cops were called when I assulted the valet driver after he laughed and said "what are you going to do about it?" So I headbutted him and broke his nose. I did not get charged after his workmates said he was lucky that is all he got.

I always ask if the car will be test driven, by whome and reset the trip meter and make a note of the milage.

[Wingnut]

that's why I will only ever get my car serviced with a good work shop that has a lot of experience with dealing with cars such as ours. Even with the current power level I doubt Dave or Simon from Nizpro would enjoy thrashing the pants off my slug and if they did good luck to them as I know it will be in capable hands.

Back in the day when I had my little evo, I heard of a guy that took his car to Donellans in Box Hills. He had a worked WRX. While waiting for tires he heard someone fly up the street in what he believed was his car. He ran into the work shop to and asked about it. The mechanic denied it so he looked at his little RSM and it told him that on the last drive his car was taken to 7000rpm. This story was posted on the MCCR forum and did a lot of damage to the shop so the owner came out made a statement and removed the mechanic from the business.

lol at him...

Edited 23/08/08 05:48 AM by Wingnut