ben in lj

so that others don't find themselves in a similar position:

Well I have gathered my thoughts, tried for almost three days to rein in my emotions as well as spoken to both of the other two shops which are authorized to do tech inspections for FOC. Both said it is a rigorous VISUAL inspection which results in ZERO driving of the car - as I expected! They were both floored to learn this shop justified abusing a customer and his/her car as some sort of responsibility required by the tech inspection. Absurdly enough, he still thinks he did nothing wrong!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are some notable quotes from Steve Maxwell, the owner of Exotic Car Care ("car care" being a bit ironic in this case) who was the offender. It is immediately ajacent to M.O.M. Mind over Motorsport:

"did you know your exhaust glows when it is hot?" (never seen that myself nor has anyone behind me in several spirited mountain drives commented on this).

"the traction control on this car in first (gear) is useless" (fwiw, you have to give it a LOT of throttle to make the traction control useless in first gear and this suggests he was enjoying my tires he didn't have to buy himself).

he stated, "the car has some wander during high speed cornering". to which i said i'd had it at some fairly high speeds in corners without experiencing any wander. he then looked over at the guy who does detailing for the shop who was apparently a passenger in the joy ride and said "what did we hit in that one corner? about 150?" to which the detailer responded "yes, 150". he then went onto say proudly "it was 16 mph more in that corner than any other car i've taken through there."

in addition to the detailer, a director of the FOC was there and likely heard a great deal if not all of this conversation.

AeroGT3RedWing

It sounds to me as though someone has been driving this car as 'twas meant to be driven!

Asbolutely criminal . . .

Sloth

Perhaps you missed the point of Ben's post.

ltc

Ben,
Sorry for asking, but who/what is FOC?

Perhaps taking the CGT to your Porsche dealer and having them read out the ECU for logged Stage1 and Stage2 over-revs might be appropriate?

Scouser

looks like they broke your luggage box too eh?

I concur with Lewis. Get it to the shop quick pronto and have them read out the ECU......and give it a once over look for any other things that could be a miss.

Incidentally, I have a vid of a turbo on rollers showing the cats glowing bright orange!

ben in lj

FOC = Ferrari Owner's Club.

The problem with the ECU printout is that it just says what hour of engine life it occured. It would be impossible to prove whether they occurred before or after it was brought in.

ADias

FOC - there lies your problem. The Ferrari boys had a joy ride. Yes, it's wrong but that is what happens in situations like these. You are faced w/ dealer employees who take a dim view of owners of expensive toys and laugh in their backs enjoying joy rides. They feel no allegiance to a customer - particularly that dealer - who is not a P-car authorized dealer.

Greg A

ADias,

Generalize much? How is the shop's status as being approved by the Ferrari Owner's Club Ben's problem? Do you honestly think incidents like this don't happen at Porsche dealership's? Did you see the pics of the GT2 that was flipped in Chicago while en route from one dealer to another?

Additionally, this didn't even happen at a dealership. Ben clearly stated that the owner of the shop--not some "dealer employee"--said he drove the car.

Greg A

ADias

Yes bad things can happen in an authorized Porsche dealership, but there is recourse should something happen - as it happens within the brand. Would you take your car for an oil change at the corner Jiffy Lube? I would not.

Greg A

Come again? How is going to a Jiffy Lube in any way analogous to Ben's situation? He took his car to an approved shop for a tech inspection. He chose this shop based upon the recommendation of a friend who was familiar with the place. The car was not supposed to be driven for any reason.

I have heard plenty of wonderful stories about PCNA and "recourse" with wayward dealership practices.

I'm just confused. You're right, Ben would've been so much better off if he had gone to his local Porsche dealer who wasn't approved by FOC for the tech inspection he needed.

Greg A

graham_mitchell

Ben, sorry to hear of your troubles. I would be fuming!

Makes me think that it would be nice to have a PIN code which allowed the user to limit the engine revs to 3,000 rpm while the car is handed over to other parties. Would prevent joyriding completely.

ben in lj

I am still pissed and it's parciaily because the guy STILL doesn't think he did anything wrong. After reading his quotes on the internet (which were placed after he admitted to the same details on Sunday to the friend who referred me - only he reduced the speed to 115 mph in this version), he left me a message today wanting to get together so he could explain why he hadn't done anything wrong!! I'm telling you the guy honestly thinks his job as a tech inspector is to drive other peoples cars at 150 mph (in corners), hammer the throttle in first geat sufficiently as to cause the "traction control to be worthless", and achieve his best times on his personal race track - hence the "I was able to carry 16 more mph through there than in any other car before". It's simply unbelieveable to me that someone can be in this much denial. It is his attitude that this is not only acceptable behavior but REQUIRED behavior as a result of his job that I feel it is so very important to let other victims know his biz practices because he apparently has no intention to change them.

mac993

Ben- what that guy did is absolutely criminal. I wouldn't stand for it with my $40,000 car more less my $400,000 dream car!!!!!!!

Mighty Shilling

Hell, i wouldn't let it happen to my $4,000.00 car!

Woodster

ben, I have been off rennlist for about a week but what the hell happened??
was your car in for dealer service at a porsche dealership?
what circumstances put your cgt in the hands of the incompetants?
what they did is completely unnacceptable and this would have caused most
reasonable people to throttle this guy, i give your credit for keeping your cool it is admirable