Dealer test-drive **A Warning To You All**

[Buggirl]

Good luck with going to the dealer. Be careful with not admitting you have footage as their are entrapment laws. I would ask by all means what their insurance policy and rules are around vans being driven etc. And then go into the fact that you had to look at the dash cam as you had concerns about something that had happened on way home. I wouldn’t say someone else had seen the van as if it went to court you would have to call as witness.
As for recording without their permission this is not illegal as they would have been aware there was a dash cam unless it was hidden from view and it is fitted to your van for safety reasons to capture what’s happening on the road so no law against that as essentially they took your van without consent.
Can’t wait to hear what they say a bad good luck.
This is why I always take a pic of the van and mileage before it goes in.
took mine to a garage the other month to have some work done and my tracker didn’t go off until 10 mins before they called me to say that the job had been too difficult to do and they had tried but needed longer so I showed them my tracker log and funnily enough I didn’t get charged!

 

[ddktm]

All of the above, also of note is if he is using your vehicle outside of his company insurance and had an accident, they would surely not pay out. Disgusting behaviour.

 

[Insert Coin]

@widu13 pretty much as I’ve been told by traffic cops, dealer now has all the footage, to carry out full investigation? Cops want the footage and result of our meeting as they want to investigate insurance aspect.




says more about your morals than mine.

My morals are nothing to do with it, let’s hope next time someone is being shot/stabbed that plod aren’t too busy checking your dash cam footage instead of fighting real crime.

This is between you and the dealer, not the Police.

 

[Skyliner33]

My morals are nothing to do with it, let’s hope next time someone is being shot/stabbed that plod aren’t too busy checking your dash cam footage instead of fighting real crime.

This is between you and the dealer, not the Police.

So what would you think about North Yorksire Police posting on social media that they had managed to catch a speeding motorcyclist who had covered his number plate. It had taken 4 detectives 6 weeks to catch him. Obviously not that busy.

 

[Bargy62]

So what would you think about North Yorksire Police posting on social media that they had managed to catch a speeding motorcyclist who had covered his number plate. It had taken 4 detectives 6 weeks to catch him. Obviously not that busy.

the same as i think of Kent police splashing pictures of my fully legit van all over twitter saying how much of a successful day clamping down on people with no waste carriers licence no mot and no road tax or insurance.

 

[Insert Coin]

Bizarre straw man replies.

 

[Teejay1]

I

This used to happen now and then when I worked in local vw dealer, car would come in with an intermittent fault and a member of staff would use to see if it re occurred. We were under strict instructions on how it could be used ie no passengers and no food/drink to be consumed in it.

Shocking that this is how it had been used.

Notice last time my a4 was in for warranty work the sd card on the dash cam had been ejected and when I checked this was done before it went to the workshop so absolutely no footage whilst it was with the dealership.

I was told last week that any dash cam would be disconnected for privacy reasons. I wonder if that is the truth.

 

[stuart-t6]

Reading this is making my blood boil!
My Caddy has been in multiple times for a EML light and guess what! They always pull out the lead on my hard wired dash cam!
You only do this is you have something to hide.
It’s nearly at the point where I will be going to trading standards and asking for a full refund as the van is not fit for purpose as they cannot fix the issue!

 

[Davejo]

From a legal point of view, the idiot driver took the vehicle beyond the requirements of his employment ( even if it was authorised by the dealer...! ) that together with the video evidence of his dangerous/without due care/driving is quite clearly taking your motor vehicle without consent ( no dealer or you would ever consent to that abuse) it should go to the police... it should go to VW UK...
I’m sure the press would love it too!
There are too many Tw@ts in this world to let them get away with it... if no one confronts them they will just do it again or worse and possibly kill some innocent victim....
Sorry I began to rant!

 

[widu13]

Reading this is making my blood boil!
My Caddy has been in multiple times for a EML light and guess what! They always pull out the lead on my hard wired dash cam!
You only do this is you have something to hide.
It’s nearly at the point where I will be going to trading standards and asking for a full refund as the van is not fit for purpose as they cannot fix the issue!

From memory it's 3 attempts to fix the same problem and then a refund or replacement. It is repairing actions though, not just observation visits or diagnostics. I can't remember if it is 6 months or a year. TS will let you know,

 

[Ian28]

My tuppence worth - contact citizen’s advice or a solicitor initially for advice about where you stand regarding collecting the information you have. Then use that advice wisely - ie go after the dealer for as much as you can get and report them to VW.
I think the police will be very unlikely to be of any help unless a crime was committed (other than a speeding offence). I suppose you could threaten the dealership with going to the police but that’s about it.
To play devil’s advocate here - the guy may be a young ‘un who just needs a severe knuckle wrapping, he may be at risk of losing his job as the end result.

 

[chriscroft]

Or just change dealers, write your letter to their MD, and move on;
There are some totally crap VW Commercial dealers(although I think they are getting better); and to be honest in my experience VW(UK) are even worse.
When we had out T5 the dealers and VW(UK) annoyed the hell out of me for at least a year; it was so bad I nearly sold the T5 Vel, and bought a merc Vito/V class.......... I know, it's hard to believe.

 

[Danger]

Just for a sense of proportion a kid suffered life changing injuries on a zebra crossing walking to school near my place recently. The van driver was speeding and on his phone.

Preventative policing is far better for the victim than reactive policing.

 

[chriscroft]

It wouldn't need to be a very smart phone, that could stop most of this.
If the phone is moving at speed, and not connected to hands free, then don''t allow in/out calls. Unless you can confirm you are a passenger and re-enter your pin/face/finger print.
I've got a car with mostly an iPod type control function (Volvo); its supposed to be voice activated but its not very good.
To me it's not that safe, its a distraction to use.

 

[Sabre]

Sorry but I can't see this as a non-police issue. Insurance for a start. If that van was was involved in a hit and run ( you can guarantee the scrote would keep going) the garage would close ranks and you'd not have a leg to stand on.
Hang the git out to dry. Fired. Web report so everyone knows what they do with your car at that dealership.

 

[Kev23]

To play devil’s advocate here - the guy may be a young ‘un who just needs a severe knuckle wrapping, he may be at risk of losing his job as the end result.

52 yr old guy with 23 years service and their senior MOT tester

Sorry but I can't see this as a non-police issue. Insurance for a start. If that van was was involved in a hit and run ( you can guarantee the scrote would keep going) the garage would close ranks and you'd not have a leg to stand on.

this was a point discussed this weekend too.

 

[Ian28]

Fair play Kev - was just worried it could be a teenager who was victim of a workplace with a shocking culture. In that case I think you should get a solicitor’s advice about what to do with your information before proceeding. They will also advise on police involvement. Good luck & please keep us posted.

 

[MrT]

@Kev23 what was the outcome in the end ?

 

[Kev23]

@Kev23 what was the outcome in the end ?

The van is back in at the dealer, with explicit instructions that the "company clown" is not to drive it under any circumstances, and that any road test is done within working hours and not to be used for personal errands by staff! this has been agreed with the dealer principal, we are due a meeting when i collect the van; whenever that is.but when i was in discussing the issue, the service manager says "so what do we do if we can't locate the problem"? wtf... how am i supposed to know?

I'll keep the thread updated for all who are interested, the saga is far from over though...

 

[superchargedpolo]

Kev, I’m in a similar boat to you. Problem with my vans emission system. I took it to the same dealer and they were absolutely useless. Their attitude towards me was really patronising. Which is surprising as they know I’m very up to date on current issues and do my own diagnostics on my van and many customer vehicles.

I ended up calling VW customer services and after about 4 or 5 calls and various emails they finally caved in and admitted my van needed a software update. However, this meant taking it to my local garage. Needless to say there was no way I was letting the monkeys in the granite city anywhere near it. Ended up calling the dealer in Dundee. Spoke to the service manager Darren and have been treated like a normal human being. They even liaised with customer services for me and called me the other day to see when I wanted to book my van in. They also agreed to take it first thing so that I could wait whilst it was done.
Chalk and cheese doesn’t even come close.

My advice would be ditch the muppets you are currently using, contact VW customer services and even if it’s inconvenient use Dundee.