Not an automatic car, but the Automatic.com device. It plugs into the OBD port, and uploads driving information, to which I can then see on my phone or through their website.

Took my car in for the dealer to repaint the one wheel they scratched up. Checked to see if my car's moved this morning, and it has. But not in a way that I like.

It appears someone has felt the need to take my car out for a joyride this morning. 5 hard accelerations. 1.6 miles. 8.7 MPG in just 5 minutes. That wasn't a gentle cruise.

I've sent an email with the screenshot to my service manager. This doesn't make me happy.

 

I don't blame you for being pissed. I'd be screaming mad too.

 

I wonder if you go to the spots where the hard acceleration occured if you'd find evidence of burnouts. Photograph it if so and present the dealer with a bill for the tires.

 

Thought about that.

I picked up the car. The service guy was apologetic once again. Said hes passed the info up to his boss who's passed it to the manager of the dealership of where the car went. They own dealerships for all makes but do certain type of work at certain dealers. He said there probably going to be someone losing their job. Because not only was it reckless, it was completely unnessisary to even be driving the car anywhere but between the two dealerships.

But I'm still not done with them. They repainted a wheel that they had chipped the paint off of. But when they repainted it, they only painted the outside of it. Not the inside of the wheel like the rest have been. So I have 3 glossy smooth wheels, and one raw, rough metal.

I had issues with this dealer that goes back 7+ years with my previous car, and had reservations about buying new from them, but figured that with a new car, they cant mess up too much.

Half-assed jobs all around.

 

Also, just realized something else that's actually surprising, and almost kind of impressive.

During this cruise where they obviously put the hammer down, because that's about the only way to get a hard acceleration ding, they never got any hard brake dings. These Mustangs have the touchiest brakes I've ever seen, and if you're not used to them, just one tap of the brake would mark it as a hard brake. And heck, sometimes even when in sport mode, downshifting of the engine will sometimes give it a hard brake ding. I actually get more hard brake marks myself than hard accelerations.

So for this "kid" to not get one, I'm kinda impressed. Still pissed off though.

 

Why I have a good attorney. After using him against a hospital I wondered why I waited so long. You'd be surprised at what they can do.

 

Wow would I be mad! I would be taking this as far as you can! Good luck.

 

Yes I would be PO'd too. They had no right to drive the **** out of it. You should be able to trust you baby when it goes into the dealer. They should know and keep track of their employees they trust to drive customer cars.

Now, tell me more about this Automatic... I assume you have the Pro level? Is it just a plugin to the OBD-II port? Could someone (Like your infamous dealer's driver) have pulled it out and took it? How do you protect it from being removed or left at the dealer after diagnostics? Looks pretty cool. Don't typically leave my car at the deal alone, but have twice and wonder what they did with it. One time I got it back with the traction control turned off, so I have a pretty good idea what they were doing...

May have to get one of these. Give the the sales job on why I need this!

 

So far the dealer hasn't noticed or taken off the Automatic. It records a trip every time the car is started and turned off. So you can browse by day, and then break it down for every time the car was started. With the Pro, it's all totally free, for now. They say 5 years. I think the company is also actually owned by Sirius now.

After this incident, I'm going to wrap a piece of masking tape around it that says that if this device is unplugged and miles are not tracked by it while it's in the hands of the dealer, that I will be talking to the manager. Because now they know I have it. And I love how the OBD port is more concealed with this generation over the '06 I had. I think I would have been kicking it every time I got in the car before.

But yeah, it can be unplugged from the OBD-II port by anyone who knows its there.

With this though, you can set up geo-fences or other key factors that do or activate certain things. So during the winter time, I could have it set up that any time between 4-6pm, that if my car starts up while I'm at work, it will turn on my Nest to heat the house.

Also after this instance, I will now forever be giving them the gimped MYKey. I think it removes track mode, which removes track apps. And I have set it to a top speed of 65, and warns you about your speed at 45mph. Unfortunately, I could not find a way to make Rain/Snow mode the only available mode. That would guarantee no hard accelerations.

 

I kinda feel like this is one of those things I'd almost rather not know. It seems to be creating all kinds of stress, anger, and angst; but in reality -- does it really matter?

Do you think it actually did any damage? Is it any worse than what you do with the car every day? For sure it is not even close to what we do with our cars on a road track.

Yeah I understand and agree, the "kid" shouldn't have done that; yes you should be able to trust them with your car. But any time you put your car in someone else's hands, there is the risk that they might have a little fun with it. The only way to avoid it, is never let anyone else drive your car.

"Don't stress the small stuff" ;-)

 

Also I would not want the kid to lose his job over it. The temptation is hard to avoid. Put yourself in his shoes when you where 20 .