Dealer using your car for other things than the repair

[CHP]

My rule of thumb is to not involve a lawyer unless:

1. you're 100% certain you're right (seems you are in this case!)
2. there's at least $100k of recovery possible (seems unlikely in this case!)
3. you're not interested in remaining on good terms with the dealership (I don't know what your end goal is here)

If your lawyer sends any kind of letter, they will clam up and say you should only talk to them through their lawyer in response. If you go to court, it is a very long process and it costs a lot of money and it's not even clear to me what particular damages you would be

@jwatte you should quote my full sentence and not put it out of perspective " If they do not offer some sort of apology (free service package, free winter wheels, something else) I would start involving my lawyer ".

Not sure how you usually deal with this in America but here in Europe it's quite common to have a legal cost insurance that will cover the costs in such cases.

Even without financial implication, this is a time consuming process. Not worth the hassle in my opinion. If you have a good alternative, I would just switch dealers and reach out to Porsche US.

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[PrudentOcean]

In the USA, you also have the option of using Small Claims Court. In New Jersey where the OP is located, the claim limit is $5000, which seems to fit well with this incident. However, you still have to prove some damages, which would be difficult.

I agree that making a legal claim (self-represented or not) would be my last resort.

 

[Yves]

I gathered as much this was a road test, Porsche centers do lots of Road tests … why are you obsessed by the fact they combined it … if the service person was alone I’m sure you would not have complained … lot a do about nothing.

 

[jwatte]

you should quote my full sentence and not put it out of perspective

I get the feeling I didn't sufficiently clearly communicate the advice.

Here's the clearer version (which is free advice, so, do with it as you wish):

"No matter what result you get out of the dealer, unless you're looking for a lot of headache for essentially zero gain, involving any kind of legal representative for this kind of event seems like a worse choice than writing a sternly worded letter as a customer, and, if nothing happens, go on with life."

 

[SuperH]

I gathered as much this was a road test, Porsche centers do lots of Road tests … why are you obsessed by the fact they combined it … if the service person was alone I’m sure you would not have complained … lot a do about nothing.

I’m with the OP on this one. Land Rover once claimed to be doing road tests when my Evoque was in for a fault. What actually happened was one of the engineers took it on a 20 mile trip to take his partner out for a meal one evening, then stored it overnight on a not so secure driveway (not the locked paddock of the dealership. I tracked it via the app and went to check out why my car was sitting at a restaurant at 9pm on a busy public car park. The non-staff member use (passenger side) resulted in an additional scratch from an item of her clothing (presumably a sleeve zip by the look of it) on the piano black trim. The drivers side chair, mats etc. had been protected by the standard large piece of the paper type protector they often place in cars during service.

So test mileage - needs to be done. Carrying passengers - no. Parking at a busy pub where the doors could get dented - also no. Potentially storing a customer’s vehicle overnight in public (in my case, not the OP) - definitely not!

 

[krissrock]

Very disrespectful to you as a customer. Like watte is saying, i dont know the value of a court case... But you may want to do some research on what laws they may have broken, to "remind" them. I'm can't imagine using a customer's car as courtesy shuttle is legit... They should def compensate you for it's use, liability and violation of your trust

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