From Oil Change to Nightmare....Viper Crashed by a Dealership

[Ratical2]

I wonder how many horror stories there are of dealership employee's wrecking Vipers when needlessly driving the car off of the lot for service that does not require a test drive? I know of several reported by members on this site, but has anyone made a list?

Here is one I stumbled across this morning..

[media]http://tuttleclickwreckedmydodgeviper.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/viper20003small.jpg[/media]

Tuttle Click Wrecked My Dodge Viper

All I Wanted Was A Simple Oil Change!
Tuttle Click Wrecked My Dodge Viper


LAWSUIT
Lawsuit Mediation Tuttle Click Dodge

My Story… On January 25, 2007 an employee of Tuttle Click Dodge took my 2004 Viper (1500 miles) out for a joyride around the block. This 19 year old male decided to put the convertible top down because it was a very nice day for a joyride. What he didn’t think about was the Lexus sitting next to him at a street light. I can just imagine what was going through their minds. (I can beat him). What the employee of Tuttle Click didn’t realize was that he was destroying someone elses property…their prize possession. He fishtailed right into the back of a full size pickup truck and pushed the truck over 40 feet (with the breaks firmly pressed). He not only destoryed my Viper but also involved an innocent person. WHAT WAS HE THINKING!!!!!

So that is where Tuttle Click could have done what was right or wrong. I guess this car dealership took the later. They wanted everything to go through their insurance company - HARCO National Insurance. What they should have done was to give me the keys to the Viper they had in their showroom and they could have the keys to my totalled red Dodge Viper that they destroyed and would never be the same. It would never be how I had it before I took it in to their service department for a simple oil change. Tuttle Click should have dealt with their own insurance company. Well…HARCO wanted to only give me the blue book value. What a joke. I guess I had to take Tuttle Click (Holmes Tuttle, Inc.) to court. After 11 months of getting nothing done, the insurance company wanted to try mediation and I accepted. So on December 28, 2007 we all met for mediation. Holmes Tuttle, Inc. had their Assistant Service Manager represent them; their lawfirm Prenovost, Normandin, Bergh & Dawe; and someone from Continental Insurance. So, with my lawyer and a retired judge we all sat down in two rooms. The Judge asked what were the options and asked if getting a new Viper would be one of them. I said sure, as long as I didn’t have to pay one penny! After an hour of the Judge going back and forth, the last deal that I made was the 2006 Dodge Viper in their showroom (the same one Tuttle Click had in their showroom when they wrecked my Viper). The Judge came back with an offer from Tuttle Click. I couldn’t believe it, but then again this is not a normal car dealership. The Judge said that he felt like a used car salesman. He said that for an extra $3,378.61 and the insurance money for my wrecked vehicle I could have the Blue 2006 Dodge Viper that was in their showroom. I was in shock, upset and couldn’t believe it. This dealership was unbelievable…and not in a good way! I told the Judge that they could go to hell and give me the insurance money and that I would keep my website: TUTTLECLICKWRECKEDMYDODGEVIPER.COM . They could keep the car that they couldn’t even sell and has been there since at least January 2007. I felt a sigh of relief because the lawsuit and mediation was finally over. Yes, I did lose in this deal, but I wasn’t going to give Tuttle Click any money from my pocket. Later that night Ahmad Soleman, General Manager of Tuttle Click Tustin Chryslyer Jeep Dodge called my home and left a message that I could have the car for no extra money. Like I said before UNBELIEVABLE! They also contacted my lawfirm and told them of their latest and greatest deal. I just laughed and said that I would stick with my original decision and take the money. I will never purchase another Dodge or Chrysler vehicle again because of how I was treated by Tuttle Click.

 

[ViperGTS]

happened to me...see here, for example...

http://forums.viperclub.org/srt10-s...my-mopar-pcm-not-working-k-n-typhoon-kit.html

 

[plumcrazy]

i "almost" blame the owners when that happens. the owners need to do some things to make sure it doesnt happen. one of them is NOT to go to the dealership IMO. unless you have a tomball or woodhouse near you.

 

[ViperGTS]

plum, he was a reputable mechanic (for me too), a viper club friend and the scary thing is that other viper owners still think he is "good"

And, it is not about the crash itself anymore - the way he tried to scam me after the crash is way more disturbing than the crash itself. The court proceedings etc.
His attitude.

I wait for the next crash because he also did (and probably does) test runs with other viper owners in the passenger seat with insane speeds on curvy roads...

 

[steve911]

I wonder how many RT/SRT 8 Chargers, Challengers, and every other type of MOPAR performance vehicle suffers the same fate that we never hear about on our forums.

I know of a 2010 Shelby Mustang that never even made it to the tech to work on it. As it was being driven out of the service area just after it was checked into the dealership, the lot boy hit the gas and took out 4 vehicles in the new car lot.

Its never good no matter what kind of vehicle you have.

 

[72hemi]

This crap happens all too often. I know a friend of mine has an SRT-8 Challenger who took it in to Stevens Creek Chrysler in San Jose to have the decklid aligned and when he picked up his car checked the EVIC (because he cleared it before dropping off the car) to discover that someone at the dealership had driven his car at 89 mph! Luckily the car wasn't wrecked but someone was out joyriding in his Challenger.

Luckily I have found a dealership I can trust, which happens to be the one I bought my Viper from and that is Normandin Chrysler in San Jose. Top notch people who really take care of us and our cars.

 

[Hamrhead]

My 1st '08 was totalled by my 'former' Viper Tech. His foot got stuck under the brake pedal... 108 miles on the odometer.

Then they cut me a check that more than covered the cost of another new '08, and I found another Viper Tech.

 

[costanZo]

I'm very fortunate to have a Viper Tech named Steve Heitz within an hour and a half away

 

[slysnake]

I posted a story a few months ago about trying to get an oil change at a dealership other than my usual one. Fortunately for me it ended differently because I walked out the door instead of let them touch my car.

I will never purchase another Dodge or Chrysler vehicle again because of how I was treated by Tuttle Click.

Don't blame the car, it's the dealership. You need to find one you can work with and trust.

 

[DeceptioN]

All this stuff worries me.

I brought my car in to get the regulator changed out, and he instructed me to 'bring a friend so I can get a ride home, it will take literally all day, no need to sit around waiting, it may even take 2 days'. I got back in the car and drove off.

 

[plumcrazy]

deception, good move

 

[jjp11]

It's amazing how absolutely stupid people get when they are in and around these cars. Just because you are in a sports car, it doesn't mean you have to have a heavy right foot. I took mine to get emissions tested and the SOB working gunned it not even 30 feet through the building/station and over two dyno wheels. My dad was with me and we both were just like, "Where the **** is this guy going?" It was so ridiculously unnecessary, but I was able to see first-hand how these "professionals" sometimes act with these cars. Luckily my car wasn't damaged.

 

[Fatboy 18]

Snake related, I had been advised of a new guy starting up a motor sport performance business, he had been working for a very well known AC Cobra maintenance, performance company near the historic Brooklands circuit.

He offered to rebuild my engine on my cobra and sort out some other mechanical problems I was having.
The new workshop was small but impressive, 2 Radical sports cars were being prepared for track days, another customer had his Viper GTS in the workshop and also an original cobra with the added hard top, with FIA papers etc.

I put my car into his workshop and waited for work to commence! the car started to get stripped down, then things started to grind to a halt! I also noticed things were being removed from the car that did not need to be! The coil had gone missing? Turned out he had borrowed it to test on another customers car
Then... the Original Aluminium cobra got taken for a test drive by him. I had turned up at the workshop as he was returning from the test drive, the car came round the corner with the front headlight hanging out by the wires, the wing was all twisted up with a big dent in it! He had lost the car on the road and caught a lamp post

I immediately got hold of a trailer picked up my car (which was in bits) and got the hell out of his workshop, the whole experience was a nightmare and then I had to find another garage to help me rebuild the car and hope all the pieces were still there!

About 2 months later his business failed No shock there

 

[bluesrt]

nice, i see those butchers also have the door skin stuck in the pass seat. *** it isnt a 5 dollar car

 

[spikeone]

had to hit up a local Dodge to get a recall done when I imported my car (had to have it done before inspection and all that import stuff)

only 1 dodge nearby had time to do it,so I bring the car in

when I go pick it up, they tell me they had to drive it to their bodyshop to get the welds done, the guy that drove it there (some guy maybe in his 50-60's) comes and talks to me before I drive off, telling me the car has decent power, he could feel the rear end wanting to get off on him

ya, I will not be going back there any time soon

 

[ZYellow01RT]

And another thing to consider...even if they DON'T wreck it, they may still take it for a joyride without your knowledge. With my last '95 RT, I noticed that it "mysteriously" had 147 extra miles on it than when I dropped it off for service the morning before. I never asked them about it, but they knew that I knew...

 

[VIPER GTSR 91]

Ratical, I am so glad you set up that website so many will see this senseless wrong doing and I dont blame you for not wanting to buy another Dodge product with dealers like this. What a night mare and sounds even worse than when my Viper GTS was stolen and dealing with the useless insurance company. It just amazes me how a dealer could allow some kid or anyone for that matter to drive your car.

 

[Ratical2]

Clarification.....Thank God it wasn't me! I just found this when doing a search for Viper related stuff. I have heard of stories, I remembered a few posted on here and wanted to share one more.
With only one exception, I have never left the Viper with anyone for service. I am not that trusting. Especially after reading all these stories.
Just one more story to add, I had a friend pull up to a dealership to pick up his car after service. The car that pulled onto the lot in front of him was his own. He watched 4 people get out with the lunch bags. The dealership employees had used his car to make a lunch run. I don't remember how it was resolved but he did have a talk with the service manager.
People just don't have respect for anyone else property anymore!

 

[TowDawg]

Damn! I have to count myself as lucky.
I go to a little dealership in Cleveland, TN and they have been great to me! Great rates on stuff, they'll install anything aftermarket that I buy and can't/don't have time to do myself. Plus, if they tell me a price to do something based on 2 hrs labor and it ends up taking a LOT more (swapping my rear end was a nightmare because the half-shafts were so stuck on the original), they stick to what they told me and that is that.
They let me go anywhere in the shop and watch, help, whatever while Tommy (the Viper tech) is working on my car. He is the only one allowed to touch it period and he generally won't do anything except pull into the service bay or out of it without me. He will wait on me to go for the test drive if one is needed. I trust him to take it by himself, but that's just how he is. Hell, the service manager won't even drive it. He even keeps the keys locked up in his desk in his locked office, instead of in the key box with all the other keys of the cars in for service.

 

[dave6666]

I get up in the morning and make coffee for the only mechanic that will ever work on my car. Problem solved. Sympathy to those that aren't mechanics.

 

[AndyMac]

I get up in the morning and make coffee for the only mechanic that will ever work on my car. Problem solved. Sympathy to those that aren't mechanics.

I hear that.... but, what do you do when your car needs an alignment? This is the only time when I let someone else touch any of my cars. Thank god I haven't had to get the Viper aligned yet.

 

[STUGOTS]

1. does anyone else wanna puke looking at that crashed viper pic?

2.this is why ONLY Tators touches my car.

3. emissions time, I drive my snake/vette/porsche and stang in and they respect it and dont say a word

 

[Jimbos1980]

Try this. Before you turn the keys over to them next time pause for a second, grab a pen, and say "hold on a sec, let me write down the mileage first.". And make sure they watch you. "you won't be driving it.....will you?".

 

[DeceptioN]

I'm thinking of just setting up a tune that limits the car to like 5 or 10 mph and use it as a mechanic tune when I need work done.

 

[costanZo]

I'm thinking of just setting up a tune that limits the car to like 5 or 10 mph and use it as a mechanic tune when I need work done.

That actually sounds like a really good idea. Has anyone done this before?

 

[Ricketts]

*****, but not unheard of sadly. I work at Ford dealership, two people to blame on that one. 1st the young tech, and 2nd the Advisor who was dumb enough to assign the young tech the ticket on the Viper.

 

[Lucid]

Best thing I could think of is hiding a gps recording device in the car and telling the dealer or shop you have one hidden onboard for security and it records where the car is driven, times and speed.

These vary in price to ones you need to download after the fact to ones with gsm cell notifications.

 

[Bad Asp 06]

I am saving up for a security system from OBS called the mobile watchman that records everything that goes on around and inside the car. Nothing is harder to dispute than a video recording.
If you pair this up with a mobile GPS locator that gives real time data over a cellular network, then your car is pretty much never out of your sight or control.

They (being the tech, service boy, who ever) would crap their pants if while out on a little unauthorized joy ride had the car shut down right in the middle of it and then receive a call asking why they are at where they are. And then explain why their service team took your car to go get lunch in. LOL

My lawyer would eat their souls.

 

[costanZo]

IMy lawyer would eat their souls.

haha.. love the way you put that!

Nicely said

 

[HLN A55]

That actually sounds like a really good idea. Has anyone done this before?

I had a tune built that would limit the RPMs to 2k. I haven't used it yet, but figured it would be nice to have in the off chance that I have to leave it out of my hands.