And that’s okay! Cars as an interest isn’t for everyone, to me it is my passion, and my means to a living, but for most they are merely a tool and a burden, nothing more, but for some it goes beyond that. It is one of the very few hobbies/passion that is shared by the majority of those who don’t care for it. Imagine if suddenly everyone in the world had to spend and hour of their day listening to heavy metal music, no negotiation, just has to as a means to living, for the majority, they would hate that hour of the day, but for those who are into it, they’d love it, well that is the automotive hobby, majority have to drive to live, so not everyone has to be interested in it, its just a tool, but for some, it is an expression of themselves, a connection to a past, something to improve themselves upon, or just a way to disconnect, cars can tell a story to some, but to others they’re as colourful as a hospital hallway, and both are okay.
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What car a “car person” buys is not because of a numbers games, or its features, or its practicality, it is just because certain cars give a sort of “emotion” that connects with them. As someone who has driven loud but genuinely slow cars like Toyota Chasers, RB20 swapped Silvias, forged billet built 4g63 evo’s, but then something like an Audi E-tron GT, the etron of course is faster, more comfort, more festures, but they feel “sanitized” where as the others you have to conform to the car. EV’s are amazing cars, but give you no connection to the car or the road, there is no personality. If you’re not into cars, it sounds dumb, but as much as corvette owners, or dodge demon buyers will tell you the 0-60 times, the 1/4 miles trap speeds, the power of the car, the real reason is it conveys an emotion that connects with them that a Tesla doesn’t, a Porsche Taycan doesn’t, a ioniq 5 N doesn’t, etc, they’re great amazing cars, but they don’t let you turn your brain off the world and needing you to focus on driving, like listening to your favorite song does, some songs are just noise, but some let you forget about the world and just focus on the moment
I’m inclined to agree however much I understand both sides. We just want to do our work, we don’t want to annoy and scew over customers, we don’t know them, we don’t even have to time too, we just want to be proud of our work. Most half assed jobs happens because management rushes us, trying to get us to smash out 2 hour jobs in 30 mins.
The GPS thing is an idea if someone is really concerned, but the cars we work on have them built in that customers can see on their phones, even get warning if the car accelerates quickly or turns a corner quick, etc.
I wish most of the customers we had were you! Some of the things we have found in glove boxes when we have to do the pollen filter, it is an entertainment to us 100%, though please removed any “used” or “preloved” items out, thank you 🫶
I have seen these, these are cool and nice addition that some workshop supply, I’ve seen these commonly for shops who carry out pre purchased inspections or other vehicle safety inspection. Our shop has a similar process but for vehicle warranty or diagnosis process, sometimes we supply these videos to customers if they request.
We do what we can to respect customers, personally I’ll leave notes for a customers occasionally, situation like emptying glove boxes when changing pollen filters and apologize if I put things back incorrectly, same with boots when doing spare wheels pressures, but our shop tries to put as big of a disconnect between mechanics and the customers, and in the world of dealerships, this is the normal in my experience, the service advisor you talk will never touch your car, and the mechanic who works on the car, you will never know, and this is usually how it goes. Some independent shops are less like this, but still distance customers and mechanics where they can, which I honestly see as being okay, mainly as a lof the most skilled mechanics I’ve dealt with have the least people and communication skills.
It wouldn’t be your policy
When you deliver your car to our shop, you have to sign waivers of what rights we have to your car, and because you sign them, we do run the customers through what everything means, but one if those that you have to initial next to is agreeing to our right to disconnect to camera. It is a little sketchy as I believe in that policy they explain it is to “protect company proprietary tooling” or something along those line. It is dumb, but no, we do have the right to disconnect the camera
Mechanic here who’s shop disconnects the camera. Its for the same reason cashiers are told to not sit on the job, its a dumb “company image” thing. We personally never joy ride customers cars, some test drives do require longer drives (DPF regens test drives can take over and hour of driving sometimes, hence high milage test drives), but the main reason is just management wants to keep an image and not potentially ruin when a customer goes through the videos listening to their “respectful” mechanics just saying dumb stuff or being judgmental of a customers car. We can have crude laugauge, odd humor, and any bumper stickers on a car will be spoken about, and management don’t want you hearing that. Another reason is customers misinterpreting what a mechanic is doing to a car, some interior work genuinely feels like we are breaking the car, we are doing what the manufacturer requires and with the tools needed, but still can sometimes not be pretty, even for us, and unknowledged customers can and have claimed the workshop is breaking their car intentionally and tried to take us to court over us doing our job. Though this is just my workplace, I have worked for dodgy independent shop where joy riding has happened, and straight up taking customers cars home because workers don’t wanna pay for their own fuel, I got out of that one asap
Clarification for those OOTL. Aus had a test alert for their new national emergency warning system AusAlert, and it shouldn’t say “Presidential alert”, not for Australia at least. Older or alternative mobile OS will display an American or International default heading, The intended heading is “CRITICAL AUSALERT”