Dealership Responds to Recent Video of Technician Joy Riding a Corvette

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Dealership Responds to Recent Video of Technician Joy Riding a Corvette


Last week we posted a video and rant from a member on the Corvette Forum who was unhappy with how his Corvette was tested during a service visit to Three-Way Chevrolet in Bakersfield, CA. The owner had engaged Valet Mode on his Performance Data Recorder which captured the tech supposedly “joy riding” the Stingray at speeds up to 83 MPH on city streets.

While the outrage from customer may be warranted, we did realize that we were only getting one side of the story from the video. But now that the story has gone viral, Three-Way Chevrolet has responded to the spat of negative press with a statement calling the accusation that the tech was “joy riding” as false and gave the reasons why the car was in the service department in the first place.

To be fair, we wanted to present the statement that Three-Way Chevrolet left in our comments section yesterday:

Recently, a customer posted a video to the internet accusing our dealership technician as taking a “joyride” in his Corvette. That accusation is false.

On July 13, 2016, this customer brought his vehicle to Three-Way Chevrolet for an oil change and a transmission concern. Our Express Service did complete the oil change with Mobil 1 fully synthetic engine oil, although our invoice did not reflect this. When we learned of our clerical error, we offered to tow the vehicle back to the dealership and complete another service with the correct billing on the repair order. In response to our efforts to rectify the customer’s concern, we were told that this had already been completed by another repair facility and at this point, we are still awaiting an invoice so that we can reimburse the customer for his unanticipated expense.

With regard to the transmission, the customer’s concern was “CUST STATES WHEN DRIVING IN MANUAL TRANSMISSION MODE THAT WHEN RPMS WERE AROUND 4000 AND CUSTOMER LET OFF OF GAS THAT THE VEHICLE BEGAN JERKING. THIS OCCURRED IN 2ND AND 3RD GEAR AS WELL”

The Corvette is, as most know, a high performance vehicle and as such, capable of great speeds and performance. To duplicate the customer’s performance issue, we were required to reach 4,000 RPM while in third gear. As noted in the owner’s manual, 3rd gear is capable of reaching speeds in excess of 100 mph.

We fully agree that our technician should have used better judgement in choosing an area for the test drive. In no way, do we see that the customer’s car was abused or taken for a “joyride” during the 5-minute test drive. We have dealt with this issue internally and utilized it as an educational point to all technicians.

Three-Way is a local, family owned business that has been serving the community since 1956. We take customer service seriously as shown by our 60-year history. We have apologized to this customer for the billing error on his oil change, as well as what he feels to be excessive driving in his vehicle.

When you take your Corvette in for service, you expect the dealership to address any concerns you have about your car. So we don’t think it was out of bounds for the dealership’s technicians to try to replicate the owners concerns to see if there was a problem. Our only beef was the fact that the test drive appeared to happen of some fairly busy roads where other cars could enter the roadway and not anticipating a Corvette driving 30-50 mph over the posted speed limit.

Three-Way Chevrolet appears to agree with us on this part and is using the experience as a teachable moment for future service encounters which require test drives.

Here is that video again from the Corvette’s owner. Now that you know why the technician was driving at those speeds, does this change your opinion of this situation?


Related:
[VIDEO] Dealership Technician Caught Joyriding in a Customer’s Corvette
[VIDEO] Corvette Stingray’s PDR Catches a Valet Driving Recklessly in a Parking Garage
[VIDEO] Sheriff’s Undercover Corvette Stingray with PDR Helps Bust Street Racers in Texas
Chevy Tells 2015 Corvette Owners Not to Use the PDR’s Valet Mode Over Legal Concerns

 



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8 COMMENTS

  1. It COMPLETELY changes everything. The owner was not truthful when he complained. He conveniently left out the reason the tech did what he did. That’s completely deceptive on his part. Shame on him.

  2. i believed the owner at first but after knowing the problem the customer said he was having i believe the dealerships man did the right thing.
    the only problem, the customer was correct. the tech. should not have taken his vette on a busy public road. but hey, thats just me.

  3. The technician was doing a reported problem test drive just as he should have, I would think there would have been a better test route but maybe not. Corvettes started being very complex many moons ago, not all shops can properly test/diag and repair them so I think that in most cases a factory-dealer is your best bet.

  4. Interesting – the dealership says that they changed the oil but forgot to bill. When did the dealership determine their mistake? How come the owner, when he picked up the car didn’t say – “Hey, you forgot to do my oil change” – since it wasn’t on the invoice. The other thing is that when you look at the dipstick after the oil is changed – especially with synthetic – you can tell that there is fresh oil in the engine. So how come he owner cannot produce the bill/invoice from the other place. Also, why would the dealership want to tow the car back to the dealership – do they think that they drained the oil but didn’t put any in? If that was the case I am sure the owner would have seen no Oil pressure.
    On the tech driving the car at high speeds – I don’t like the answer because the owner said that the problem also occurred in second and third gear that should be safer – but still it doesn’t sound like something that should be tested on major roads. Maybe the owner should take a service person for a ride to show that person what he is describing.
    All in all I find this whole story fishy on both sides. Just becuase a tech is a tech doesn’t mean that he/she can drive a high performance car. I can only imagine what would have happened had the tech gotten into an accident.Someone would owe the owner a replacement corvette.

  5. I WANTED to believe the owner… There’s lots of negative press circulating the internet about valets and technicians “joyriding” a customers vehicle.

    I also know there’s ALWAYS two sides to a story.

    Shame on the customer for trashing a dealership when leaving out tidbits of information that were crusicial to the WHOLE story.

    Shame on the Technician for bringing a vehicle to that speed on a public road, and possibly putting individuals lives at danger.

    Chalk it up to a learning experience. For both drivers. Hopefully they’re actually learn from it.

  6. I really hate revive departments,but seeing the complaint and video,the ech was actually only trying to replicate the 2-3k rpm bucking ust look at the tach.The owner clearly is an idiot.Three way Chevrolet seems a ok!

  7. Looks like the tech was trying to duplicate the problem. It didn’t look like he was doing anything else. How else could you check for it? Looks like the owner has an axe to grind and left out important details that change the whole story.

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