It Was Waaaaaaaaaay Cool

[SFSaturnFan]

Here's a shout out from SaturnFans.com and San Francisco, CA.

I have to say, one of the reasons I got a Saturn was because as a woman, I am very concerned about being d*cked over by the service department. In this case, I suspect that Stangman96 didn't really care about the gender of the owner when he took out that Cobra, but it certainly didn't help.

By the way, my brother in law works at a Ford dealership on Long Island, and I sent him this thread. Spread the word!

[Bookerdog]

Originally posted by stangman96
BY THE WAY, THE CUSTOMER'S COMPLAINT WAS LACK OF POWER AND POOR GAS MILEAGE, WHAT A CROCK... NEEDLESS TO SAY, IT IS OWNED BY A FEMALE, SHE EVEN SAID IT WAS DYNOED AT A SHOP AND THEY TOLD HER THAT THE CONVERTORS WERE TOO HOT AND THE FUEL TRIM WAS WAY OFF. I HOOKED IT UP TO THE COMPUTER, FUEL TRIM WAS NORMAL, CAT TEMP WAS OK, NO CODES, AND IT RAN GREAT. GO FIGURE.. OH YEAH, SHE EVEN TOLD THE SERVICE WRITER TO MAKE SURE THAT NO "PUNK" DRIVES HER CAR, WELL SINCE I AM THE MUSTANG SPECIALIST HERE AT THE DEALER, I GUESS I AM "THE PUNK"

OK, first off, my condolences to the owner, no one should have to put up with this.

I'm more than a little surprised that we haven't seen anything from Ford on this one. I mean, this is an SVT dealer, and two other dealers refused to work on the car because they didn't feel they were trained up on it. Apparently the finest Mustang SVT mechanic in all of San Antonio was our good friend stangman96. Shouldn't Ford be here reassuring all of you faithful SVT owners?

I can't beleive what a poor mechanic stangman96 is. OK, the car has been dynoed, and the owner has a very specific complaint that only an owner with fairly sophisticated knowledge of high performance engines would have. Poor fuel mileage and hot cats when run on the dyno. OK, that means when running at high RPM there is too much heat bleeding into the exhaust.

Any tech worth his salt knows a hot cat means one of two things. 1. The exhaust timing is off and the valves are opening too soon, or 2. The motor is running rich and unburnt fuel is making it's way into the exhaust system.

With the added complaint of using excessive fuel, I'd wager that the answer is number 2. Oh, but that can't be right, stangman96 hooked it up to the computer. Hmm was that at idle? Was it at 2000 rpm? I'm so sick of "hot shot" techs who won't do anything more than hook up a computer. But this one goes the step further and decides that since he knows how to put a plug in an OBDII port, that he knows how to drive a car 140mph, despite the fact that he would have failed fuel systems 101.

I'm just sick of the guys behind the doors of auto shops thinking that the folks on the other side are idiots. This post pointed out quite nicely that the mental challenged appear on both sides.

[gawilliam]

I was really burned up to hear about this flagrant act of customer abuse by a Ford dealership - burned up, but not surprised.

It doesn't surprise me, either, that the dealership is stonewalling the customer. My experience is that Ford dealers are worse than any other car company when it comes to making right what they've screwed up. That's probably because - again, at least in my experience - Ford is completely unconcerned about how dealers treat their customers as long as they're making their sales quotas. I'm convinced that Ford will ignore the awful treatment one of *their* customers received at the hands of one of *their* dealers, and - if they ever respond to Tracy or to the enthusiast community at all - will take a "we're all right, Jack" position, and claim they don't bear any responsibility at all for their dealership's behavior because they're "just a franchisee." (Yeah, that's bitter experience talking.)

So, I don't think Ford will do anything like pulling the dealer's SVT agreement, or even pressure the dealer to do the right thing. Maybe it would help if enough customers let Ford and the dealership know that they wouldn't do business with them, but I doubt it.

I love Mustangs, but I'd never own one new enough to be under warranty - because while Ford may build great cars, they build lousy service organizations.

My $.02 on the whole affair . . .

[Musicboy]

Well,
I have to say that I am unfortunately NOT surprized by the post that started this thread. As a former Ford technician, & a professional driveability tech of Ten years, I have seen this behavior ignored by service departments over & over. That is why it has become a common problem in the repair industry.

I've worked for Ford, Nissan, & Chrysler, & I've watched techs tear out of the dealership on two wheels, in Irocs, Stangs, Birds, 300ZX's ect.. right in front of the service manager, with no reprimand. In fact sometimes they'd just laugh.. I left that business to be a computer tech, because it has lost it's pride. Not all technicians behave this way of course, but way too many do, & few dealers care as long as they can turn out the work, & numbers..

I can honestly say that in all my years as a professional tech, I only thrashed a car once, & that was because the owner was sitting right next to me, & told me she wanted me to "see what this baby can do." It was an insanely fast 88 Grand Am or Sunbird with a 2.0 Ltr. turbo.. Even then I felt a little liable about laying into someone elses throttle. In my case the vehicle never exceeded 50 MPH.. Obviously driving 140 mph anywhere but on a track, is a flagrant disregard for anyones life, including your own. I truly hope that this kid has learned his lesson. Everyone makes mistakes, but mistakes come with consequences.

If this were my dealership, I'd be kissing Tracy's feet & begging for forgiveness, after I'd offered her a 1 week stay at Disneyland Florida or something. If I were Traci I'd be contacting the media, as well as her lawyer, in order to get compensation. One more blemish has been added to the face of the Auto service industry..

I'd propose a system for all Hotrodders, if I really thought it could work. By no means is this idea meant to trivialize the wonderful "Amber alert system" designed to recover kidnapped children. But similarly, wouldn't it be great if their was a central database on the web where if one hotrodder saw a car being thrashed coming out of a dealer, or by a guy with a tech uniform, they could report it?

I know, hard to implement, hard to prove in most cases, but we can dream a little. I wish the best for Tracy. In a way I feel bad for the tech too, in that he has some growing up to do.. I sincerely hope he does it before he hurts himself, or even worse, someone else. Best wishes, DL Mustang & Firebird owner

[redta]

I registured on this board to say just how stupid that it was to drive someone eles car that way and then brag about it on the internet. And I guess you now know that since you got FIRED over it and just in case you did not well you should have been FIRED. I would not be happy with just you losing your job I would want your SVT certification. And further more you provied how stupid you really are used car sales men have figured it out. Tell me why do you think they use the term 1 owner female driver never driven hard. Maybe they know something you don't well after reading what you wrote that is not hard to figure out.

[Mustangbelle306]

Originally posted by Try Me
Agreed.

BW, MustangBelle is exactly that.

I guess I missed something? Perhaps I missed more, since my post has been edited . No big deal, it was basically old news to many members anyways

Oh my..."exactly that" can mean OH SO MANY different things...especially to different people

Belle

[Mustangmom2k]

Good Lord! No wonder I haven't been able to log in for days! And I have a cable modem! Just saw this today, linked from the Female Power forum. I've been literally reading all day, here and on SVTPerformance.com.

I'm sure I can't say anthing more than has already been said, but here goes:

1. What's "waaaayyyy cool" is how other car clubs have shown support.

2. It's also "waaaayyyy cool" that he lost his job. I would also go after the dealer for some kind of accountability, and I'm sure you're going to. The SVT board says you guys have a lawyer and cannot comment further because of the legal action you're taking. That's also "waaayyyy cool", and I wish you the best of luck with it all.

3. To those who just didn't get it at first, maybe now you understand that it's not waaayyy cool to abuse another person's property without permission. Not only did you not have permission, but you had explicit NON-permission, so your act was deliberately defiant. And THEN to brag about it, on a Mustang site no less (!). Can you imagine the sense of violation the owners felt when they read THAT?! I think it's much like taking your kid to daycare and finding out he's been beaten or molested. (Not that a car has the same value as a child, but the principle would be the same.)

4. You obviously never dreamed that a woman Mustang owner would be a member of a Mustang site, and that was your fatal mistake. Ya know, if the car had already been dynoed, she probably was no stranger to a performance-oriented outlook, even if she was only having warranty work done at the time. Therefore, she probably hangs out on a Mustang web site (since the average car owner has no clue what a dyno is)...duh. And she deserved to have her car thrashed becuase she took it in for warranty work?! Well, now you get what YOU deserve.

5. To Tracy, from another female Mustang owner/racer: cut his b@lls off. Period. (I'm speaking figuratively, of course...maybe.) Seriously, the anguish and uproar this has caused is most definitely a lawsuit in the making. Best of luck to you!

[ENOz28]

I found this thread on www.corvetteforum.com and I am really suprised at the audacity of stangman. I am from San Antonio and currently reside there. Up until very recently, Northside Ford was the only SVT dealer in San Antonio. But Jordan Ford in San Antonio now is also an SVT dealer. The way I see it, unless Northside Ford takes care of the cowner of this car, they are going to lose a lot of business to Jordan Ford. I just hope stangman doesn't get hired by Jordan Ford either.

[ColinOpseth]

Hey, new member here.

The link to this thread was posted over at GMPerformance.org: http://www.gmperformance.org/board/viewtopic.php?t=1427

To Todd and his wife: That guy was a total prick. I understand why you didn't want to take your car to that dealer. I hope that you find someone that will take care of your car the way it should be. I'm a GM guy but if someone did that to my car I'd literally beat his *** with a tire iron.

To the retard, you know who you are: I'm glad you got fired. I'm glad you look like a moron and I hope that every Mustang club that you ever try to join kicks your sorry *** out. People like you are a waste of skin and to be proud of what you did only serves to show that you have ***** for brains, and maybe less. Grow up.

I'm glad this thread has gotten around the world. Maybe people will start a website about bad dealers so we can narrow down the retards.

later!
Colin

[devilman]

checking in from www.garageracing.com and i have to say is talk about the dumbass of the year award.

i hope the 03 snake is alright, and not hurt. it never seems to amaze me how stupid some people can be. the techie thought that tracy (the owner of the snake) didn't know that about cars, and didn't know about the internet. man i hope he doesn't place bets. good luck on your 03 snake and hope she is still running strong.

[silver_pilate]

Well, well, well....

Just spent over an hour reading all the responses. To repeat what many others have said, I am very impressed with how far this thread has spread, and I am disgusted by the actions of the technician.

Have I ever dogged a car? Yes. Was it someone elses car? No. I drive my car hard because that, in my opinion, was how it was built to drive. It's a sports car. However, to take someone elses property and completely disrespect their pointed wishes and thrash the car (reguardless of if it was damaged or not) is just juvenile.

I rarely take my car to a dealer (I think it's been in twice), and those times only involved something that had to be fixed immediately or something that I do not have the resources to fix myself. I just don't trust them in general. Sure, maybe they could fix my car up better than I could in some instances, but if I screw something up while working on it, I know exactly what I did and can only blame myself. I'd rather not spin the cylinder and pull the trigger each time I take my car in.

Hopefully this thread will raise the awareness of those irresponsible technicians out there. People will be watching. And to all you other techs who work hard and responsibly to keep motor enthusiasts on the road, my hat is off to you.

Over 320 responses and over 270,000 views...Wow! No wonder I couldn't log on the end of last week, even on a T1 connection.

To all you new members out there, I hope many of you stick around and make worthwhile contributions to this board. This is definately one of the best Mustang-specific sites on the net.

Dan, thanks for working hard to keep this site up and running. Glad to see that things are returning to normal, although I did see over 400 guests visiting the boards when I logged on today. Again. Wow.

--nathan

[spaceghost65]

checking in from PavementSucks.com

i had it happen to me. Dropped off my 96' Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 to have electrical looked at, picked it up and it would not shift out of first. could killed em, it had MUD al over the side , i filed with small claims and got everything repaired. Nobody f***s wit da Jesus!



http://www.pavementsucks.com/forums/...75&forum=1&21o

[red85mr]

Just wanted to show support and condolences for Tracy - the owner.

The post came through the MR2-NW email list, and all there are in suppport.

Our group is very fortunate to have a local Toyota dealer with good management, and a member of our group on staff.

Hope all turns out well in the end, glad to hear the idiot at least isn't doing further damage at that dealership.

Another automotive enthusiast, near bone stock. Mid engined is the only way to go! It may be made in Japan, but it's still fun to drive!

[DrHeathenScum]

checking in from www.slackjawed.net ... Some of us are car enthusiasts, like myself, but mostly we're just a bunch of fried (ex)dot-com workers... yes, this thread is famous outside the car boards.


ok, Stangman96 is a moron... regardless of what the car may have been put through by the OWNER, he had no right beating the piss out of that car. This is one of the reasons I hate bringing any of my vehicles in for service. I have an '03, 100th anniversary H-D Softail that is not replaceable, so I can relate.

Glad to see some justice was served.


:tard:

[Saab Turbo]

Greetings from Saab Central

Much Kudos to the Mustang owners here.
Lets all hope that what happend to this woman doesn't happen to any of us.

Cheers!