"Customer states..."

[Ace-Garageguy]

If you've ever worked on cars for a living, or know someone who has...or just have a little common sense...you'll appreciate these:

 

 

[Bill Eh?]

I am subscribed to Just Rolled In. His videos never cease to amuse me, but often have me wondering how someone can allow such situations to occur with a vehicle.

[Roncla]

I subscribed to that channel a while back. It can be unnerving  to think you could encounter these vehicles while out on the road.

[BlackSheep214]

Yup. I watched them all. Crazy stuff. Even crazier when the owner declines service to replace bald tires. Wut......

 

[Spex84]

Holy moly. Some of these are rolling deathtraps. I know what it's like to not want to spend the money to "do it right", and what it's like to attempt a repair and fail, necessitating intervention by professionals...but most of these are on a whole new level.  I didn't have "electrical short caused by rotting pumpkin" on my Bingo card, lol.

[Tabbysdaddy]

Yea I watch those. Some of them remind me of the purse on the choke lever story you told. 

[stitchdup]

I never knew antoni gaudi made exhausts

[Jim B]

I've watched most of his videos, and the stuff the just rolls in never ceases to amaze me.  I find it had to believe that these vehicles are actually on the road!  Mildly terrifying.  I do find his pronunciations a little strange at times, but whatever.

[cobraman]

Wow ! Unbelievable people were driving those cars !

[Joe Nunes]

I once stopped a car, while employed as a police officer, because it was actually wobbling down the street at road speed.  I mean really wobbling!  You could see the tires moving on the hubs when the car went past!  Walked up to the vehicle and the driver jumped out of the car and hollered at me asking why the ‘elI I stopped him. He, a young man, had loosened all of the lug nuts on all of the wheels because he thought it “cool looking” as it went down the street.  It was a little Chevette… and it quickly went to the impound yard while I called the 16 year old’s parents to come to the station. They weren’t impressed by his idea of “cool” either and he ended up spending quite some time earning the money to pay for the wheel/vehicle damage.  Didn’t drive for awhile either.  Never was surprised at the stupidity some drivers would display and wonder how he explained the situation at the garage when the car was repaired. 
 

Joe

[Mike 1017]

I was driving on the Kennedy express way one morning after a snowstorm. I saw this this car that was having a hard time staying in its own lane. Immediately I thought a drunk. I caught up to the car. It had doughnut spare tires on all 4 corners, and they were put on the wrong side facing out. I could not tell who was driving because all the windows were covered with snow. The windshield wipers were not even turned on.

[1972coronet]

California says, "Well, it passed our stringent, Draconian emissions testing..."

[espo]

The part that worries me is they drive among us. 

[TonyK]

A couple of dealers I used to have my cars serviced at had a big display case in their service department with various parts taken from cars. Black clogged air filters, brake pads with no pads, etc. Quite entertaining to look at.

[Joe Nunes]

This thread really opens the floodgates. I was at the garage one day, years ago, and there was a very beautiful blonde lady, in her twenties (?) perhaps, standing at the service counter. They were discussing her 1961 Chevy Impala Convertible that was 409 equipped. The service guy was holding an absolutely filthy and quite dark looking air filter in his hands and had determined that she lived on a country road that was not asphalt covered. He asked her how long it had been since she changed the air filter.  She looked at him and asked him just where he got that filter from. Enough said...?

Joe

[BlackSheep214]

4 hours ago, Joe Nunes said:

I once stopped a car, while employed as a police officer, because it was actually wobbling down the street at road speed.  I mean really wobbling!  You could see the tires moving on the hubs when the car went past!  Walked up to the vehicle and the driver jumped out of the car and hollered at me asking why the ‘elI I stopped him. He, a young man, had loosened all of the lug nuts on all of the wheels because he thought it “cool looking” as it went down the street.  It was a little Chevette… and it quickly went to the impound yard while I called the 16 year old’s parents to come to the station. They weren’t impressed by his idea of “cool” either and he ended up spending quite some time earning the money to pay for the wheel/vehicle damage.  Didn’t drive for awhile either.  Never was surprised at the stupidity some drivers would display and wonder how he explained the situation at the garage when the car was repaired. 
 

Joe

Well... teen boys are just plain stupid and dumb when it comes to cars

[Joe Nunes]

1 minute ago, BlackSheep214 said:

Well... teen boys are just plain stupid and dumb when it comes to cars

Some of them...definitely!  ???

Joe

[sfhess]

On the other hand, when I take my car to the dealership for service, they take out the engine and cabin air filters, take pictures of the filters, put the filters back in, text me pictures of the filters and quote me a price of $130 or so to change the filters.

I can purchase the filters for about $20 each and each one takes about 5 minutes to install.

[Rodent]

4 hours ago, sfhess said:

On the other hand, when I take my car to the dealership for service, they take out the engine and cabin air filters, take pictures of the filters, put the filters back in, text me pictures of the filters and quote me a price of $130 or so to change the filters.

I can purchase the filters for about $20 each and each one takes about 5 minutes to install.

Yeah, a friend has a 2020 Civic and received a $90 quote for a cabin filter. He texted me and asked if that was reasonable. I looked it up and saw that it was just slightly more difficult than the one in my Mazda3. Told him to decline, and since he had a pool party scheduled for the next weekend, I told him to buy one on Amazon and I would install it on Saturday. My friend is 6'3" and 230-ish, so underdash work in a small car isn't his best talent. He videoed me changing the filter, agreed that it was easy, and now has changed it himself three more times. Win!

[Dave Ambrose]

I watch this on occasion. It gets painful after a few minutes. 

[OneTrickPony]

Yeah, I especially love the ones where they say "my bf/brother/dad just fixed it."

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, OneTrickPony said:

Yeah, I especially love the ones where they say "my bf/brother/dad just fixed it."

Being in the biz, and being the one where the buck finally stops, my favorite customer quote is always "it's been in 3 shops and they fixed everything, so there's nothing wrong with it...it just won't run".

That is, of course, when we exorcise the car demons with the magic wrench...

Edited February 8, 2023 by Ace-Garageguy

[mk11]

On 2/5/2023 at 7:56 AM, cobraman said:

Wow ! Unbelievable people were driving those cars !

Trying to think of an alternate name for this... hmmm   maybe  'people of facebook' ?   

[keyser]

 Friend who is service director of a huge hi line import store had a few trophies on his desk. I changed labels on them to “best burnout in customer car”, and “best upsell from oil change to long block”

He didn’t notice until a factory rep laughed a couple days later. Lol. 
There needs to be a loaner car issue site. Those stories are nearly as hilarious.