Scion of Palo Alto: Dealership Employee Abuse of New FR-S

[buzzkiller]

Hi everyone,

I've been a member of several car forums, and although this is my first post here, I'm not a new reader to these forums (I've been researching the FR-S).

I signed up on this forum today to, sadly, report that several people witnessed a Scion Dealership technician from Palo Alto Scion (in Northern Ca.) drove a brand-new FR-S recklessly and with extremely high engine speed. I called the dealership and spoke with a manager, and after investigation he (Erick) confirmed that it was indeed one of their technicians. He said he'll look further into the matter, but I'm still disappointed because this was NOT the first incident that the neighborhood has witness from this dealership -- it has been witness dozens of times with their new cars with dealership tags.

Today this technician accelerated at high engine and road speed through the residential neighborhood in an FR-S. We're certain that he hit engine redline a couple of times. The disconcerting issue is that there's a children's park across the street, where the road he sped on curves blindly toward the location where children play and moms push their strollers across the intersection. This technician was easily going twice the speed limit across this neighborhood intersection.

I'm posting this not because of the compromised safety -- that's my community's concern and we'll have to deal with this ourselves. I'm posting this to inform local (San Francisco Bay Area) consumers who may be considering a new car from Palo Alto Scion. I personally wouldn't want to buy a new car with some technician maximally revving the engine to redline.

We've read the argument of engine break-in by either the method of "drive it like you stole it" or "as specified by manufacture" is a debatable topic and members are probably split on this. But this post isn't to debate the topic so much as reporting to you what kind of treatment to a brand new FR-S was witnessed by someone employed at this dealership.

I know you cannot predict what dealerships might have done to the car you're buying, but i hope public posts like this may help deter such irresponsible behavior by dealerships and their employees, and encourage management to have a policy in place that might discourage abuse of a new car by their employees.

[LoBenz]

Why would the above said technician be allowed to even drive the car in the first place? I was under the impression that the vechicles available on the lot were there for prospective customers/buyers to test drive and eventually purchase... It really makes me wonder what was done with my FR-S before it was purchased.
The unfortunate thing is, although your effort is greatly appreciated, this post probably won't get as far as reaching management of dealerships. What you could do is file a complaint to Scion directly and see what it is that they can do from a corporate stanpoint, especially since this is not the first instance that something like this has taken place.

[import_nation]

If you have video evidence I'd suggest you contact Jalopnik. It'll get tons of views there.

[BODHI85]

Hopefully talking to the manager will correct things. If not, maybe file a complaint about the dealership to Scion. Or even, let your local police station know about dangerous driving in the area and they can keep a look out.

[Corybud3325]

Calling the non emergency police line is the first thing I would do. I did this after nearly getting rear ended in a school zone by a woman who honked at me then tore around past me going like mad. I was going the posted speed for a school zone. The next day the area was full of officers and low and behold was that woman in her Volvo with the honor student decal pulled over.

[import_nation]

I often use the non emergency line when I notice people driving dangerously on the road. Not sure if the non emergency police line would do anything about a dealership test driving cars though..