FordPass App Exposes Dealership Employee Taking Joyrides In Customer's Explorer

For many of us, our cars are our babies. When you take your vehicle to the dealership or mechanic, you're trusting them to take good care of your baby, but all too often that trust is broken, as evidenced by some of the worst car dealer stories we've ever heard. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened earlier this year when a man took his Ford Explorer ST to Fair Oaks Ford in Naperville, Illinois. His FordPass App notified him that his vehicle was regularly traveling over 25 miles away from the dealership, drives that ended up putting hundreds of unauthorized miles on the odometer of Jonathan Gregory's Explorer.

Gregory had to take his Explorer ST to the dealership for repairs relatively regularly, and the first time he noticed the unauthorized use of his vehicle was when he was abroad in Germany for work. He said he noticed that the odometer showed that the car had traveled 100 miles since he took it in for service. When he took it back to the dealership for more work the following weekend, he was sure to take a photo of his odometer when he dropped it off. This was a smart choice.

Not only was a technician using Gregory's car for commuting to and from work, they also used toll roads in a customer car. According to ABC 7 Chicago, "Gregory says he was initially told that a technician had to drive the car around to record the sound the car was making, because Gregory needed a repair on a noisy sunroof. Gregory wasn't buying the excuse and said the driving was excessive." This was after the technician drove his car 100 miles the first time he had it at the dealership. The second time he took it back to Oaks Ford, the technician put another 140 miles on Gregory's leased Explorer ST.

Gregory filed a report with the Illinois Attorney General and asked the dealership to let him out of his lease. The dealership did not let him out of his lease, but it did give him a lifetime of free oil changes and maintenance on the leased vehicle, didn't charge him for the sunroof repairs, and performed a full interior and exterior detail for free. The attorney representing Oaks Ford said the dealer would cover the tolls and adjust the mileage terms of Gregory's lease.

The dealership's general manager said the technician who used Gregory's car for personal use was fired. The dealership also said it regrets the incident, which doesn't reflect the values and standards of its team. This is another example of why it's important to keep track of things whenever you take your car into a dealership or repair shop. You never know when someone will try to pull the wool over your eyes, leading to your own dealership horror stories.