Answers to your car questions
QUESTION
I have a problem with the garage that had done the front brakes on my car. My car is a 2009 Malibu with a sunroof. I took the car in on a Monday and left it with them. They actually had the car for over two days because they had a problem with a different car on their hoist and could not get it moved to do the brakes on my car, the day that I brought it in. I was okay with that since it is a spare car anyway. When I went to pick up my car, I paid the bill and they gave me the keys. When I approached my car, I noticed that the sunroof was open. I thought nothing of it until I got home and noticed that the right rear floor of the car was soaked with water. I immediately went back to the garage to ask them if they had left my car out the day before when it was raining. I never told them at that time that the rear foot well was full of water and they did tell me that they had left the car parked on the lot that day. I then told them that they had left the sunroof opened and the right foot well was full of water. They went back to speak to the mechanic who worked on the car and he said that he never touched the sunroof. To make a long story short, the garage told me that they never left the top open and were not going to take any responsibility for the water in the left foot well. They are actually accusing me of leaving the sunroof open. They did however use their powerful vacuum to suck up the water and then lift up the carpet to dry out. I put the carpet down myself after a couple of days when it had dried out. I now have a slight musty smell in the car and I have been told that once a carpet is wet, it will never dry out and I can expect that smell forever. Would you agree that it is the garage’s responsibility to replace the rear carpet for me or am I being unreasonable since it is an older car?
Don from Waterdown
ANSWER
The controversy is about who left the sunroof open. Did you leave it open when you left the car at the garage and turned over the keys? The garage never moved the car into the shop until the following day after it rained. The technician never noticed that the sunroof was open when he brought the car into the shop because the headliner cover of the sunroof was closed. Every vehicle with a sunroof is designed so that the headliner cover of the sunroof can be opened or closed without the sunroof being opened. Whenever the sunroof is opened however, the headliner cover is also opened and cannot be closed as long as the sunroof is open. This is basically a safety mechanism so that one would not leave the sunroof open by accident such as was done in your case. I haven’t anyway of knowing if this is true but the garage has told me that they never went to your car until the day after the rain and if that is the case, you must have left the sunroof opened yourself. In order that this does not happen again, I suggest that you get the mechanism of the sunroof fixed so that the cover opens when the sunroof is opened. As for the musty smell, you might not have let the carpet under pad completely dry out, so lift it again and then leave the windows open on a hot sunny day and the smell should soon subside. Since it cannot be established how the sunroof was left opened, I think that the garage has done their part by getting rid of the water in the floor well for you.
QUESTION
Why do some garages feel that it is necessary to have pictures of nude women all over their garage area visible to their customers? I think that this blatant disregard for their customers is something that the owner of any garage should put a stop to.
May from Kitchener
ANSWER
I totally agree with you. When I was a General Motors Service Manager, I made sure that any photos of the kind that you are referring to, were not made visible to anyone except the person who owned the pictures. The questionable photos are generally put in the garage area where the customers are not supposed to be but in some cases, they can be seen from the customer’s waiting area. I could not by law stop anyone from having the photos in their lockers but I made sure that the customers could not see them, even if they entered the service bay area. Most garages today are very conscious of their female customers and will make sure that any customer who enters their service area are not faced with the addiction of some of their staff. Most technicians today realise that the subject photos are a poor reflection of their own personal morals and does not represent the majority of today’s technicians. I will forward your concerns onto the garage in question.