Mercedes Service Tech Allegedly Uses Customer's Car To Meet A Date At A Sports Bar

Even as car enthusiasts we know that car dealerships can be crawling with polo shirt-wearing dirtbag salesmen who want you to lock you into a high-interest rate loan so they can make their commission, but it's not just the salesmen who can be scummy. A service technician at Mercedes-Benz of Collierville, Tennessee, allegedly took a customer's C300 and used it for personal reasons, specifically taking a date to a bar. And the drama doesn't stop there.

Kimberly Porter, the owner of the errant C300, said she got an alert on her phone that her car was in use, so she tracked it down using the dealership loaner vehicle and called the police to report that her car was stolen. Automotive News said, "Porter unlocked her car with her spare key fob and called police, who found identification inside belonging to Derrick Nguyen, a technician at Mercedes-Benz of Collierville. Nguyen reportedly told officers he had permission to drive the car, but they arrested him after talking to a service manager who disputed that contention"

The day after Porter tracked her car to a bar at 1 a.m. to find a service technician had taken her car without permission, she told WREG the dealership called her the next day to say her car was ready — and that she had until 6 p.m. to return their loaner or they would report it as stolen. She decided to sue the dealership, which asked her to drop the charges against the joyriding technician.

Not only did the dealership ask her to drop the case, but it tripled down on being terrible by making a now-deleted Facebook post "offering free routine maintenance or $2,000 off a vehicle purchase for the first 10 customers to visit and show a copy of a post about the story," reports AutoNews. The post was later deleted, but Porter's lawyer accused the dealership of marketing and attempting to profit from the situation.

The fact that Mercedes-Benz of Collierville had the gall to tell Porter that she had to return her loaner vehicle the day after finding out her car had been hijacked by a service tech, or they would report it as stolen, was already petty as hell. But asking her to drop the charges against the technician who, according to court records, was intoxicated when he was arrested and could very well have driven her car while drunk, and then bribing people to say nice things about the dealership on social media? I'd be irate. Plus, of all the cars to take to impress a date, why choose a previous-generation C300? Weak sauce — at least take an AMG. I hope that justice is served, and that this dealership's clearly crooked and scummy ways do not go unpunished.