Shop joyrides a 1,000 horsepower fox body, this is how it ended! 

***THIS IS AN ONGOING SITUATION*** Under no circumstances (if you happen to know) try and find or mention who/where this was. Please be respectful of that. ALSO: The truck driver was NOT AT FAULT, he was on the street driving by, the car hit him!

It doesn't matter if the car is worth 60k or 5k. That's that man's blood sweat and tears in that car. Hopefully it's salvageable and hopefully no one got hurt. God bless.

It’s things like this that make me terrified to bring any of my vehicles to a shop for work that I can’t do myself, I feel bad bad for the owner ☹️

As a tech in a dealership this is totally preventable. For the most part. I have had many custome high horsepower vehicles come in for this type of work and these vehicles are ALWAYS test driven by responsible techs. Never ever abused or disrespected. I am so sorry for this guy.

This video just popped up on my feed today and I am absolutely stunned. Shops that go out and Joyride vehicles just blows my mind. That is one of the most unethical things you can do when someone puts their trust in a shop with a car that has very high monetary and sentimental value. I run a business myself wouldn't dare of ever doing something like that.

Wow, I'm at a loss for words, so sad that some shops have no respect for the customer

This had me in tears and I believe in TEAM HEAVY CHEVY! Maaannnnnn I would be PISSED!

You never let a car like that leave your sight when someone else is working on it

If there is a lesson that anybody can take from this video… it’s this… NEVER LEAVE YOUR CAR AT AN ALIGNMENT SHOP OR TIRE SHOP. Them fuckers don’t make enough to afford what you are leaving them and they don’t care.

Man I would own everything in that shop because of the “emotional damage”

Valet mode!! I ALWAYS put my cars into valet mode when leaving them anywhere. And I only leave them if I absolutely have to.

I had this same issue at a Meineke shop about 10 years ago. They were supposed to be bending and installing a custom set of stainless headers and 3" stainless exhaust system. I returned to see burnouts all up and down the side street on the side of the shop, some 100's of feet long, others just piles of loose black rubber dust. I confronted the employees and found out from neighbors who witnessed the event, that it was actually the store manager that was hot rodding my 1970 GTO 455. All the burnout tracks had exactly identical width and tread design as my tires. They merely apologized and offered to give their service at a discount. I got ahold of the store owner and found out later that not only the manager was Fired but 2 other employees working that day were also let go. Apparently, the neighbor also had said to police that they had been doing that with numerous cars that came into the shop, that mine wasnt the 1st. A few days after my car was abused, 1 of the workers lost control and had crashed a customers car out into the parking lot into 2 other customer cars. I was so pissed but glad it wasnt my car that got totaled.

that is insane. I barely use mechanics but we have had the "do not let your employees hot rod my cars" talk. I feel so bad for the owner.

Caleb , you are correct with your points. I have only taken my car to 3 shops ever in 30 years. 2 friends and 1 well respected shop. Collector insurance also a must. I will not leave it where I don't know people.

When I bought my fox, I was 18 and worked at a ford dealer in a quicklane when I was 19. I had been with ford for only a few months and of course drove the fox regularly. We had a customer come in with a bran new truck for an oil change that another technician did. The customer came back not even a minute later because his truck was spewing oil from the oil filter. (double gasketed) The customer was so furious and didnt trust anyone anymore at the main shop. He was walking around with a manager and spotted my fox. He told the manager "if that car belongs to an employee, I want them to do my oil change and inspect the truck" And because of that, he was then a returning customer for the right reasons. Sometimes its hard to find the right tech to work on your baby. But take a look in the employee parking lot and it can speak volumes to how the people will take care of your baby with how well they take care of their own.

I will tell a little story about when I was a Ford technician years back. Someone brought in a 2003 Cobra, completely customized like this, a race car. It came for front end noise they were having trouble tracking down. No biggie glad to help, sometimes a second set of eyes isn't a bad thing going that fast (plus a lot of us knew the builders and they would bring stuff to us for alignments and odds and ends things, a common courtesy). Whelp I got about 2 blocks away from the shop pulled over called my boss and told him that this thing scared me (I was 21 at the time) because it was too fast and I couldn't hear or feel anything because of engine noise. He laughed and made fun of me but came. He drove it and got really quiet and didn't talk much. We got back and never made fun of me again for it he looked over and told me I did the right thing and understood the lack of confidence with so much HP plus a customized build. Respect, people that's what this came down to and damn good teacher! I hate this happened. I hope it is repaired.

Bro, I would seriously be going to jail for murder immediately after returning and seeing my car like that!.

Man I’d probably have went too jail 😂 he most definitely needs too sue the business! Anyone with sense would know hey I should try too joy ride a car like this when the owner trailered the car here.. if this was close too Florida I have an amazing lawyer that would leave them out too dry when he was done.

About 20 years ago, I took my resto-modded, big block, Nova SS to a reputable body shop to be painted after I’d spent 3 years rebuilding the car. Just for peace of mind, I installed an old quadrajet carb (with adapter plate) that i had laying around and I knew that the carb had a cracked main body which made it the equivalent of a 3500 rpm rev limiter. When I picked the car up from the shop, two of the employees complained to me (TO MY FACE!!!) that they couldn’t get it to rev up on a “test drive”, and they advised me that it needed carburetor work. The engine had billet valve covers, air cleaner, top notch ignition, belt drive system, bright coated headers, and all of the obvious high-dollar stuff, yet there was the old, discolored, crappy Q-jet sitting on top. Hahaha. Apparently, it had never crossed their minds that I might have put it on there just for them.

Yeah, I'm not inclined to believe that was an accident either. In my experience test drives are necessary for alignments, could just be the shop I go to but they've never actually had to take it for a spin. This case just smells like a joyride, countless cases like this happen when a tech or mechanic gets a performance vehicle in their shop.

Unreal! Thank you Caleb, for this video. Really opened my eyes to things that can happen, if you’re not vigilant and aware of things that can go wrong, leaving your car with just ANY shop. Sorry for Boomer! I’m here for him, if there’s ANYTHING I can do to help him get his car back to his liking. Can’t begin to imagine what he’s feeling at the moment. We work many hard and hard hours, to have our cars, the way we want them.

Number 1 reason my car never leaves my sight! Hate this for him!

Wow! This story really hit home. I'm pretty self-sufficient car wise and can do just about everything myself. Except a proper alignment. I ALWAYS hate taking a high performance car to these 'shops' to get worked on because most of them are jerks that just use it as an opportunity to light up your car. I had an IROC Camaro in 1988 or 89 I had just repainted and took it to get aligned. The guy opened the drivers door into something and I had a nice big chip in the middle to remind me everytime I got in it. Another time I had a Plymouth Satellite I put a 440 and 4 speed in. It was my daily. Took it to get aligned at a national chain shop in Va. and I here the guy pulling my car in just winging the throttle for 2 minutes! WTF! So this is my best story. This happened in 1996. I have a 1971 Plymouth GTX 440 6bbl, original car 46k miles. I've had the car a long time and was going through the suspension, changed everything and needed an alignment. Went to Monroe muffler brake. I told the guy 'I'll drive my own car in , I DON"T want a test drive afterwards or anything. NOBODY drives my car but me.' So he starts with the 'You can't drive it into our shop, insurance forbids it, we need to test drive it to check the alignment, that's standard blah blah" I said I'll wait here while you do the work. I didn't even get a chance to pull the car in myself. There was some greasy looking young 20-something kid working on some young mother's shit box rusted out Mercury Sable in the bay. He was just finishing it up, I hear this big crash out front. Turn around and the the punk didn't even make it out of the driveway on his 'test drive' with this shitbox Mercury and ran smack into another car passing on the road. About 25ft.The kid calmly gets out, goes into the shop and gets a dust pan and broom and starts sweeping up pieces of the car from the road like he's sweeping up dirt out of the shop like it's nothing. I yelled at the manager 'Give me my fvcking keys now!' He said 'Why?' 'Look out there! You guys are a bunch of clowns!' He says 'Wow, I've never seen that happen before.' I took my keys and left.

Good advice in this video. Be careful who you leave your pride and joy with!

This hurts to watch! Can't imagine losing my car this way.

Man I’m definitely adding a 3k rpm limiter to my quarterhorse. It’s not nearly as fast as that turbo coyote but it gets rowdy. Alignments do need a little test drive down the street but cmon, the damn thing looks like a 8 second car why hit it?

Back in ‘02, a paint shop took a joy ride and blew the motor on my Saab Sonett (bought from california with all the money I’d saved up from working as a mover until I was 17). It was my dream car, effectively totalled. By the end I was so burnt out with it I just donated it to Goodwill. My sincerest condolences to you. This type of betrayal stings on so many levels. Just remember it is only stuff. Keep a healthy frame of mind about it and hold your loved ones close. It will all blow over one day. I found that just starting fresh with a different vintage saab was the answer. And I eventually learned I preferred an entirely different body style anyways. However… foxbodies ftw!

This reminds me of the time I had to take my 1972, Ford F-100 in to have the transmission replaced. You talk about screaming and yelling at the shop owner, when I saw my truck come rolling into the lot sideways because the mechanic felt he had to hit rod it. And mind you I worked as a general automotive mechanic, in not one but two full service gas stations. And drove some expensive assed cars from Mercedes Benz, Corvettes, and other high end sports cars. Drove every one of those car’s like they was my grandmothers antique Chevy, and that I wouldn’t sit for a month if I damaged it. As if I’d ever damaged a customers car, I’d have been out of a job especially if it had been one of the state police car’s that came in to the shop.

I remember taking my fox for an oil change and heard them rev my car like crazy and told them to stop. When I got my car back the clutch was all the way to the floor. 😡 I freakin’ gave them a good rip and made them pay my new clutch and cable. 😡

I saw that beautiful car at HPR I can’t believe what I’m looking at my heart goes out to ya man

This is so sad. I've seen it where shops get away with damaging vehicles and not covering it because they say they aren't liable for it. The shop should and hopefully will have to cover the car and modifications that were in this car.

All points you said are spot on. I work at a dealership and there are car that come in for an alignment will drive the car but with kid gloves respect the time and money some one puts in their vehicle or let them drive you to make sure the customer is happy and properly taken care of.

Someone's head be split for sure. It was getting a alignment. I'm telling you I would flip tf out

How can it be that hard to have respect for other people's cars?

I had a 91 z28 convertible getting restored by Dames auto body in Wisconsin. The project was supposed to take 3 months for a full restore drivetrain, interior & exterior. I was moving out of state in 6 months so I agreed. It took 9 months which I moved and came back for it. The owner of the shop drove my car on several occasions, one being a comedy which my brother and friends stopped him and took they keys. No damage was done thankfully but I did have to find a new shop in Cleveland to finish the project for me which came out great in the end.

Great video. Thanks for posting this. Have a nice day.

I'd be f'n 🔥🔥🔥..! Somebody would definitely pay.! That damn car is pretty much totaled. Front end damage like that requires highly experienced technicians and a shop with top notch equipment to get it back stock form.

I had the 1st set of new tires put on my Brand New Mustang GT, they had the car in there possession for about 1.5 hours. I have the performance package Black painted wheels, those scumbags scratched up all 4 of my wheels and then tried to deny they did it. Long Story short it took over 2 months to get properly compensated for the repairs. They did more damage to my car changing tires than I did in 14K miles. (Pirelli P Zero tires are way to soft, they don’t last long) The Ford dealer had my car for warranty work and hit the front bumper against something scratching it. Makes you want to give up having something nice. It’s my 1st new car in over 40 yrs of dreaming about it. People are schmucks to put it nicely. 😞

What a unusual front end alignment.

Unfortunately you can’t trust shops to follow your requests. You don’t ever leave you prize in the hands of an incompetent tech. Great vid, sorry for your loss!

Exactly why I never leave my car. It’s unfortunate that people don’t respect peoples property.

All that blood, sweat, and tears, and love. God speed Boomer. I am heart broken for you.

Seeing these masterpieces being wrecked make’s me want to cry 😭 Be safe out there y’all.

As a shop owner when we get nice, modified, or custom stuff it gets handled by our master technician or myself only. There is absolutely no reason any of my staff would ever be behind the wheel of a car like this. Not to back it out of the shop, move it around the lot, or road test it. The only reason a car like that would go WOT is for someone to floor it and put it on the 2 step. They probably let go of the trans brake and it 60 footed into the back of that truck. I'm sorry this happened to your guy, I also race so I get it. Hope he gets it fixed!

I would be sick to my stomach if I was there in person. Smh. Any classic or sports car any car like this. I do a alignment on I let the customer drive the car with me. (Customer driving) so I know it goes straight. I'm sorry to hear I enjoyed watching you guys build this car.

When I was 21 I had a pretty nasty 92 300zx TT. Took it to the shop to get 2 rear tires put on and an alignment. I waited in the waiting room but I should've went in there and watched them. (I watch everytime now, even on my wife's minivan) As soon as I pulled out on the road I knew something wasn't right so I u-turned and pulled back in. Apparently one of them had a 300zx too because they had swapped out parts with oem ones. They changed my bov's, my ecu, and I can't remember what else. I called the cops but never did get my stuff back or anything...But I did go back months later and bust every window out of the shop that I could reach. Live and learn I guess.

Please keep us updated on this if you can. This is crazy messed up on all levels. WOW!!!!!

I wish our alignment shop was closer to you guys. We have a guy named Doug who works for Eurospec and he aligns the majority of high end heavily built cars in the Knoxville area. Does a great job and he’ll be doing my car today as well as mounting tires on some expensive wheels. Might be worth the road trip out here, hopefully they get everything squared away and he’s back on the track soon!

OMG! I can't believe that!! Message taken. Hagerty it is! No accident....straight neglegence!

so sorry to see this. I just went to the tire shop for a new set. They couldn't figure out how to start my car. I walked out there and told them I'm driving it in and out. I waited till they were done and drove it away. I dont trust shops and do any work on my car or drive it. Living out here in California they might not even have a license!

That’s why I’m glad my car only gets drove/serviced by Z1 Motorsports.

Never leave your ride period!!!!

Just happened to come across your channel seeing this thumbnail, watched the clip & had to check out Boomers channel also. Honestly, my heart is broken for the man. He comes across as one of the blokes that you rarely meet and then never forget. I envy him for showing discipline in containing himself upon learning that his baby (his words) was totalled. I recall this happening when I was a kid to Dads mate and 40 years later it's still fresh in my memory like yesterday. I really do hope that Boomer is ok and if I was in a position to supply another car I would, but I'm sure there's many like myself. Hope everything turns out for the better but it's an ugly process. Best wishes from Melbourne Australia...

As a trained investigator for car wrecks ( ill leave that to whom may guess my occupation). This is 100% negligence operation of the that vehicle, by the shop and/or technician. It obvious and i know most are aware, somebody wanted to sneak a joy ride and it ended up like this. Many questions need to be answered and it starts with the shop that did the work. They are 💯 responsible. Its very unfortunate that it’s likely the frame is junk and may never be right, true shame. My heart goes out to Boomer. So sorry brother!!! I pray for the best outcome and questions get answered. God speed P.s. my heart dropped to my stomach upon the crash scene footage

All of the tips you gave are spot on if you want to try and keep your car safe at different shops. Most people already have these in their cars but dash cameras are almost a must with a car like that and taking it somewhere just so whatever did happen it's on film and there is no room for any lies or questions it's just see this? Thats what you did now call your insurance guy and let him know you are at fault not me! Very handy tool!!

I’m glad I work at a shop and have access to all those Ac machines, lifts and alignment. I don’t take my car anywhere I couldn’t imagine letting a stranger work on my car at all

Sorry to hear/see that brother!! It’s clear that someone who went joy riding and lost control and this is the outcome. Saf to see this, and it was preventable. Don’t let just any shop work on your cars, use reputable companies with skilled professionals. This car can’t be replaced and he’s going to end up starting over or taking the money and a loss and move on with a broken heart. You can’t put a dollar value to the hard work, planning, buying and saving to buy. You have to have put one of the masterpieces together to know. Im sorry again brother but you will be ok. It’s just going to hurt for awhile.

Wow I would have freaked out if that was my car I work at a shop and I have respect for people's cars we have a couple people that bring high horse powered cars and me and my supervisor are the only ones that drive them in and work on them

Wow this is definitely a reality check for me as I'm currently trying to find a shop to build and install a 347 to put in my 98 explorer sport 2 door, it's amazing how there are shops out there that have absolutely NO RESPECT for somebody else's vehicle.

My friend owns an identical replica of the BTTF 2 Delorean. She put a fortune into it. She took it to get the motor worked on, literally an hour later it was destroyed because someone took it for a joyride. It would have had to be completely rebuilt from scratch. And that's a 40 year old car to begin with. To say she sued would be an understatement. Last she told me they're not responding to any legal matters. But she was fully insured, and there's no just replacing that thing. It was her dream to own one and it was literally destroyed.

Why did my heart drop and my eyes start watering like it was mine. I had to calm down.

Man this suck so bad...unfortunately irresponsible sh*t like this can happen at ANY shop. In my case it was nothing remotely as severe as this...thankfully. I'm in western TN and had an S197 GT convertible on full RideTech air suspension. I had to take the car in to the local ford dealership for a warranty repair on some body trim. They needed to keep it for a day and after picking the car up on the way home I noticed it was taking twice as long to fill the air tank. Upon inspection when I got home I found one of the two Viair compressors was no longer working and all my ride settings were messed with. I'm certain every tech in the service bay had to come push buttons and "play" with the air ride and the constant use over heated one of the compressors. Luckily the fuse blew and saved the compressor. I learned my lesson to lock the controller and take the key fob remote with me if I had to leave the car. Best of luck to Boomer...I hope he gets well soon and it all works out with the Fox.

Great video of you telling people that they should be careful and more diligent with their prized cars.

Back in 2010, I ordered a new 2011 Mustang GT. It was the first 5.0L Mustang that arrived at Adamson Ford in Bham AL, maybe the first 5.0 in the state. A day or two later I took it to get tinted. I was being very cautious of the recommended break in period and how it said not to pass 4000rpm. I told the shop owner this, I told him that I had written down the mileage, and not to let his guys drive it. When I came back, it had been driven. I think it was like 5-7 miles. I forget. Luckily no damage, but I’m sure they hammered on it. I still have the car, and it’s fine, but people are just assholes and don’t respect your things.

That’s why I tell the owners of cars I work on to keep the keys. I push them by hand in and out of the shop if needed

I had discount tire do this infront of me. Grabbed my keys with a loose control arm nut and did a massive fwd burnout in the parking lot expecting it was AWD but my PTU bearings where shot and not spinning the driveshaft. I ripped open the door to the shop and chewed his ass out. I only went with them because they replaced the shock when I couldn’t find a shop a few days after I noticed my wheel was turning when under throttle.

I have a 758 horse 40 Studebaker coupe gasser that I had to add 1/8th inch plate to the entire chassis for structural integrity,big job for a home builder with hand tools. Car was initially built in ‘60s so I had to upgrade brakes and ton of other stuff to make it safe. 8 years work and still haven’t hit the track with it yet,and won’t until myself and my helpers are completely satisfied that it is safe to run. I miss things that they point out. I’m a 60 year old former street racer that has learned from past mistakes. Do it right,or put it on a stand.

The joyriding part is one of the main reasons I'm not bringing my cars to repair shops, I do everything by myself, gathering the experiences myself. If I fix or try to fix someone elses car, then I make sure if I can drive it from one spot to another, if so, then I'm doing that in as short of a period as possible to avoind anything bad from happening.

Wow. Hopefully it can be fixed after everything y’all have put into it

I've had my 64 Nova aligned several times and it has a setup that would be tempting to play with. You first have to find a shop that specializes in aligning performance vehicles. Second, you stay at shop while it's being aligned. Third, while techs test drive cars after the alignment, the responsible ones won't drive your car any further than around the block to verify the alignment. They usually return to the shop within 10 minutes. If they drive it farther than around the block and disappear for an extended period of time than that may be an issue.

Sorry for your buddies car . I feel for him . I used to work at a shop years back where the owner had a bunch of racing buddies. We often times had very high HP drag cars come in for an alignment. Only the shop owner , one other tech or myself were allowed to work on these types of vehicles. One time we had a Hemi Cuda Convertible come in . I had to drive it when it was complete and the shop owner said , "If anything happens, just know I fired you before you took it out, so basically you stole it" ... then he smiled and walked away ... It was just his way ... The road test was uneventful

This is why I was glad that the mechanic who worked on my 400 hp subaru, I knew this personally. Then when I had to go from Florida to Washington state I knew a mechanic there who replaced the knocking engine on my subaru with the new one. He drove it to and from work for a week to put miles on it and start breaking it in for me. I'm lucky I knew both of them. I don't plan on leaving my car with any other shop unless I'm sitting there with it.

I don’t even like to leave my daily’s alone at the dealer for a state inspection. I trust no one with my stuff.

We need the shops name if they don’t cover this cost 100%

One thing we do where I work with high value and even low value cars is have the owner test drive the vehicle with one of the mechanics with them, we have found it to be effective as the owner knows how the car feels and how they want it too and a mechanic knows what to listen out for...

Just seeing this made me numb...not a good way to start the summer, I hope this is all dealt with in a swift manner Good Luck Man

I can tell you from experience I know this shop personally and their employees. Those idiots would NOT touch my bicycle because I have personally seen some of their lack of experience and care of the vehicle being serviced.Ive also seen their lack of technical experience and knowledge. I would sue the hell out of them and make them own their mistake.by them saying that the engine went to (WOT) is absolute Bullshit.anyone who knows anything about cars is that that can't happen with being told to do so.this is definitely going to hurt their business and it should open people's eyes as to what might be happening to their vehicle.I felt absolutely sick to my stomach when I saw that video and it's not even my car!

Such a beautiful car!!!

Mustangs are already tough to control so let's add more power. MORE! >:0

I don't know what I would have done in his situation finding my car that way . Hope you get things sorted out in your favor. I know how legal shit goes sometimes

I'd be kicking some ass.hope all works out for your friend.thanks for sharing 😎

We had a local cop who partied at a shop that serviced the State Trooper vehicles... got lit up and thought taking a Trooper cruiser for a joyride would be the thing to do. That little trip cost him his job, 7 days in jail and six months probation... but at least he didn't wreck the car.

When I worked at a shop in college we did some high end show cars to drag cars and farm stuff to beaters, the owner of the shop pulled in the high end stuff, there was one drag truck that came all the time that the boss would let us pull in, I don’t know how fast it was because we had enough sense to respect other people stuff.

So sad! Makes me sick that jerks would do this to someone. I’d be in jail. I would never leave my car alone anywhere out of sight. I hope hecan sue for the many hours of labor. Thanks for the tips.

This is exactly why when I get alignment work done it’s on 3lbs of boost and a 3k rev limiter.

That WAS a beautiful Stang, I love the old Fb's and GT's, owned a 96 same color as the one in the video. Truly one of the funnest cars to drive, and to own. Hope this guy gets his car repaired, sad..

I’m crying I love that fox body 😢

It would be cool to have a tune for the car when getting it serviced. Turn off the boost and have the rev limiter set to 3 or 4 grand.

This is why I have not taken any vehicle to a shop in 25 years. As society continues to collapse, people get worse and worse and you can bet on stuff like this happening every damned time. And yes I have an EPA license and AC service equipment can be rented.

I used to do custom suspension work at night and worked as a alignment tech during the day. I didn't want to do them but we got such a good reputation it just happened. Now you do need to test drive things after but when it came to custom hot rods and fast cars we gave them 3 options. Either no test drive and no guarantees it doesn't pull etc, they can drive and I'd ride or they ride along. Rarely did I want to take a car without them but a few knew me and didn't care but I still recorded the test drive to cover my ass. Like I said I didn't want to be tied to the rack because it didn't pay that well but we ended up charging more and the customers didn't care because they knew it'd be done right and be properly cared for and people drove hours sometimes because of the service.

The shop I’m at has a regular customer with an Infiniti something or another that’s full custom built. Has a nice wrap, aftermarket rims, it has air suspension, etc. he comes in pretty regularly for a custom alignment bc he likes his wheels cambered out a lot. He has crystal clear instructions on how we handle this car. He parks it in the back of our shop right in front of the alignment rack, he requires that we wash our hands/arms rly well before getting in the car, and we have to use a seat cover and a floor mat. And when the alignment is finished, he test drives it for himself. He doesn’t like other people driving his car around I totally understand that and so does our shop. This type of thing should’ve never happened if it was a responsible and respectful shop

A big Damn of feel so bad for Boomer, and his sweet Foxbody racecar. Under no circumstances should anyone drive a vehicle like this without supervision of some sort. I have seen something similar from a actual dealership that was joyriding a highly modified 4WDR Dodge Ram truck w/twin turbo 900 plus HP, they didn't wreck it, but they did donuts and ripped out rear end gears and major damage to the auto trans. It's a true shame stuff like this happens, really it shouldn't ever happens.

I've never been to an alignment shop that drove my vehicle after alignment. I would hold them liable for this 100%

I've had this happen twice. I once sold a 1995 Cobra 331 V2 about 500 rwhp (Dupont Extreme Rainbow Paint). The shipping company Truck driver took for a joyride, smashed it all up. Luckily they gave the guy I sold it to a bunch of money since it was insured. The second time I had a stock 1999 SC40 (Super rare, only 900 sold in the US of that year). A alignment shop worker smashed the rear quarter somehow, they paid to get it fixed plus gave me some money (They were cool all things considered). I sold the car right after because it had bondo, and I no longer wanted it. It just sucks, these things happen but try to do everything yourself is my motto. Mechanics are dishonest people by nature (I was one for 10+ years), only a small few will respect your car.

I worked for a large tire store as a lube/tire tech. I refused to work on a z06, and a couple other high end cars that came in. I always had the "shop manager " bring them in and put on the lift. Like a lot of good mechanics, I didn't work there long

I missed the bullet when I hired an alignment shop to align my low 11 second aspirated VW Bug. I drove the car off the trailer and helped push it onto the alignment rack. After the alignment was completed, the technician said he needed to take a short drive to verify the settings. Foolishly I agree. The Asshat went up the street and around the corner on a cold engine, where I could hear him hit the rev-limiter 3 times. I was more than pissed off. I went to my truck and retrieved a tire thumper, with the thought of dislodging the thought blockage from his ignorant brain. Long story short, after the shitshow cleared, the manager asked that I just load the car and call him should I discover any engine damage. Fortunately no detectable damage was discovered. Today, I remain a free man, as the need to evacuate the technicians brains went without redress.

If i rolled up on my car like this....Someone would have gotten an ass beating like never b4! Right in the intersection, as soon as my feet hit the ground! And secondly, a peddle don't go wide open by itself... this pissis me off and I couldn't tell you who Boomer is if he was standing 1 foot from me, but I'm sick for you brother.

Brought my Dodge Neon to a mechanic for a rear main seal replacement and got it back with a blown turbo and an engine knock. When I brought the car in it had a bad head gasket and was running a little rough because it needed a tune to support the mods I had. When I got it back the car didn't even have enough power to run in 3rd gear and there was oil being blown out the exhaust. I had no proof that it didn't have these issues beforehand and when I took it back they said it needed a new transmission, engine, and turbo without taking any responsibility. I replaced the turbo and head gasket myself but I still need to sort out some things before I can start it. I've shown video to a couple of master mechanics of the knocking sound and they said it sounded like it just had bad timing. Hopefully they didn't fuck up my car too bad, wish me luck. Oh and I forgot to mention but they did actually fix the rear main seal which was leaking horribly...so props to them?

I brought one of my bmws to get an alignment at a shop near me that I had used a million times on normal customer cars. My bmw had a v8 and some fun mods and a 6-speed, and when I dropped it off I was a little worried someone might try beating on it for the test drive. They called me about 30 minutes after I dropped it off and said the clutch was blown. The clutch and flywheel had about 3000 miles and I drove the car in with no signs of issues. It was an aluminum 13lb flywheel on a car that had a 50lb dual mass flywheel on it originally making it a little tricky to get going. When I got there the smoke was still clearing from the driver trying to drive it back to the shop and absolutely smoking all the relatively new and quite expensive parts. They wouldn't give me anything and said it was a "hot potatoe" mechanical situation. Which I couldnt disagree with, if the clutch just all the sudden stopped working, then yes it's on me and I would come pick the car up with a trailer. My issue came with the test driver smoking the hell out of everything and causing enough damage that it all had to be replaced, luckily the flywheel had a replaceable friction plate which saved a ton of money. But I defintly learned a lesson about dropping a fun car off at a shop. Never leave it. I worked at a performance shop years later, and I refused to drive a customer car hard without them giving a written ok through text or email or having them there to watch over it or just drive it themselves. I worked on track cars and sometimes you have to lean on them a little to test functionality or for diagnostic purposes, but I would never feel right doing it without the owner knowing exactly what I was going to do and why. You don't mess up someone's pride and joy.

Wow, that’s horrible. Keep us updated if you can. You have to be mindful of what the car is capable of at all times.