Altima

Make
Nissan
Segment
Sedan

Dropping off your car overnight at a car dealership requires a certain level of trust on the dealer's part. Their job is to resolve whatever issue an owner discovered in a timely manner. And it'll be done for free if the vehicle is still under warranty. Sounds straightforward enough, right? That's what a 2017 Nissan Altima owner from Ontario, Canada thought until he learned otherwise.

According to Global News, Frank Statti brought his Altima to the dealership last March because the backup camera was intermittently failing. This is the same dealer where he bought the car new a few years ago, so he had no reason to be concerned.

But on a whim a few hours later, he decided to check his phone's car monitoring app and discovered the car had been driven nearly 60 miles from the dealer. What's more, it was driving way too fast (92 mph) than legally allowed. This gave Statti the impression his car had been stolen and called the police. The car was found a few hours later exactly at the GPS location provided by the app.

It turned out the car hadn't been stolen but was taken for a late-night joyride by one of the dealer's technicians. All because of a malfunctioning backup camera? The dealer claims it had Statti's permission to allow a technician to take the car home to better assess the problem, apparently a common practice. Statti denies he ever gave permission for the car to leave the dealership.

When he confronted the dealer manager, the guy not only refused to apologize but kicked Statti out of his office and threatened to call the police because the car had a tracking device installed and, therefore, illegally tracked his employee. That transponder was installed not long before at the request of Statti's new insurance company who uses the technology to monitor driving habits. Now, his provider thinks he's out driving at high speeds in the middle of the night, a bad habit that could increase the insurance premium.

And to add insult to injury, the dealer outright refused to pay for the additional fuel consumption. Nissan Canada is apparently aware of the incident and is arranging for Statti to bring his car to another dealer. The backup camera still hasn't been fixed.