Maybe I'll be there to shake your hand

[austin_dern]

My car came up for its 5,000-mile servicing Tuesday. Actually, my dealer was ready for it a couple weeks back and e-mailed me hoping I'd make an appointment, but the time I'd spent with bunny_hugger disrupted their extrapolation of when I'd need servicing enough that there wasn't any point in making that appointment. I did last week call to make an appointment, and they warned me I couldn't get one before this week, which was fine as that was what I wanted. It will not surprise anyone who knows the obsessive-compulsive nature of my personality that I want to get these services done as close as possible to exactly on the 5,000 mile mark; this time, alas, I missed by about 15 miles. (I'm really spoiled from having been off just the one mile once.)

Of course I went after work, which has some benefits --- it's relatively convenient, I suppose --- and some drawbacks. The main drawback is somehow I'm always the last car finished for the night. I can't explain this; even when it's just the little change with oil being changed and fluids being topped up I know I'll be around the waiting room until even the people who came in after me get finished. Maybe they sense my generally laid-back and unrushed nature. Maybe my carrying books to read while trying to ignore the excessively loud TV makes me look like the guy who can be put lowest on the priority scale.

But it was finished and in good shape, I think. They told me when it was finished that my car was in parking space B20, by the side of the building, and even wrote the spot number on my receipt. I walked out to the side and there was B23, B22, B21, B20 ... and nothing there. I could see many cars, none of them remotely mine. I tried walking around the building some clicking my key's remote so I might see the lights flashing or something, and considered hitting the panic button.

It turns out the dealer not only has a parking space labelled ``B20'' in the paint on the pavement, but it has another parking lot, on the opposite side, labelled ``B'' with just the number ``20'' in the appropriate space there. My car was in the other ``B20''. I wonder if I should tell them about letters other than B which might serve for parking lot identification ses.

Trivia: In 1822 the Royal Society of Arts offered a prize of 50 guineas ``to whoever could grow and prepare the greatest quantity of China tea in the British West Indies, Cape of Good Hope, New South Wales, or the East Indies''; the prize was never awarded. Source: A History Of The World In 6 Glasses, Tom Standage.

Currently Reading: Aspects Of The Novel, E M Forster. Oooh. I like his functional differentiation of the story from the plot. (Story: ``the king died and then the queen died''; Plot: ``the queen died, no one knew why, until it was discovered that it was through grief at the death of the king''.)

Comments

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I don't know how you could get your appointments scheduled that exactly. I consider it good if I get them done within 1,000 miles of the due date. I mean, I drive 130 miles every time I go up to campus and back, and I'm not going to call in sick because they can't do my service until the weekend.

You do really mystify me sometimes, you know.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I don't know that this is all that odd a habit, except for my liking to get it as near the nominally right number as possible. But my commute is nominally about 30 miles one-way, and from work it's suspiciously near 30 miles to the dealer or to yoga. The dealer or yoga to home is just about 20 miles; the library or bookstore about 5 and the movie theater about 10. With surprisingly little jiggering this particular McNugget Problem lends itself to a lot of approximate solutions, particularly since I get so few unexpected side trips.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

My car appointment mileages are generally +/-200 miles to the schedule, whatever I think the car can bear. At least the oil changes have gone from recommended 3K to 5K to 7.5K over the years (I still took mine in at 6.5K because I got antsy about going that long).

My dealer offers WiFi along with blaring Fox News television. My last 'had to wait' appointment was spent enjoying youtube cartoon videos on the iPod Touch, and posting snarky comments about the news program to Twitter.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

I used to get my oil changes at ever 3K very diligently, but that was when they were Free Oil Changes For Life! at the dealer. Alas, the car has outlasted the dealer. I do so about every 5K now, and could probably let it go much more.

My dealer (Which is not where I get oil changes) also offers Wifi but theirs is locked down oddly. I can;t get to anywhere through a web browser, but I can open Pidgin and KildClient and talk to people, which is pleasant enough.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I was less regular about the mileage of the oil change with the old car, but since I have got routine maintenance for the Scion there doesn't seem much reason not to use it. The vaguely scolding Service light helps drive me to the planned schedule, of course.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

While driving home on the interstate at 10:30 pm my wife's Fiesta flashes one of those unintelligible little icons that is supposed to warn you of something or another. She tells me that she thought it was the oil light (ack! and she drove it for 30 miles). It was indeed an oil icon, with a wrench floating over it just to make it more scary to me... but it was meant to signify that the car was due soon for maintenance: maintenance it just had, but because the icon was tripped by mileage not yet reached it couldn't be circumvented.

Anyway, the book told me how to shut the stupid light (idiot light?) off.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Scary, yeah. Nobody seems to have figured out how to put up a ``routine service due soon'' message that doesn't look more scary than it should. And I don't mind ``idiot lights'' being simple things --- most car needs are either painfully simple or ``you ought to get a skilled mechanic to look at this'' --- but the vocabulary of those lights needs to be improved.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

Too bad your dealer went out of business; what a sweet deal that was :o)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yeah. But who expect buffet-style pricing for car stuff?

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Quite so! Albeit having my car there regularly meant they could occasionally give me dire warnings of Expensive Trouble, but one had to expect that and decide what was quite ignorable for another 50,000 miles.

--Chi

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

My dealer offers wi-fi, doughnuts, and rides home. Unfortunately, I also always felt as though they were upselling me all the time, so as of my last service I started taking it to an independent mechanic recommended by a friend. Honda has my current Civic on a 10K maintenance schedule, but I also think they're being silly. My old Civic was on a 15K schedule and I say "good enough" and that's what I've been doing. In between, I take the car to one of those little places on the corner for the oil changes.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Mine offers coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, and some kind of food although when I come after work it's anyone's guess hither anything but packets of Graham crackers will be left. I think there's wi-fi, but since I bring my iPad it doesn't matter. They like leaving Fox News on at ear-shattering levels, and usually I'll it for the people who arrived ahead of me to leave before asking the other waiting people if I might turn it down. They're always fine with it, and I turn it off.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I forgot to mention the free doughnuts and unlimited coffees- odd things to offer impatient clients already stressed over the pending bill.

I returned to my car dealer for service and repairs after things started going wrong at my local mechanic. I know there are probably better deals around, but they know the cars, stock the parts, and have been there when needed in emergency repair situations.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I was going to say, by the time the caffeine kicks in the customers are probably out the door but then remembered, no, they might be there a couple hours and getting more nervous all the time.

I wonder if they don't just slip decaf in everything and pretend it's regular coffee.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

The new dealer (In the new building of the old dealer) offers the coffee and tea for free, but snacks and sodas are in this vending machine, $1 or $1.50, thank you for paying. (I get by with coffee.)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I wonder why it's always Fox News blaring on waiting room TVs. It must have some volumes other than blaring, even if we allow for whoever rules waiting room TVs having awful taste.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

The Honda dealership here does the Fox News thing too!

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

It's got to be people astroturfing for Fox News on the theory that if they just annoy enough people in public they'll somehow become more credible.

[edlunybiv.livejournal.com]

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