Of one thing I’m certain: it’s a man thing. It’s amazing how we can value our motor mechanic relationship higher than the one with our doctor. In both cases finding just the relationship that works is very difficult. So many of us prize our cars and we want someone who is knowledgeable and sympathetic to care for our pride and joy.
How ridiculous can our obsession get? I once had a Volkswagon Scirroco that I prized to the extreme. Each evening when I got home I would give it a wipe over, put it in the garage, then cover it. How dopey is that? It’s a car! It’s a utility that gets me from A to B and back again. It will get dirty and scratched and pranged and dented, and worse. That is the nature of the game. But, there I was treating it as though it were a live thing, with the greatest of Tender Loving Care. Women can only wish that we men take the same degree of care and attention with them. Like I said, it’s a silly man thing.
Like so many things, there comes a time when we have to trust to others to take care of business, and so it was when my car came to a full stop suffering from a broken hose spilling a lot of boiling hot water into the street. I did the natural thing by calling a grua, (tow-truck) to pick it up and take it to my trusted garage. I called them to say what had happened, fully expecting that as they were the authorised dealer they would figure out where the break had taken place, and to fix it. Wrong! Big mistake! A 700 euro mistake, as it turned out.
They put the water system under pressure but no water appeared to escape, so they changed the radiator and a pump, as being the most likely culprits. I drove the car away only to find that it was having the same problem I went in with. Back it went to have the problem taken care of, but now we have a new problem. I have paid a bill for 700 euros (910 dollars) for things that I did not need at the time to be changed. Granted, a new radiator and pump would add life to my old car, and if I actually had that much money that I would not miss, there would not have been a problem. But, in these days, or even in the good old times, a 700 euro mistake is a big one.
I take my car to an authorised dealer because they are supposed to have the equipment and the experience to avoid guessing. I can get guessing at a much less cost. My mechanic guessed and got it completely wrong, at my cost. Now that the parts are on the car, would it have been reasonable to ask that they be removed and the original be put back, assuming that the originals were available? Probably not!
Well, now we know that the leak was coming from the heating element and water went everywhere when it was hot. When the water was cold it simply went inside my car where it went undetected under my carpets. Could this really have been the first time something like that had occurred? If it should ever happen to me again I will be sure to check that possibility out.
When your doctor lets you down and you die, that’s just one of those things. When your mechanic lets you down and you lose your faith, that’s the end of the world!
Copyright © 2009 Eugene Carmichael
