Peeve Farm

g r o t t o 1 1

Peeve Farm
Breeding peeves for show, not just to keep as pets

Brian Tiemann
Silicon Valley-based purveyor of a confusing mixture of Apple punditry and political bile.

btman at grotto11 dot com

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Thursday, July 7, 2005
12:02 - Epilogue	(top)
I got my car back today. And I have got to say that I am thoroughly impressed by Bob Lewis' commitment to keeping my business. Recall that the resolution to the month-old car debacle was that Bob Lewis would replace my faulty alternator and battery cables for free�a service they'd quoted (with some obvious markup) at $1000. I gave them the car on Tuesday. Well, yesterday morning I got a call directly from the shop foreman, who explained to me that as it turns out the alternator was in fact fine... and the faulty charging of the battery that I'd been enduring for the past three weeks since the first service at Bob Lewis was to be laid entirely upon the battery cables, which were corroded and falling apart to the point that hardly any charge was getting through them. Now, since Bob Lewis had already agreed to do $1000 worth of free service for me, the foreman�at Mr. Director Man's behest, according to the final paperwork�placed himself entirely at my disposal. He asked me whether there was anything I wanted replaced�any little things I'd wanted to get fixed for a long time and never got around to it? He'd take care of anything I could think of. "Well," I said, "there are some interior pieces here and there�" "You mean like the door pull on the driver's side door? Done." Wow. "Okay.... well, then there's also the dome light assembly, which they once quoted me as being like a $200 replacement to fix the whole unit�" "Done. Anything else?" "Uh... the rear cuphold�" "Done." By the time I hung up, he'd volunteered to fix a laundry list of niggling little things I seldom even thought of, but that always sort of bugged me when I noticed them�and also promised to drive the car around for about twenty miles once everything was hooked up, ensuring that nothing whatsoever would surprise me on my way off the parking lot. They'd keep it one extra night to get everything taken care of. And I picked it up this morning. As I was signing out the car and reading over the invoice full of repairs listed under "ALL GOODWILL", the shop foreman materialized at my elbow, shook my hand, and discussed everything he'd done�and volunteered further free stuff for me to bring the car in for before the Alaska trip, such as an oil change with good synthetic, realignment of the front wheels (they'd been wobbling a teensy bit), replacement of the stereo head unit, and anything else I find between now and then. "Oh, and we did a thorough detailing job, too�got everything all sparkly like new again. My card is in the center console," he said. "E-mail me, and let's be in touch." I thanked him for all his attention to detail and willingness to help. "No problem," he replied. "I was happy to do it." And I went out and sat down in the car�and he was right, it did indeed feel like an entirely new car. They'd Armor-All'd every interior surface to hell and back, and everything that had any scratches�from plastic door pull pieces to vent faceplates to the ignition key socket�had been replaced. They'd brushed down my seats so there was no lint clinging to them (as there had been since approximately ten minutes after I first bought the car). They'd fixed the dome light, the rear cupholder, replaced the winshield wipers�I popped the hood once I got back to work, and to my shock they'd cleaned up the engine bay to the same finish level as the interior, the VW logo bright blue again, the VR6 badge gleaming again like new. They'd replaced the broken connector on the MAF sensor. They'd cleaned off all the dust. They'd replaced and repaired the plastic housings around the battery, which had been sort of falling into a shapeless mass over the years. They'd clearly made this car their #1 priority for the whole past day, and damn if they don't want me coming back for service in the future. And yes, the idle problem seems to have gone away now. Driving back to work I couldn't help screeching away from the line a couple of times, like I'd done for months when the car was new, and grinning ear-to-ear, singing doggerel. Holy crow, how I do love this car. Even when it costs me money and time and makes me doubt my own sanity. I just can't imagine driving something else. It'll be mine for at least another year or two. At least. UPDATE: And yet, I do still plan to learn how to do some future repairs on my own. I've got this thing now, so I can pull out the spark plug wires and take off the engine cover. And then we'll see what's what.