The victor will always judge the defeated, and always find him guilty.
--Goering, during the Nuremberg Trials--
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--Goering, during the Nuremberg Trials--
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I mentioned I'd been driving tin cans, used cars, and a Dodge wheelchair mini-van for the past 45 years. With the exception of the van (needed for Jay) they were always the cheapest but still dependable thing I could find. Hal is my first brand new luxury car. I am just now finding out what that means.
The van has a lot of fancy do-dads on it, so some of Hal's bells and whistles didn't impress me. The service does. Wow. There's a big difference between the BMW service garage and the local independent garage, or the Ford or Chevy or Dodge service garages. Or even Mazda, for that matter (the BMW dealership is the same complex that used to be Mazda - I bought a Mazda GLC hatchback there in 1983).
There seems to be a loose wire in the driver-side speaker, so Hal had his first service visit today.
I don't have a key for Hal. I have what looks like a remote thingy that locks and unlocks, and allows me to push the button to start the motor. Actually, I have two thingies, meant for two drivers, and each of them remembers the settings for the seats, temperature, mirrors, radio, and so on for the driver who uses that particular thingy.
When I got to the BMW service area, the guy stuck my thingy in a reader box on his PC, and it gave him all kinds of info, including my name, address, phone number, service and warranty info on the car, mileage, and heaven only knows what else.
They also gave me a new BMW (about the same size as Hal) to use until Hal is released.
Every other service garage I'd ever seen had a greasy oily cement floor. This place was paved with sparkling clean foot-square beige ceramic tiles.
About 1 in 6 times I've taken a car in for service, I've got it back with grease on the seat belts from mechanic's hands. I've actually had clothing ruined by it. Today, a mechanic walked into the reception area while I was there, and he was removing his latex surgical gloves.
I'm finding that "the rich" aren't different, but "they" sure get treated differently. I could get used to this. I could even get addicted to it, which might explain the crazy things that people do when they are in danger of losing it. I'm amused that owning a BMW gets you "rich" treatment, even just on the streets, but the interesting thing is that you don't have to be rich or classy or "better" to own one - just very foolish will do.
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2 comments:
Then again, there are the snotty people (uh...like me) who won't give a Mercedes a break in traffic.
But I'm glad you're so happy with Hal. :)
My brother who lives on Long Island has been a mechanic for many years. So long now that he just made store manager at a brand new Mavis Discount Tire in Huntington on Long Island.
For as long as I can remember, my bro has worn latex surgical gloves when working on cars, simply to protect his hands from grease. My dad, grandfather and uncle who all worked on cars had grease permanently embedded in the creases of their hands, their knuckles, as well as around and under their finger nails. My brother, who has been working as a professional, full-time mechanic for at least a decade, has beautiful hands.
I'm sure the not getting grease on the customer's car is also a benefit of the practice of wearing gloves. That never occurred to me until reading this post.
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