Freak Magnet Dave

Last night was the night to pick up the new (to me) car. I arrived at the appointed time, met with my salesman and signed all the required paperwork.

"One thing I wasn't able to do," he said, "was to touch up the chips in the paint that we were going to do for you because it's too cold to do it right now. The paint won't dry and cure properly. So here's a bottle of touch-up paint that you can use when we get a warm day or if you have a garage you can do it in there."

Alright, not a big deal, I can dab with the best of them. Ya, I know, the thought hit me later... they're a freakin' car dealership. Surely they could have pulled it into a bay for a bit to do that like they said they would.

They also replaced the front windshield because the old one had a small crack in it. Bonus for me because man, is it ever clear. That reminds me, I have to see when I can remove the lovely masking tape that keeps it in place until the silicone sets up.

The night we took it for the test drive, the light that lets you see the clock, radio and heat settings was not working. The salesman made a note for the service department to fix that. Yep, that's right, it still isn't working.

"Try the heater and make sure it's working," he said.
"It's working," I said, "I just can't tell what temperature it's set to or what mode it's on."
I told him that it didn't feel like any heat was blowing from the central vents.
"Switch to recirculating."
"And how do I tell if it's on recirculating without being able to see it?"

We'll make a note of that little problem. It was a bit of a pain driving home and not having my central control system working. What radio station was I listening to? Do I have my heater on the right setting? Now I know what blind drivers feel like.

OK, it's all a bit frustrating. I have to go back today when the business partner gets in so they can work on it. I'll have a loaner for the day...or until they get it done. I'm sort of dreading what that loaner might be. I remember one time, at band camp...no, that's another story entirely.....many years ago a part of a tree fell on my Nissan (pieceofcrap) Pulsar during an ice storm, and I had to have some work done. You know, new hood, new paint job. While it was in the shop, they provided me with a "loaner". In my opinion, anyone who would drive such a car would have to be a "loner". I think it was something like a Pacer or Gremlin or some such thing. It was about eight tones of brown, due to being Frankenstein-ed from many, many other vehicles. It had an AM radio that gave nothing but static, and the heater didn't work. This was in the middle of winter, folks. In Canada. Holy cow, where was I?

When I arrived home last night, I thought I'd just look at the owner's manual and perhaps find that it might just be a fuse causing the lighting problem. I opened the glove compartment and there was....nothing. No owner's manual. Stay down, blood pressure, stay down.

So I have a little list in my hand of the things that need to be addressed when I go in today. If they can't get it fixed today, I'll have this loaner until Saturday. As long as it's not that same car from many years ago I'll be OK.

FRIDAY UPDATE:

All is well. I took the car in, they gave me a nice new Civic as my rental, and I made my way back to work for an hour or two before they called to let me know my car was ready. The control panel is working, and now that I can see the heater modes, I discovered that the central vents do, in fact, work. I just needed to know what setting it was on. I'm just waiting for a manual to show up. The salesman told me something interesting. He said about 1 in 5 cars that gets traded in has the manual with it. I was stunned. Where the hell do people put them? Doesn't everyone keep them in the glove box or is it just me? My business partner told me that the manual for their new car is under their bed because his partner has been reading it in bed. They drive a Mini...maybe they just needed the extra space. ;o)