Wednesday, July 19, 2006

The Need for Speed



Just lately my car has felt as bit under powered. It's very difficult to be sure though. It can still manage to cruse along the motorway at a bit over the speed limit so it clearly isn't a major problem, but I have found myself being out accelerated by cars which I would not expect my 2 litre turbo diesel to be left standing by. I'm talking Nissan Micra's and VW Polo's. Anyway, I wasn't too worried because the ol' jalopy was due for a 36,000 mile service and I hoped that this would sort out my embarrassing little problem.

I have been using the BMW Heathrow (HR Owen) for servicing for over 10 years and they absolutely rule. Not only have they never put a foot wrong in terms of the standard of their servicing but they also pick up the car from work and drop it back before the end of the day - so no queueing or waiting for me. They also wash the car AND valet the interior. If they would only put the car seat back in the position I left it before they took it then they would be perfect.

So today they came and picked up the car as courteous as normal. However, at about 4pm I got a call. "Hi it's Fred at BMW Heathrow, I'm glad to say that the oil change and break service has all gone fine. When we plugged in the diagnostic computer it reported that the air compressor do-jam-ma-flip* (*not the actual name of the part he mentioed - can't remember what it was) needs replacing. We think this is the cause of your performance problem and why people are laughing at you when you are left at the lights by Smart Cars* (*He may not have said the last bit). Unfortunately since replacing the new part your car won't start.". Gah! They have broken my pride and joy. Fred* (*not his real name) started explaining that I would not be left in the lurch and that they would make sure that I had a replacement vehicle if they couldn't fix it. Fred was doing a good job and I felt he was looking after me properly and he was only slightly undermined when I heard his technician in the background say "I don't know why the f*ckin thing won't start. Let's just reboot the f*ucker.". So they rebooted my car and I got a call from Fred 15 minutes later to say the car was now fine. It's just like I remember when I worked in support :-) Bring on the Smart cars!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's wrong with Micras?

I blame the driver!

Sue

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