The only real problem I’ve ever had occurred at the dealership in Deerfield Beach, Florida. I was in for a routine maintenance check-up, my car was atop a lift and I was reading something while in the waiting mode.
A supervisor drifted my way and, slowly explained there had been an accident and somehow another car on another lift had smashed my right front door.
He waited for the explosion. After all you really don’t expect to have an accident at your dealership.
I laughed. In fact I laughed several times.
He suddenly appeared calmer than he had been. I immediately gathered it wasn’t often, in these troubling times, that he faced a friendly lunatic.
I was still laughing.
I was informed I wouldn’t be charged for the damage, they would provide a rental car and I would receive free oil changes until Hell became heavily involved in Global Cooling.
I kept laughing.
I also waited half an hour for a ride to Enterprise Car Rental and another hour to complete the forms and for them to receive approval from the Psychiatric Department at North Broward Hospital from where, according to their looks, I had escaped.
I was still laughing.
It was only a few months old then and even now the odometer claims less than 19,000 miles. I drive to go to my stable of physicians and shop at Publix. Also to get gas once a year at Chevron.
I’m almost 83 and have the usual run of infirmities plus a disposition that makes me laugh when my car is injured at the dealership.
I guess I have a bad attitude.
I like my Corolla. It stays outside while my wife’s new Honda Accord is afforded the luxury of the garage.
It was damaged again, ever so slightly, as I backed out of a Handicapped Parking spot, by another elderly gent. The cost, covered by insurance, came to $1900. If it came to that amount while I was doing 5 Miles Per Hour I can only guess what it would amount to at a truly high speed of 30 MPH.
But back to Toyota and the runaway cars.
This is a minority opinion but my Guess is there is less here than meets the eye.
Ralph Nader: Do you have any proof to offer that Toyota is blameless?
Langer: None. Maybe even less than none.
Nader: Why are you “protecting” Toyota?
Langer: I agree with everybody that there have been serious problems. Fatal problems. I am neither a Birther, Tea Bagger or Toyota Denier.
Nader: Please drivel on.
Langer: We have owned French cars (Simca), British Cars (Triumph, Austin Healey Sprite), Japanese cars (Honda Accord, Datsun Wagon, Nissan Maxima) and too many American models to mention. I loved several Pontiacs and a 1957 DeSoto that stopped in the middle of a tunnel on the East Side Drive in New York City. It was replaced with a new Simca. $1800.
Nader: Is there a point here?
Langer: For some years now American car manufacturers have produced fairly shoddy products. I’m talking GM, Ford and Chrysler. (And yes they are doing better currently.) I guess I can’t get it through my head that these problems – some even worse – didn’t happen to GM, Ford or Chrysler drivers. Call it a hunch.
Nader: That’s it?
Langer: Yup.
Nader: Langer you’re an idiot.
That may well be (the idiot part) but I have to add another experience dating back to the 1970s and the first energy crunch facing our nation.
We were living in Pennsylvania, had a lot of land, plenty of trees (Hickory, Maple, Oak) and like others of our ilk traded in our gas guzzlers for more responsible vehicles and wood stoves.
I chopped wood and heated our house for a bit over a year before moving back to Florida. It was great fun and our Dalmatian and I would sit and discuss wood preferences. I was for Maple but she voted for Hickory. We compromised on Oak.
Since I am now cane-activated I look back on those days as our Golden Age.
On the other hand we purchased two VW Rabbits, the two worst cars ever produced in this or any other world. One was white, the other was red.
Both had a tendency to stop in the middle of nowhere and wait for AAA to haul us to the dealership. (Pottstown VW in case you’re interested; don’t send my regards.)
The song and dance would begin and end with us providing a check for $250. OK every now and then it was $230.
You may ask why I didn’t yell and scream? I have no response to that question.
I did ask; we invariably returned to the well rehearsed song and dance and I wrote a reasonably valid check.
I called VW Regional Headquarters in King of Prussia, PA.
Song and Dance.
I called the President of the United States. (OK I didn’t do that but it sounds better than simply paying up.)
We moved to Florida and the cars stopped Here and There.
We traded in the cars for advanced Japanese models.
Life was good.
Five years later VW admitted there were electrical problems with their Rabbits and cash was available to current owners.
We were not Current Owners.
Nixon resigned, Carter read Peanuts, Reagan fired the air controllers, Bush the Elder, Clinton the seducer, Bush the Younger, Obama the Dreamer.
Vietnam, Iraq I, Iraq II, Afghanistan I and II.
I’ll be 83 next month and still drive a Toyota Corolla. (2006 model, 19,000 miles.)
PS: In the early 1970s my wife purchased one of the brand new Datsun models – a reddish wagon. She would drive to the dealer for maintenance. No charge. I owned a new Pontiac. I would drive to the dealer for maintenance. Lots of charges. I am an idiot.
Warren Langer
http://warrenlanger.wordpress.com
warren-langer@att.net
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