Car Crazy and VW Vanity

If you asked me my two favorite material possessions I would say the gold bracelet husband gave me when we were forced to live in two different states and areas of the county for seven months, and my VW Cabrio.

These are both luxury items that I could easily live without; they are both luxury items that I am insanely fond of…

If you asked my friends and family if I am vain, they would resoundingly say: Hell no! I’m the girl that is never late. Can get ready in 5 minutes to go anywhere at any time. I never say “put the window up my hair is blowing” or “I need a new dress to go to that party.”

I don’t stare in the mirror and worry about crow’s feet and spend little on “beauty” items, because I’m comfortable looking at my face and body just the way they are – fresh out of the shower, unmake-uped, hair wet in a scrunchy…fine with me. I wear makeup but don't have to have it on to leave my house.

Where my vanity must lie is with my car. It is not a family car. It won’t fit dogs and kids. It is my little jewel, my beauty, and even though it’s five years old now, it still remains a thing of beauty to me.

I fret over its paint job, tires, the mark I found on the front seat, when it was last washed, why there’s a scrape mark on the back fender. I worry about it all the time. My love for it is so deep, I don’t drive it much. I want to keep the mileage low. I want to keep it running forever as it is irreplaceable. They don’t make Cabrios anymore (the damn fools.)

When they came out with the Beetle convertible they stopped making my car. Shows how much they know. The new Beetle isn’t doing very well and people are going to great lengths to find a used Cabrio.

Where love and vanity intersect for me, is at my little car.

Now the reason why I was up half the night crying – and I almost never cry. (Some women are criers and some aren’t. I’m a no crier.)

Yesterday I left my baby at the VW dealership to have two problems looked at and to see if they fell under the warrantee. I definitely had some kind of exhaust system problem and also the rear window defroster had two lines that weren’t working.

I waited all day to hear the verdict. My driveway looked so lonely without my baby parked in its spot. Finally I call and find out an $800 muffler problem is not under warrantee but they fixed my rear window defroster as that came under the warrantee.

Warrantees are great. You pay for them and when something goes wrong it is never under the warrantee so you pay some more. I felt very happy that one of my car’s problems was fixed for free but decided to have the muffler part done at my regular repair guy’s place. He’s cheaper by hundreds, family friend and does a superb and careful job.

So I pick up my car to drive it to the new shop to have it fixed, not looking at the rear window.

When I get to repair shop B I park it and then notice what they did. They leaked glue and other substances all around the two lines that weren’t defrosting, maiming and scarring my baby. Ugly looking!!!!!!!!!!!!

How the hell could they do that without asking me or warning me? I even told them that if the rear window defroster was not under warrantee, do not bother to estimate the cost as I’d leave it as is. I don’t drive my car in the bad weather very often and also, the lines that didn’t defrost would eventually clear from the warmth of the other defrost lines. Nice to have it fixed (right) but not necessary.

So now my baby is marked for life. The dealership, like most, is very very nice pre-buying the car, and less and less nice as times goes on.

My heart is broken but I can’t tell too many people or they’d find me shallow and superficial. I just keep thinking if this were a brand new Beetle with the problem, would they muck it up like that? Or was their sloppy, ugly way of fixing the problem the way you fix an old used car under warrantee? A car not valued for beauty, in their eyes.

Repair shop B says they’ll look into seeing if they can scrape off some of the gunk, pen marks, glue drips etc. and make it look better.

Somewhere deep inside my soul I am tremendously offended, affected and disturbed.

I’m struggling to figure out why I’m so bothered but it centers on the following:

Car because it’s old, not worthy of a proper replacement or repair?
Warrantee not meant to be used EVER so give a cheap, sloppy fix if you don’t get paid?
The vulnerability of loving an inanimate object so much?
The vanity I have in my car but don’t have for myself?
The feeling of getting fucked over yet again by some car repair shop?
Or
All of the above?

Actually my sorrow seems to go even deeper than all of the above.

Think I'll have to go over to Susie's place and lie on her couch for a while... (sniff sniff)