car: inspected

Just got my overdue car inspected at a local Amoco service center. The nice thing about being overdue a few days is that you get a whole extra month until your next inspection: instead of a May 2014 sticker, the guy (also named Kevin) put up a June 2014 sticker. Nice. While I was waiting in the auto shop, another mechanic asked me what car I had and how many miles were on it. I said I had a Honda Fit with about 80,000 miles on it. He then immediately asked whether the engine was having a low-idle and stall-out problem, especially in cooler weather. I was shocked: he had described my car's engine problem perfectly.

"It's valves," he said.

"Not fuel flow?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Just about every Fit I've seen with your mileage has that problem. Got two comin' in tomorrow. This is the stuff that Honda doesn't tell you about. You gotta read the customer complaints online," he smirked.

I knew, then and there, that I'd probably have to take my car back to this guy.

Out in the service bay, I signed the payment stub and noted the various signs and posters on the walls, scattered throughout the shop, each with its own country-fried witticism. One that struck me was handwritten atop a picture of Yosemite Sam with guns drawn:

If God didn't want us to have guns, He wouldn't have gave us trigger fingers.


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