Rick's great essay

[Howard and Pat Warren <warrenwood@domain.elided>]

Rick has some wonderful points.  My wife is an "A-B" driver, and really 
doesn't care about the technical details of her 164.  While she enjoys the 
leather, the style, the V6 engine (boy, does she enjoy the engine!) she 
would be just as happy in a Mazda 626LX as the 164.  As she once told me, 
"I don't want a car where I have to watch every little tick of the dials." 
 She wants it to be reliable and to go when she's ready.  She doesn't even 
want to learn to drive a stick-shift.

The is why, since getting rid of my non-Alfas, I try to keep two automatic 
transmission Alfas in the garage: hers and a backup <g>.

Still she tolerates my preference for eccentricity in automobiles.  And 
like those of us on the Digest, I prefer a car that communicates with me 
while I drive.  But we're by far in the minority.  The American culture is 
that cars (like computers) are just another commodity... as long as it 
starts and runs, the average driver doesn't care whether it's Mazda, 
Toyota, Ford or Dodge.

As to another point, Rick states that most people DON'T want to be on a 
first-name basis with their mechanic.  I would hope that people would want 
to BE on a first-name basis.  My mother drove an Infiniti for years.  She 
never knew whether her car was worked on my the in-house expert or a new 
trainee.  The mechanic was protected from the customer by a layer of sleazy 
"customer service" reps who knew nothing except disinformation.  I *KNOW* 
that she was ripped off on several occasions, but when we tried to ask 
questions, we were hit with a wall of managers and supervisors and service 
reps who mumbled some technobabble.  We were NEVER allowed to talk to the 
mechanic directly.

Which is why she dumped the Inifiniti.

My mechanic, on the other hand, knows my level of technical knowledge, and 
if I don't understand what's he's doing, he'll pull up the microfiche and 
show me (or if I can get away from the office he'll invite me to see the 
guts myself.)  For that matter, he's taught me a lot on weekends.  He's an 
exception of course, but if you have to send a car to a mechanic wouldn't 
you want to know his (or her) level of competence?  To feel safe about him 
working on your car?

Howard K. Warren, Little Rock, AR
1984 GTV-6, "Falconi", 138k miles (Mine)
1991 164L, "Peregrine", 68k miles (Hers)
1991 164L, "GrayHawk", 78k miles ("Backup", I take possession 3/1)

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