Woe is Flo

I have recently become irreversibly irritated (take that alliteration) with Josh's car. Josh actually has a full sized Toyota truck which is parked at his dad's house back in Montana. We didn't ship it to Germany, and after seeing the narrow, winding local roads in addition to the cost of gas, I feel we made the right decision. It would be a pain to drive the truck, let alone try to park it, and gas would be ridiculous. Josh knew once he got over here he'd buy a cheap little beater car to drive while we're here. A lot of people do that. The military will only pay to ship one vehicle overseas (you can ship additional cars, you just have to pay for it), so many people will have one nice "family" car and then one beater which gets driven to/from work. Josh's beater is a little mid-90's silvery purple Ford Mondeo hatchback (envision an older four door Ford Escort. I wish I had a picture to share). Josh will tell you it's not purple, but its purple. As I've said before, I have a thing for naming cars. We knew the car was a girl (an important first step is determining the sex of the car), but we were having a hard time thinking of an appropriate name. Josh suggested the car was somewhat like an overworked, tired old waitress... by which we thought of the name Flo (from Dumb and Dumber... "So, Flo, what's the soup du jour?"). It is fitting. It's not exactly the manliest of cars... but Josh doesn't care. It runs, it gets him to work, and it is good on gas. Quite honestly, we have driven that car a lot of places and it holds its own, despite being old and ugly. At times I have been impressed with Flo. That was before Flo spent a month in the shop...

Our cars have to be inspected once a year. To make sure you get your car inspected, your registration expires every year. Your registration is attached to your gas ration. Have I mentioned gas rations before? We are allowed 400 liters (105 gallons) a month at our "discounted" US gas price on base. Anything over the 400 liter mark and you must pay the German economy price (which at the moment is somewhere near $7 a gallon). We have come close to using up all of our rations before (I will this month after my trip with the parents), but we usually have enough gas to spare. If your registration is expired you technically don't have a gas ration, so you have to pay German prices. Anyways, the point is, you don't want to have to pay German gas prices, so you need your fuel ration, therefore you get your car inspected (and passed) to keep your registration current. Josh went to get Flo inspected and the car failed. Our base is somewhat notorious for having tough vehicle inspectors. It is hard to get your car passed on the first try (although I have heard a rumor that bribes of Jack Daniels will get you passed). So, no surprise Flo failed. Josh attempted to fix the listed problem himself, but Flo failed inspection again.

We took Flo to a mechanic off base which was recommended by a co-worker of Josh's. We dropped the car off about a week before my parents got here. During this week Josh got rides from a friend a few days and I drove him to/from work on the other days. After one week we were told the mechanic wanted to talk with Josh about cost before they went any further with the car. It took a few days for Josh and the mechanic to connect over the phone (and for Josh to say "fix it, it doesn't matter the cost." For the record, the cost is no where NEAR what you would think it would be, or not like it would be in the US). Then there was a German holiday, which stalled work. Then the mechanic working on Josh's car was sick. Needless to say, my parents were here, gone, and we're still waiting for Josh to have his car back. Every week we think it will be done, and every week there is some reason it's not done. On Wednesday Josh went to pick up his car (it was suppose to be officially done), only to be told they'd found a cracked timing belt. They ordered a new belt, but it wouldn't be in until Friday (Thursday was a German holiday. I swear, they have more flipping holidays where everyone takes the day off...) and so the car wouldn't be done until Monday.

I'm glad Josh is the one who deals with the mechanic, because at this point I probably would have lost my cool and really given him a piece of my mind (which, by the way, I am somewhat notorious for). Words which quickly popped into my head were "unacceptable" and "ridiculous." I mean, seriously? A month to fix a car? For the record, there was something with the brakes which needed to be fixed and they had to fix an oil leak. That's it. Not a total engine overhaul or a transmission rebuild. A month for all of that. Oh, and now a timing belt. My blood was seriously boiling. We've waited such a long time for this car, had to borrow a neighbor's car, ask for rides, coordinate our schedules... We were depending on Flo for our upcoming plans (as my gas ration is low). Grrr. I really, truly wanted to give that mechanic something to think about, because this kind of service is NOT okay, and would NEVER happen in the states (well... it could/would... but you wouldn't stand for it!). And that's when I realized... yeah. I'm not in the states. So. It doesn't really matter what I will or won't stand for. I'm kind of stuck. We found an English speaking mechanic who was willing to work on our car... so... you have to take what you can get. And you have to deal with the general standards of the area. Germans, in general, are slow. Period. They are slow at everything. They are slow at road construction, slow to complete anything (a German construction company has been working on a chunk of road/traffic circle on base for over a year now. One year for one traffic circle). Apparently this also applies to mechanics. I was venting about this at work yesterday, and discovered it is not just us. Everyone who has dealt with a German mechanic has a similar story. Bah. Which only makes me MORE excited about the fact that my car needs some work done/tune up. Joy of joys!

Ohhhhh damn it Flo.