Saturday, October 01, 2016

An oil change


3:30, Reached at the Precision Tune for an oil change.  The middle-aged receptionist man with long hair quickly registered me.  He said I could leave the car and go as it was going to take at least an hour.  I told him I would be waiting right there, as I did not anywhere to go to—I did not have a ride either, to go from there to anywhere.  After he printed out the bill and asked me to put my ‘autograph’ I casually asked him if the deal included tire rotation.  I had showed him a $16.95 coupon (with $3.45 other fee and taxes).  He said no, the deal only included oil and oil filter change.  I told him the coupon said otherwise.  He wanted to see the coupon one more time.  Showed him the coupon on my phone.  It did indeed say the deal included tire rotation and brake inspection.  He was not too happy with that.  He said they were a repair shop and not a discount oil change place.  He threw away the old printout and printed out a new bill and had me sign it.  I sat there in their waiting room and started writing.  Later, when I saw the Accord being taken for oil change I went out to see what was happening.  The receptionist was there, smoking a cigarette.   I talked to him and found out his name was Bud.  He was a chatterbox.  He grew up in this area.  He said by the time he turned 16, he already had three cars.  His mother looked out of the window and asked about the cars lined up by the street.  ‘I said they were all mine’, he told me proudly.  He said he had bought cars for as low as $20/$30.  He had an older couple as a customer who drove an old car, white in color; the couple drove it with utmost care.  He said the Accord I had was a 250-260 car (that it could go as high as 250,000 miles)—it had 169,000 miles on it then.  He advised me to use quality gas: Chevron, Texaco, 76.