expert's talk, or "strange encounters, the 2nd"

about an hour ago, i drove to my favourite gas station, equipped with a bucket full of cleaners, sponges, wipes and dry cloth, in order to clean my baby. i just had rinsed the vette's red hull with water and now was drying it with the soft cloth, when an old guy with grey hair, grandpa style, approached me slowly and asked what kind of car this would be.
"this is a corvette," i answered.
the old chap slowly scratched his chin. "hmmm... it looks really good - much better than the ferrari over there." he pointed towards the black ferrari convertible parked some 20 metres away. "is it very expensive?"
i couldn't help smiling. "well," i said, "it's even less then half the price of the ferrari, and it's much faster."
brows knotted in deep thought, he walked away, while i focused again on my baby.

a few minutes later, the old guy came back again, his face turning into a wide grin, and tapped me onto the shoulder. "let me give you some good advice, lad - take good care of that car of yours. it's not only much better, but also much more trustworthy than any girlfriend can be."

it's unbelievable - i didn't ever think that vettes would be good for "strange encounters" of the funny or heart-warming kind...

the roof recall thing (3)

so much for german quality repair... this seems to become a neverending story. and a story i definitely don't like!


after two weeks of "not driving", i found this damaged spot as i freed my baby from the confines of its parking garage. obviously, the paint job on the replaced roof has been done sloppily, because otherwise, the paint itself wouldn't have formed this kind of warped shape...
aaaargh...!

that's real customer service

by end of last year, i switched over to another car insurance company with both contracts starting on january 1st, 2008.
today, half a year later, they finally managed to send me the service vouchers.

that's what i call real service - fast and efficient. ugh.

well, you gotta remember you're in germany.
welcome to "customer service hell"...

"welcome to the show..."

sorry, non-vette stuff again...

but finally, i managed to lure rainier, my old buddy in sin and frolic, into the automobile fun business, he he... and now he's developped a taste for oldtimer rallyes (the touristic ones, not the sportive sort of). therefore he dug out his dad's old mercedes and participated in yesterday's 2008 adac oldtimer tour towards the little town of homberg (efze).


this benz is 31 years old (in germany, cars have to be at least 30 years old to be officially defined as "oldtimers", cars 20 years old and up to 29 years are called "youngtimers"). technical data will follow.