Saturday, February 03, 2007

It Opened

So I took the car with The Electronic Sun Roof That Opens On Its Own to be fixed on Wednesday. This left me with a new problem. The Courtesy Car. It was a Gunmetal Grey BMW with six forward gears and one reverse. It didn't have a normal ignition key. It had a cartridge thing that slotted into a hole on the dashboard, had to depress the clutch for this to happen, and then a button to press. Most strange.

The problem was the power of the car. I was shocked to see I was sailing over the bendy coast road at 75mph and it felt like I was sitting in an armchair with no sense of speed or motion. Far too much grunt for me. But it was very beautiful and given time I could probably get used to it.

'We'll keep your Mini overnight and you can collect it in the morning' they said 'But phone first'.

I 'phoned first thing.

'Your car is fine. It was just a fuse. They've changed that and the roof is closed but leave it 'till lunchtime so we can make sure'.

They 'phoned back an hour later.

'The roof has just opened on it's own'.

I shouldn't have been pleased - but I was. At last. They have to believe me. It did it in the workshop.

'We have to order parts now so it won't be ready until tomorrow'.

'What about the spare key that sets the alarm off when I try to use it?' I ask.

I know they don't believe me about that either. They had previously told me to charge the spare up by using it regularly even though I told them that I can't actually use it regularly because the alarm goes off when I try to use it.

'We'll make sure everything is working properly before we let you have your car back'. they reassure.

I 'phone the next morning.

'The new parts are installed but we want to keep it here until late afternoon to make sure the sunroof doesn't open'.

I drive over the coast road in the Courtesy Car. Getting rather used to it now - and rather fond of it too. So this is what its like being a BMW owner?

The Mini Sunroof has remained closed. Then I am given two sets of car keys with an explanation that they are newly reset. I don't fully understand this. This must mean that they did try to use the spare key and that the alarm did go off. Perhaps it was the ignition key all the time - although that doesn't explain how the Electronic Sun Roof Opened On Its Own when I was 150 miles away in London with the keys in my handbag does it?

I am inspecting my car every hour.