my car is a mystery to me

A few weeks ago, my family said, “Hey, just so you know, your car is leaking something.” “Oh,” I said. “Uh, does it look bad?” (I generally go for the ‘ignore it while hoping for the best’ strategy with my car, and it’s not like I can tell something’s leaking, since I always park in the same place, and the only time my car’s not in it is a time when I’m not here either.)

“You should probably take it to the garage,” was the answer.

So I called the garage. “Hey, so, something’s leaking from my car,” I said. “Huh,” the guy said. “Where’s it coming from?” (I was glad he hadn’t asked a harder question.) I said, “Sort of in the front, on the passenger side,” and we agreed that I would bring it in today and they would look at it.

Little did I know we were not on the same page *at all* when it came to why my car was actually at the garage. I called up this afternoon —

Me: “Hey, so, just checking to see if my car’s ready to pick up.”
Car Spa Attendant: “Yeah, it’s fine; we couldn’t find anything. Say, how fast was that tire leaking air, anyway?”
Me: “Er. I didn’t know any of my tires was leaking.”
Car Spa Attendant: “Um, isn’t that why you brought it in? Right front leak, it says.”
Me: “No, there’s like, something leaking, in the front. A fluid, it’s getting on the ground.”
CSA: “Oh. Right. Give us a bit, we’ll bring it back in and check on that.”

Me: (calling back an hour later) “Hi, yeah, about my car.”
CSA: “Still can’t find anything. We think it’s probably just water.”
Me: “Um, I don’t know anything about cars, but I do know something about water? We can see the stain on the driveway where my car usually sits. It’s, uh, not water.”
CSA: “Oh. Right. Give us ten minutes, we’ll check one more time.”

Me: (showing up at the garage a little later, totally embarrassed about the whole thing) “Sorry, about everything, really — uh, my car?”
CSA: “We still can’t find anything wrong with it. You should keep an eye on it.”
Me: “Yes, absolutely, will do, many eyes will gaze upon it, including mine, and we shall not fail in our vigilance.”

And then I escaped back home in total car shame.

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.