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July 2001

Last month started with a day of rest for me. A Monday public holiday and not before time. I was so very tired and in desperate need of an extra day. I even managed to get a little rest as well. Tuesday saw me back to the old grind again and, karma wanting to get it's own back at me, my van broke down.
Fully loaded blocking up one of the right hand turning lanes on the Tonkin Highway and Kewdale Road, 5:15 in the morning and a blown Head Gasket. Needless to say, I was less than impressed.
First thing that had to be done was transfer my load and get someone else to cover my run, after that I was able to call a tow truck. By the time they arrived I had been sitting at that intersection for a little over an hour and I couldn't listen to the radio for fear of draining the battery. In a way it was interesting watching the traffic getting slowly heavier and I am sure that by 6am I was certainly upsetting a few people.
My next wait was outside my mechanic in Morley, just under 45 minutes as they open at 7.30, so they could confirm what I was already afraid of. After that the vehicle was towed to the nearby Mitsubishi dealer in a bid to get the whole thing fixed under the new vehicle warrantee.
I had to battle with them to repair it, but luckily (or sensibly) my mechanic had used genuine coolant, so they relented and fixed it. Faced with having my vehicle off the road my next job was to organize a rental, however, not being made of money, hiring something close to what I drive was out of the question, so I went for something a little down market.

DOWN MARKET

Lets talk about understatement!
This van had the old 5 speed column shift manual, no radio, constant smell of exhaust fumes and 24 hour airconditioning. The mixture was wrong and so if you tried to put your foot down all it would do is slow down... AND... my offsider later informed me you could see the road through the gap between the floor and the passenger door.

I was supposed to get my van back on Friday and had spoken to the dealer early that morning and it looked like it was all going to plan... Then, at about 9.30am I got a call saying they had to fit a new radiator and that had to come from the eastern states (one of the disadvantages of living in the worlds most isolated capital city) and it wouldn't be here until next Thursday.
NOT HAPPY JAN!
I spent a fair wack of time on the phone that morning, first to the dealer, trying to organize airfreight. (They didn't want to know.) Then to the state office of Mitsubishi Australia. (They transferred me around until I got the same idiot I had been speaking to earlier.)
Needless to say I was angry by then.

Thankfully the car was ready on Tuesday afternoon. I got a heck of a surprise when the dealership rang up and said "come and pick it up".
Wednesday morning I was back in my own van, nice and warm, and with creature comforts like auto transmission and a CD player. But why do I get the nasty feeling this saga could have a sequel... Oh well... To be continued I guess...

©juslooken 2001

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