Roadside Assistance

About a month ago, I bought a new car and I love it. I was going through some old e-mails, and came across one that I sent to my good friend Dan, who's currently stationed in Saudi Arabia as he's in the Army. I couldn't help but share my experience with Roadside Assistance and Volvo, because he thought it was rather amusing (and after I read it, I thought it was one of my better emails!).

I previously had a 2005 Volvo, which I also liked very much, but I came to the reality (and came to terms with my busy schedule) that I needed to have a car that I could have serviced in Janesville if necessary. About a month ago, I was on my way to volunteer at a grade school. On my way there, my car just died, as if I were out of gas (even though I had 3/4 of a tank).

I remembered that Volvo had roadside assistance. I called the toll-free number, and was told that a tow truck would arrive shortly, and that I would have to wait by my vehicle for them. Well, I waited an hour and 45 minutes for a tow truck. The guy arrived (after I had to flag him down as he stopped two blocks away and was about to tow some poor soul's car instead of mine, which wasn't a Volvo). I knew this guy wasn't from Janesville, because anyone from Janesville knows that you just never see that many Volvos (I think there are about 5 TOTAL in Janesville, but he sure had trouble finding mine even WITH giving him the address of where I was). We got the car onto the flatbed, and proceeded to take it to the nearest dealership...in Rockford.

The ride in the tow truck to Rockford was excruciating. Normally, such a drive SHOULD be only 35 minutes. My fortune was that it ended up being an hour and 15 as this worldly driver didn't know where he was going. At one point I was giving him directions, and then he proceeded to take an unauthorized short cut. After that, all bets were off. After getting lost in Rockford, he finally asked me where he should turn. At that point I had no clue. While sitting in the cab of the truck, I noticed, though, that he had GPS. I suggested he use it. Apparently (he told me) it wasn't working. It, too, apparently needed roadside assistance.

Well, I got my car to the dealership... eventually. Man! It was hotter than hades in the tow truck. I think it was about 78 degrees that day, yet he had the heat on and the windows closed. I was sweating something awful, and of course, he had NO vent on. I was ready to stick my head out the window of the likes of my hounds, hoping to catch a breeze (which would have been interesting, as I still was dressed in a business suit since I was coming from work).

Well, it turned out that there was a recall on the fuel injection sensor of my Volvo, which ironically arrived in my mail the next day. I loved the advanced notice! For about 6 days, I ended up having to drive a Chevy Aveo (oh my god, I felt so white-trash....it was wonderful) and then had to go down and get my car. After having to take practically a whole day off for my car, the decision to get a new car was easy.

I loved the room and the ability to haul things that my mom's CR-V had, and knew that the Honda CR-V was an easy decision. I went to the dealership. While I was there, it was really weird not to test drive or actually even see what I was buying. It took all of 30 minutes. After coming home, I thought, "what the HELL just happened? What the hell did I just do?"After the initial shock (and feeling 10 lbs. lighter from metaphorical unplanned bowel movement in my pants given the shock of the situation), I came to terms with my purchase. And now I'm happy, and love it, love it......LOVE IT! It's like a dark red/maroon color, and it has gray leather interior. It has every option it can possibly come with, and is a nice "little" car. I'll have you know, at least MY GPS works!

I hope none of you ever get placed in a situation like this, but while this experience wasn't so great when it first started, the end result is something that I am grateful actually happened. If you ever get a tower that doesn't know where he's going, perhaps tell him to turn on the GPS, as that was the problem with why it didn't work in the first place.

Gosh I love professionals.....