Ask me if I understand any of this…..

I take Edie’s car to the car wash for its Passover deep clean. Our two neighborhood car washes are now owned by the same company, Flagship, and their charge for a super duper (not so super, really) car wash is (sit down, please) $44. I know that is an outrageous amount to charge for a car wash. Before Flagship took it over, the same wash at the same place was about $30, which was bad enough. And Flagship is the only car wash within 4 miles of our house. Maybe Trump’s tariffs will bring cheap car washes back to America.

[Digression. The car wash clerk is a very nice lady. She has been there a while. I have never really thought about her name, but looking on the bill, which I just did, I see her name is given as Wondwossen. I look it up. Ethiopia is filled with Wondwossens.]

On the short drive home from the car wash, I see a bunch of dashboard lights go on, like someone has just hit a grand slam. Then a sign pops up that says “Hybrid System Failure. Contact Dealer. Park Car in Safe Space”.

Of course, my first instinct is to ignore the sign. But because things keep flashing, I don’t, and pull over to the curb, right next to the sign that says “No parking anytime”. I should really put the car in a legal parking space, I think, but when I try to restart it, the same message appears, and it is clear that it is not going to restart.

Is there any good news in this story? Yes, the good news is that the service station we normally use (normally for the last 40+ years) is only one block away, so I walk there and tell them my sad tale. The fellow in charge today asks one of their technicians, a nice, tall African born fellow, whose name sounds suspiciously like Wondwossen, to help me. He tells me that we can walk to my car and he will try to jump start it and bring it back to the station. His terms are: “I will charge you $80 if we are successful, and if I can’t jump it and it needs to be towed, I won’t charge you anything. And the $80 is to me, not the station, and needs to be in cash.”

What can I do? Especially, since we are leaving town the next day for several days, and I am parked illegally. I say “OK”. We walk to the car, he opens the hood, connects his jumper cable and says to me “Get in!”. I do, and we drive for one block to the station.

But the lights are all still on, and it is unclear that the car will move again, or at least move very far. And he tells me that he has to check the Hybrid system and probably reset it. I have no idea what that means, but as I watch him for a half hour (only interrupted by the driver for the Kuwaiti ambassador coming in with his sleek black Land Rover which has a nail in its tire. Or maybe, since it’s a Land Rover, it’s a tyre.) as he dissects the car.

Yes, it was like high school biology class (which I don’t remember at all, really), where you had to dissect an amphibian of some kind. Or it was like going to a doctor and being told that he has to operate on you while you are conscious and watch him taking you apart, piece by piece.

Things come out of the hood. The trunk is opened and everything including the spare is taken out, so he can get underneath it. Same with the back seat. All of the innards piled next to the car. It is clear to me that this car can never be put together again.

He unscrews that, he sets his computer to this, he brushes off something else, he scratches his head, he says “uh-huh”, he tells me that he’s on it, not to worry. Then, after I pace around and around and around, he tells me to go home, and that he will call me.

Now, I said this is our neighborhood, so going home just means walking about 3 blocks, so that is okay. Several hours later, I get a text that the car is ready.

I walk to get it, it starts, it works, it looks fine, I am told by the station manager that Nunu (maybe it’s not Nunu, but Bugu, or Gubu, or something like that) has reset the Hybrid system. I act gracious (I was), but tell him I have no idea what he did. I don’t think the manager knew, either. Bugu or Gubu wasn’t there, so I couldn’t talk to him.

Now, I had no idea what the price would be. It turns out that it’s just over $300, and was for $282 labor and taxes. Is that a good price? Did he put in $282 labor time? Did he do a good job? I have no answer to any of these questions.

What the manager did tell me was: if it turns out that there is still a problem, let us know and we won’t charge you any more to fix it.

I drove it the half mile or so home. It’s in the driveway. Luckily, it’s not the car we are taking on our trip to Massachusetts. I will check it again when we return.