Under Warranty

Such beautiful words. Especially when you drive your husband's new car for the very first time ever and it refuses to start in the Target parking lot. This happened to me yesterday, and even though it was inconvenient and a little bit infuriating (the part where Jason, upon hearing the news via my cell phone, wanted Connie to get in and try to start it when she came to pick me up because, you know, she's used to driving German cars . . . the implication being that I didn't know how to start a car . . . ), it's shocking to me that it cost us nothing. Tow truck putting in on a flatbed and taking it to the dealership? Free. Dealership hooking it up to the computer? Free. Mechanic replacing the ignition coil? Free. (Ahem. Jason. See, there was something a tiny bit wrong with the car!)

This is the first time in our whole married life that we've owned a car that's still under warranty, and I am really into it. I'd like to reflect on the time when, after we were just married and had moved to Ann Arbor, our Subaru wouldn't start at the mall. This was 1999, and we didn't even have a cell phone. So we had to walk somewhere to call someone to come tow the car. And then we had to walk home from the mall to our PLG apartment, at night, wearing flip-flops. It was approximately 5 miles. We literally didn't know a single person in the whole city to call and come get us. I suppose we could have taken a cab, but we were poor starving newlyweds whose big extravagance for the month was to go to Kerrytown Bistro and get the French Onion Soup and a glass of wine each. And then we had to pay for the tow truck, and for the work to be done on the car. I don't even remember how we managed that, but I assume Jason's parents took pity on us and helped us out.

So, I think having a car under warranty might be like having a dishwasher or an attached garage: you can live without it for a very long time if you've never known any better. But as soon as you've had a taste of the convenience, you can't go back. I'm secretly already planning how we can replace my Subaru with another, identical Subaru that's still under warranty . . .