So I think that I learned a little something about myself today. I don’t necessarily think that it’s a good thing, but at least I now know……
I was about half way to work sitting in traffic on 71 Southbound. The nice soothing smell of exhaust and smoke from passing cars was rocking me to sleep gently while I listened to the Morning Edition on NPR. There was a great bit on air about deep freezers and how the demand to make them portable is growing. Not your usual deep freeze, I’m talking about negative eighty seven degrees, which I have been told is nippy. Hospitals are using these freezers to transport misc items to and from locations throughout the United States and world for that matter. I can’t help but feel the program was about to peak when all of a sudden the radio went silent.
It was a solid ten seconds or so before I turned to look at the radio. Everything appeared to be normal, the clock was on, I was still tuned to 90.5 so I turned my gaze back to the large ass of the school bus on the road ahead. “Damn public radio” I muttered as decided I would give it a few more seconds. After all, even though our station here in Columbus came up 39K short in this years fund raising efforts they would surely not allow dead air right? Another ten seconds passed, and then another, and another until almost a full minute had passed. I turned back to the radio to verify everything appeared the same before immediately thinking about how and when I would have time to get the car taken in so I could get the radio fixed as soon as possible. It was as I was reaching for the radio that I remembered this........
Back near the end of September I received a recall notice for my car. It’s a brand new vehicle and obviously there is no cost to fix a recalled item but nevertheless I needed to make the appointment and get the car in for repair. Was it a serious recall? I have no idea, I’m not a mechanic but I would imagine if there is a recall it’s a good idea to get it fixed. The explanation for the recall was that the fuel-injector timing and VTC timing at cold start may create deposits on the oil control rings that could contribute to increased oil consumption. When I read that it doesn’t sound good, but at the same time it’s not exactly what I would consider a panic notice. I imagine that I would need to read something like this for there to be sufficient brain penetration…..
Dearest Honda customer,
We write you today with urgency as a defect has been detected in your vehicles year, make, and model.
What is the Problem?
One out of every three Honda owners have reported the following situations when attempting to start their vehicles in cold weather. Cold weather for the purpose of this recall is considered 88 degrees and below. The owners report entering the vehicle and inserting the key per normal use. However when turning the key a slight click is heard before the entire vehicle is completely immersed in flames, pain, and what can only be described as the devils laughter being heard in the background. To be clear, you will die a slow and painful death.
One out of every three Honda owners have reported the following situations when attempting to start their vehicles in cold weather. Cold weather for the purpose of this recall is considered 88 degrees and below. The owners report entering the vehicle and inserting the key per normal use. However when turning the key a slight click is heard before the entire vehicle is completely immersed in flames, pain, and what can only be described as the devils laughter being heard in the background. To be clear, you will die a slow and painful death.
What should you do?
For starters you should panic. This is bad, really bad. I mean we really f’d this one up eh? We need you to make an appointment and drive the car to your nearest Honda dealer or fire department ASAP. We understand 33.3% of you will most likely blow up but that is a chance we are willing to take.
For starters you should panic. This is bad, really bad. I mean we really f’d this one up eh? We need you to make an appointment and drive the car to your nearest Honda dealer or fire department ASAP. We understand 33.3% of you will most likely blow up but that is a chance we are willing to take.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused but let’s be real, this happens. Take comfort knowing at least your radio works!
Sincerely,
Honda Motor Company
As I sit here today it has been exactly 88 days that I have been in possession of this recall notice. During that time I have attempted to make an appointment to get it fixed exactly zero times. In fact until this morning the number of times I have even thought about it has been right around one, which was when I first received it. So what’s the big deal?
This is the big deal. My radio goes silent for less than one minute; a silence that I was fairly confident was caused by the station and not the car. Yet still, within that minute I started to plot my back up plan. How do I deal with getting an appointment for the car, how fast can they fix it, should I reach over and expend all that effort to turn the dial and get another station will I still here dead air? Less than 60 seconds of time sitting in traffic with nothing to amuse my ear pallet proved to be too much! While in comparison I have been ignoring an ACTUAL problem with my car for roughly 126,720 minutes.
1 vs. 126,720? Interesting I think, and unfortunately it reflects a lot about me. I can’t see, hear, or touch the recall so it holds no importance or priority in my life even though the consequences of ignoring it are awful and could be costly. Yet take away one of my creature comforts for a matter of seconds and I will kick into a gear I didn’t know existed. I guess now the only question is how do I translate that importance to all people and tasks in my life?