| Page 6 Diablo Blue July, 2002 |
| Your Board of Directors held their meeting on June 12 without benefit of either of our capable secretaries: the Board Secretary, Tom Krauss, and the Membership Secretary, Peggy Johnson. We were expecting Peggy’s absence, since she was on vacation. But Tom was supposed to be at the meeting to record the exciting happenings, and present them to the membership in a manner which all would have been able to understand in the tome you are holding in your hands or viewing on the DVPC web site ( www.dvpc.org) even now. The longer we waited for Tom’s appearance the more obvious it became that his absence was permanent, and the colder the pizza became, so we gave up and dined. Here, in Tom’s own words, sent by smoke signals, is the harrowing tale of what actually happened to him and why he was among the missing: The June DVPC Board of Directors meeting may have been exciting, action-packed, ground-breaking and a cure for insomnia — but I doubt it. Past experience leads me to believe it was none of the above. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there, so I can’t say for sure. No, I was having fun with General Motors. In March I bought an eight-month-old Buick LeSabre. My 1986 Oldsmobile had 317,000 miles on it, and the last time I took it to my mechanic he made it clear that it was not going to get any cheaper to run. So I broke down and bought the Buick. Tuesday afternoon on the 4th of June I was driving through Sonora, CA on my way home from a long weekend in the mountains when in the space of six or seven miles my new Buick went from making a funny noise when shifting to making a lot of noise all the time to no transmission at all. I had it towed to the dealer in Jamestown. Under the manufacturer’s warranty I was entitled to and received a free rental car until mine was fixed. So we stayed an extra night, then came home Wednesday in the rental. I called the dealer Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, but they hadn’t looked at my car yet. Monday morning they were “looking at it now”. That afternoon they called to say they had ordered a new transmission which would arrive and be installed Tuesday. They would call me on Tuesday to confirm when it would be ready. I told them that I couldn’t get away until the afternoon of Wednesday the13th. They told me if I didn’t return the rental car Tuesday, the day my car would be ready, I would have to pay an extra day rental. I told them that since they had had my car four full work days and a weekend before deciding what to do, I expected them to pay for the extra day. After much agonizing and checking with the manager, they agreed to pay for one extra day, but I definitely had to make it to Jamestown Wednesday by 7:00 p.m. So I missed the Board meeting, but got my car with a new transmission (after 27,000 miles!) and it didn’t cost me anything except time and some extra gas. And that would be the end of my sad story, except I mentioned this incident to my mechanic and he asked if I had the warranty for the new transmission (they come from the factory with a 5 year, 50,000 mile warranty). Well, no, I didn’t. So I called the dealer in Jamestown and learned something very interesting (and depressing). It seems that when GM replaces a transmission under their factory warranty, the warranty on the new transmission is only for one year or 12,000 miles, even though it is straight from the factory. But if the owner pays for the new transmission, it has a 5 year 50,000 mile warranty! I may have misunderstood something here. It certainly doesn’t make sense to me. So I wrote a letter to CEO of General Motors. I’m sure he will explain this to me… |