On Mazda Of Olympia

Sat, May 1, 2004 - 1:49 PM PST

Got up early this morning to visit Mazda of Olympia. I had an appointment to get a scheduled checkup for my MAZDASPEED and needed a mounting bracket for a front license plate.

Because here in Washington state, it's not enough to have one state sanctioned slab of metal hanging on your car. We need two. Imagine my surprise when the lady handed me a pair of plates and I discovered that I didn't have any way to attach the front one. And it's illegal to drive without it. That makes me a law breaker.

I'm quite the badass, I know.

So I called up to the dealership and told them I needed one and that while I was at it, I'd like to have my car looked over. I had been hearing a "thump" sound whenever I went over even minor bumps in the road and I was pretty sure something in my suspension was a tad off.

So anyways, I drove up there this morning only to be told that they don't stock the license plate holders and they'd have to order one and it'd cost me $15 and that I could pick it up after Wednesday. And they told me that the bushings on my rear swaybar needed replaced in order to eliminate the noise I was hearing. And that they didn't have those bushings either. Now the bushings I can understand since this car was only made for one year and in limited production at that. But the license plate holder? Every frigging car in the whole state needs one of those, including the Mazda Protege of which my car was derived which were sold by the thousand from that dealership until it was discontinued merely a few months ago.

And apparently calling ahead to schedule them to install one doesn't mean anything. This reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry reserves a car only to not have one waiting for him when he arrives to pick it up. If I call ahead and tell them I want a license plate holder and they tell me I can get one on Saturday morning, they better have one at the desk with a cute little spicy orange bow on it waiting for me when I get there. "We don't stock that part" is not an acceptable answer. If I didn't already have to drive back there next weekend to get the swaybar bushings installed, I'd have really made a scene.

Because I live for that sorta thing. Anytime I can cause someone to feel inadequate due to a flaw in "the system", I pounce on it.

These pretzals are making me thirsty.