Appointment this morning with the local tyre guys (big shop, they have 5 garages and do B I G trucks as well) to have the alignment checked.

Walked in...

- 'Hi, had an appointment, 10 o'clock, for alignment'.

- 'Aaaah damn our 2 guys that do the alignment are out on a recovery of a truck, do you need the car back today?'

- 'yes, but I won't be leaving it here, my house is only 5 minutes away'

- 'yeah sorry but that stupid woman that took your appointment she just throws everything in the general agenda instead of [blahblahblah] she's really a no-good stupid [beep]. Well, is this afternoon okay then? They should be back by noon.'

- 'No, don't worry, I had an appointment, it was NOT a woman that took my appointment, it was YOU as I recognise your voice and the way you pronounce your 'R' and your [village nearby] accent, I took time off, you don't honour the appointment and give me a stupid story instead of just saying sorry and offering me an alternative appointment. In fact I also know the big boss of your tyre shop chain as he is a good customer of mine and it's the reason why I'm coming here. So I'll gladly share with him how you've treated me and give me some idiot lines about others taking appointments.'

Needless to say the guy went a bit silent and slightly more pale. Called the 'big boss' and he immediately arranged an appointment with a tyre shop in a village nearby.

Oooh how I enjoy it when people give you things like that and you are able to have some major effect on their 'how do I feel today'.

absolutely legendary!

Something strange happened. Seemingly the guy that did the alignment on the Coupe this afternoon was the Big Boss's son.

Anyway - car feels rather different and steering is much more linear in feel when going round tight corners. Did get a comment that the left rear was just slightly off but he didn't want to risk breaking anything as the bolt for the adjustment was just slightly rounded and rusty. + he thought the car would have been something like 4 or 5 years old judging from the state of the thing. Immediately followed by "and if you wanted 100% positive comments rather than 99%, then make sure you've replaced your trailing arms by next time you're coming round, because they're the only thing that look just slightly rusty".

Needless to say I've just put trailing arms on my list of now 3 technical to-do things. (I want a new gearbox, I want a new alternator and now I want new trailing arms.)

Converted to a happy customer.