i think i’m in love with the guys at nortown.

they took care of my baby car, fixed her all up bright and shiny, and then when i came to pick her up the mechanic who worked on her took me over and showed me what had happened to my rotors, knew exactly why it was (“do you let the car sit for long periods of time?”) and explained how it had happened (not driving leads to rust building up on the rotors’ edges, reducing surface area for the brake pad to make contact, thus resulting in noise and vibration). and he was totally cool about it, didn’t baby me or whatever, he was just really rational and nice. then he comisserated over the price of my battery (i picked a high end battery, an Optima deep-cycle gel pack, for a few reasons, such as “i tend to let my car sit for long periods of time”), and then casually mentioned that since i was due for an oil change soon anyways he just took care of that for me, for no charge.

which. i mean, i was going to take the car to class next week and do the oil change myself, but, how awesome is having service thrown in for free? i mean, okay, once it’s up on the lift and you’re poking around the underbody it’s not a real stretch to pull the plug out and let it drain, but still, it’s extra effort and materials, and it’s an industry not known for throwing in lots of freebies. i thought it was very sweet.

i’m going to go back to the car talk web site, where i found them, and write up a review on their complete awesomeness. seriously, i can just punt my old dealer mechanic off a cliff now, ‘cos Sal took good care of my baby for me. and she rides so much nicer now with clean brakes! i was never particularly bothered by the vibration of the brakes before the service, but now that it’s fixed, it’s just smooth and really a noticeable improvement. i’m extremely happy with my official new mechanic.