The real blow falls when I feel a small hand squeeze my own and hear my recently-turned eight-year-old quietly say “are you okay Papa?” I turn to show her a reassuring smile but find myself struck by the combination of empathy and worry etched into her little face. I muster a nod.
Andrew: “I think I did okay in there. What do you think?”
Claire: *Smiles slightly*
C: “Well, you didn’t yell at anybody.”
A: “Small victories. Are you okay?”
C: “Yes.”
A: “Okay. We need to always try and be polite, but we also need to stick up for ourselves.”
C: *Nods*
C: “What are you going to do now?”
A: “I have no idea. You and I will make a plan when we know more, okay?”
C: *Nods*
We clamber into our temporary loaner vehicle, a 2022 Ford EcoSport, which is actually quite a remarkable machine in being the worst driving passenger vehicle I’ve handled going back to a 1989 K-Car. Say what you will about the third-generation Ford Focus, they do drive quite nicely. When they’re driveable.
Our relatively low-mileage 2014 Focus is due for its third warranty transmission. Which I know, on its face, sounds like just part of owning any modern smart-phone-on-wheels. What makes this time different is that we’re told it is likely going to be over a year before the part is available. In the meantime, our family car sits lonely, rotting, outside in the dealership’s parking lot.
We all know the phrase there’s no use crying over spilled milk and certainly, Nina and I do our best to model solutions over sniveling every day. “Where did you last see it? Can I help you fix it? What’s another way we could try to do it?” But, as I was explaining to Claire this morning sometimes there’s really nothing you can do but be as upset, angry, cynical, or defeated as you feel. Just don’t expect it to fix anything.
After too many chances to return our phone calls, and over two hours on transit to school and there, Claire and I found ourselves standing in the service department of our local Ford dealership asking for a solution. Ford Canada appears to have washed their hands of us – “We must advise that you speak with your selling dealership. Please keep in mind that all dealerships are independently owned and operated. This means that we cannot intervene in their day-to-day operations.” – and the dealership has thus far offered us limbo and the temporary use of their loaner, maybe a long-term rental if there’s any inventory anywhere.
So we’re managing our own edition of First World Problems, fortunate to live in an area of North Vancouver with excellent transit and access to EVO, complete with bike racks. We’re reviewing the cost-effectiveness of using the latter, and the general effectiveness of the former, to take Claire mountain biking given the home zones. It’s really too bad that buses and EVOs don’t have room for more than two bicycles. Does Claire have the juice to ride to our rides? Home isn’t an issue, but that’s mostly downhill.
Mostly downhill like my drive to Ford stuck in 1st gear after our car tried to leap-frog us into the driver in front. I guess, in an attempt at levity, I should be thankful that our car didn’t have the brakes off this EcoSport. Who needs an accident to go with their incident?
Sometimes it’s hard not to get down taking account of your moments of poor luck or poor planning. If we bought, quite literally, any other car in 2014 the odds are strongly in our favour that it would still be driveable. That stings. Even a lemon that runs is saleable, our wheels are currently all but worthless.
Andrew: *Deep sigh*
Claire: “Are you going to cry, Papa?”
A: “No, love, I think I’ll save that for another time.”
C: “What are you going to do about our car?”
A: “I have no idea. You and I will make a plan when we know more, okay?”