That One Time I...

... Met Yukino's Former Owner

How rare is it to meet the prior owner of a vehicle sold at a dealership? I imagine the odds are slim to none, and for Miku's prior owner's sake that's for the best. 

It turns out Miku's issues stem from not being properly repaired after an accident. Rather than bore you with a breathtaking list of replacement parts I'm buying, let's do something different to describe her necessary repairs. The next time you go out for a drive, take a peek beneath your car's front bumper. Do you see that long, vertical bar that connects the front wheels? It's called a sway bar, and that might be the only front suspension part or component that's NOT getting replaced at the dealership right now.

Anyway, I visited the dealership yesterday to discuss Miku's "after care". She's at that age and mileage when it's worth it to prepay her synthetic oil changes for the next three years. While I was tacking on a few hundred dollars to Miku's bloated repair bill, a bespectacled woman approached me and said I bought... well, she named dropped a Disney character's name and that immediately piqued my interest.

It turns out this lady is nearly at the top of the food chain at the dealership. She loved her former car, did all of its maintenance, and only traded her in because she needed the larger next generation model that's currently in MINI showrooms. We had a wonderful conversation about Yukino, and now I'm comforted by the fact she was well taken care of. 

And now that I know Yukino's history, I'll keep an eye out for an air freshener of that Disney character the next time I visit a parts store. I don't like to hang things off rear view mirrors, but this one time I'm willing to make an exception.