It never hurts to ask

While setting up for Gwendolyn's spa day yesterday, the service manager flipped through rather a lot of screens to see what sort of past issues might be contributing to her woes, and each one was tagged with a mileage reading, from 103,799 all the way back to — I stared in disbelief — 5.

"How hard would it be to get a copy of all that?" I said.

He pushed a couple of buttons, and after a minute or two of laser whirr, he handed me a sheaf of paper.

Obviously it won't include things that were done outside the Nissan/Infiniti system, but there is stuff here worth knowing. For instance:

14967: "Wood trim is coming unglued on dash lower edge on curves."

23849: "At times when starting cold prior to warming up idle will drop very low when put into gear then come back up." [For a fix, they reprogrammed the computer.]

62982: "Test drive reveals front brake rotors warped (pads ok at 50%)." and "Inspection reveals rear brake pads worn over 90% and rotors warped." [In the 43,000 miles since then, both sets of pads have been replaced and the rear rotors turned.]

I knew all this kind of stuff from my previous car, of course, because I bought it new. This one I didn't. (And given the depreciation curves that prevail, my next one may have, um, prior service also.)

Posted at 5:28 PM to Driver's Seat