Ranting and Repairs to the RVR

It's hard to believe that I have owned my 2015 Mitsubishi RVR just over three months now, at the time of this posting. Along the way, I have racked up nearly 6,500 kilometers (just under 4,100 miles for you other folks) and still having the time of my life (more so than my previous 2014 Dodge Dart during the same period of ownership). Here it sits waiting for it's first servicing since I acquired it.

This all started when I received a call from the dealer, asking me if I would like to keep a automatically booked service appointment. First, I felt a little special, since this never happened during my last, year long ownership experience (Hmmm....I wonder why Chrysler forgot about me....) and second, the cheerful tone from the female voice during the conversation from the other end (an honestly cheerful voice, not a fake attempt to hid how much some could see this call being more of a "chore" then decent customer service).

With the booking confirmed, I felt somewhat compelled to give the dirty RVR a bath (left unclean since my last, out of town and off-road adventure).

Now, before I go any further, I want to state that I don't have any serve obsessive compulsive disorders when it comes to the cleanliness of a vehicle. I know full well dust, dirt and other nastiness just happens. What really irritates me to no end is when other people don't even attempt to respect my property and ignore the results thereof.

Take the above picture for example. This is obviously the driver's side of my RVR and even with the door open, the dirt and dust levels seen is pretty low....

....but the passenger side, even with the door closed and a light source from outside the vehicle, shows easily I could grow a garden (a slight exaggeration) there.

I just don't get it. Granted, I was the only driver, but I carried four different passengers over nine days, we all walked the same ground (that fine, dry dust that just sticks to nearly everything) and yet I took an extra minute or two to not track it into the vehicle that served as transportation to and from, a lunch room and home for over twelve hours a day.

On the flip-side, I take that same extra time and care to "bang my boots" when I am a passenger in other people's vehicles (if I notice dust, dirt and/or mud on them), despite the condition of their interior. I know doing this doesn't eliminate everything I could potentially track in with me, but I am also not bringing in half the countryside on the bottom of my footwear either.

Enough about that, something new to complain about, like how poorly the automatic car wash missed cleaning off the bug buildup from the front-end of the RVR (an eternal struggle that technology may never get right). I am not too sure how the lower grille popped it's clip, but it did and I will have it looked at on a later date.

One thing that really irked me was these three scratches, revealed after the water washed the dirt away. Going from right to left, the first two are small and shallow, could be taken care of with touch-up paint (if I had any, perhaps I should get some soon). The third one on the far left is deep enough to see a sliver of exposed metal looking back. At least I know where all of these came from (my fault, I was traveling a little too close behind a pickup and it threw a rock....boulder....small planet back at me as we both cruised down a gravel road).

The day of the appointment came and off to the dealer I went.

Aside from the scheduled oil change (a $169.00 touch there, after taxes), there were a few recalls to deal with. One was for the possible corrosion on the parking brake shaft, the rear brake caliper boot not keeping moisture out and a fix to the automatic adjuster for the parking brake pad. The other was for replacement of windshield wiper links (another water/moisture issue).

While that was going on, I spent sometime in the parking lot, checking out the updates to newer RVR model and seriously eyeing up the Eclipse Cross.

Cleaned and serviced, I am now ready to take on more of life's challenges (except maybe that white car beside me, I will let that one go....).