Less
than a mile north of my kids’ place in Asheville, North Carolina is a very busy
full service Auto Bell car wash. (I’m always wanting to call it Taco Bell for
some reason or other, but it’s definitely Auto Bell.) I like it because they
not only run it through the automatic soap – rinse – wax – wheel bright – spot
rinse – dryer stages, but they start out the whole procedure with a quick
vacuuming and rubbish removal.
But
those aren’t the biggest reasons I love this particular car wash. The real reason I love this Taco Bell . . .
er, uh, Auto Bell . . . is because when the car has been run through the entire
cycle, they’re still not done! Truth
be told, in the spirit of the late, great Karen Carpenter, God rest her soul,
“They’ve Only Just Begun.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__VQX2Xn7tI
) The white lace and promises are still ahead!
As
soon as The Beast rolls out the front door, a Finisher (my term) jumps behind
the wheel, drives it forward for a few yards, and then the real work begins;
hand drying everything the super-blow dryer didn’t get, wash the windows inside
and out, dust off the dash and seats, and yet another, more thorough vacuuming.
This is business as usual at the Asheville Auto Bell. Pretty impressive, eh?
But something happened on my last visit that exceeded even this impressive bit
of Auto Bell’s version of business as usual.
My
usual tip for the final, and only non-robotic phase is $3.00. I have no idea
why. It just is. Well, I was standing at my usual post waiting for, and
watching the young man that was my car’s Finisher. As is their customary
routine, he starts hand drying everything the super-blow dryer missed which,
surprisingly enough, are really quite a lot of nooks and crannies in not so
obvious places until you see the water pooling on, or dripping from them. But
then he does around the entire car again, hitting a water droplet here, and a
water smear from round one there. Then he wipes every spoke on the wheels, not
just the “normal” quick wipe-down, but a careful drying, almost polishing of
each surface.
I
reach in my pocket and grab another dollar out of my wallet.
Then,
as usual, he crawls inside, wiping down the dash and whatever else they wipe
down out of eye-shot. What’s unusual is that he’s in there quite a bit longer
than I remember from past visits.
I
reach in my pocket and grab another dollar out of my wallet.
Once a
Finisher crawls out of the front seat, s/he usually will simply pop the front
seat forward do a quick wiping down of the seats and a quick vacuuming. Not
this guy. He crawls into the very tiny space the manufacturer calls a back seat
and carefully wipes down the seats, side panels, back window, backs of the
front seats, and only God knows what else he did back there. He sure didn’t
take a nap!
I
reach in my pocket and exchange my five ones for a five dollar bill and a one.
Okay,
so he finally crawls out of the back seat (and this is a really big guy, almost
a head taller than I am) and I start to head out the door . . . but wait, he
gets his window spray out and strategically hits the windows again. Not the
whole windows all over again, mind you, but a shot here, and a shot there. My
presumption is that he saw flaws from the inside that needed touching up, so
being the obvious perfectionist he is, he touches everything up.
By now
I am standing there in stunned amazement. Once he appears to be finished with
his window spot check, he stands back and I begin to move forward once again .
. . but
wait! He’s still not finished!!
He
does a complete walk-around, mopping up a water droplet here, touching up an
invisible smudge there, and taking yet another stab or two at the wheels. (No
one EVER takes more than one look at the wheels.)
I
reach in my pocket and exchange my fiver and one for a ten dollar bill as he
waves to me, signaling that he is finally satisfied with his work. Not only do
I happily hand him the ten dollar bill, I shower him with praise for his excellent
work ethic, and remind him (or perhaps inform him for the first time) that with
this kind attention to detail, he will probably own the place one of these
days.
At the
very least, he won’t be washing cars much longer!
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