Thursday, August 11, 2005

3,000 Miles!

While driving to Reinach yesterday to walk Sam and George (they're dogs, not people), MY Jeep's odometer hit 3,000 total miles driven in 2005. I say MY Jeep because it is officially MY Jeep. It was Mrs. TBF's Jeep when we moved it here from the U.S. - the title was in her name only. However, when I went to register the Jeep at the Motorfahrzeugkontrolle, they put the Swiss title in MY name only (AAAHHHH Switzerland - Where men reign supreme!).
So...MY Jeep hit 3,000 miles driven in 2005 on the 222nd day of the year which means that I've averaged about 13.5 miles/day. This figure seemed quite high to me, but then I remembered that we took a driving trip to Burgundy earlier this year, and that must have added a good five-hundred miles to the total.
This is quite a change from the "good old days" when I worked. Back when I worked as a sale rep for Yellow Freight System (1986-1993), it was common for me to drive more than 3,000 miles per MONTH! I used to go to the Oil Express in South Holland, Illinois on the first working day of the month and have the oil changed. Nowadays, I go to Emil Frey in Münchenstein and have the oil changed ONCE PER YEAR (...don't freak out all you motor-heads. I use synthetic oil)!!!
The Big Finn - Friend of the Environment Since 2000!

4 comments:

Michael Lehet said...

I know how you feel! I've had my car for almost 5 years and it just flipped over to 14K miles.

I live 2 miles from work.

The DP said...

no fun for both of you

the miles that get put on the cars in my universe...

oh well, one of them is getting a rest while we are in Switzerland.

speaking of men reigning supreme, i am having some issues with that myself. why does my husband have to be king of his castle at home and in the eyes of the swiss administration? not fair!

Kirk said...

I couldn't believe when we took our car to Emil Frey when we first got here and asked for an oil change and they actually talked us out of it. They basically told us it was completely unnecessary to get oil changes every 3000-5000 miles like back home. I can't think of another time a mechanic tried to talk me out of spending money...

The Big Finn said...

We had the exact same thing happen to us. Right before embarking on a driving trip from Basel to Madrid in December 2001, I went in to Emil Frey to make an appointment for an oil change. The guy said we didn't need it, and he said that we should go on the trip and then make the appointment for service in February. I told him I'd feel better having the service before the trip, and he pretty much told me that they wouldn't do it because it was not time yet. Whatever!