[ Day 51 of dead Boxsterina in the shop. ]

"M" called at 3PM to say...it is ready!

I almost can't believe it.

I asked him where the San Rafael office for Enterprise is. He said, "Don't worry about it, just leave the car here and I'll have it returned or picked up."

I drove over later. "M" had the car brought up. He said that it wasn't clean enough earlier so he decided to have it detailed. I gave it a thorough visual inspection. Super-clean, super-shiny. I met the two Porsche mechanics who worked on the car. When I asked whether I should give the new engine its 1000-mile break-in period, they both kind of scoffed at the idea. "P" restated what he said when I spoke to him previously: the car has a racing heritage; drive it hard; if it's going to fail, you want it to happen within the warranty period. He also joked that my diligence so far in respecting the break-in period has met with poor results. Well, I'm still going to go by the book.

"W" saw me and apologized profusely for all the trouble. We talked for a bit. I mentioned that I am going to write a letter to PCNA regarding my warranty. Since my car was a very late model year '98, and since model year '99s are being delivered now, with 4-year 50,000-mile warranties, and I'm only just now getting my car back after the blown engine and preposterous 51-day downtime, I think I deserve some warranty-related compensation. I want the '99 warranty.

Before I left, "W" walked over to where I was sitting and showed me a copy of the beautiful "Porsche Boxster" coffee table book. He asked if I had it. I said yes, I bought a copy while I was waiting for delivery. He said in that case I should go pick something of comparable value out of the parts department, as a token of appreciation for all my trouble.

Oh yeah--the car seems as good as new. I can't wait to give it a real workout again.