Australians love cleaning their cars. It is one of our core values, which John Howard refers to in his recent memoirs.
Yesterday I received in the mail an unusual gift. It was cleaning mitt for keeping my car spick and span. Attached to it was a note from the manager of a car dealership here in Canberra, which regularly services my vehicle. I think the gift of the mitt was a customer loyalty reward.
Oddly the package containing the mitt came from Hong Kong, yet, as I say, it still managed to have accompanying it, a signed note from the Canberra service manager. On the back of the package, with the soft cleaning mitt inside, was a customs declaration, presumably so the mitt could more easily enter Australia (after its long journey from Hong Kong), by explaining to any inspector who perused the package that it contained a Mazda cleaning mitt and not contraband.
The mitt seems to be designed to encourage the cleaner to place his or her hand within it and then commence washing the vehicle. Unfortunately the mitt didn't come with any instructions so I'm not sure whether it washes either or both inside and/or outside of the car. I'm pretty sure the mitt is designed to fit either left or right hand, and one size fits all (short of gargantuan). Upon first opening the package and pulling out the mitt, I thought, at a pinch, I could also use it as a rather amorphous puppet for entertaining children. However children are quite sophisticated nowadays, so if it was to be used for this purpose, it would need to be done judiciously, with very young children.
Apart from servicing my car and occasionally giving me loyalty gifts, my Mazda dealership also cleans the vehicle, usually both inside and out, as a way of showing how much they appreciate my business and inducing me to return for future tender loving vehicular care.
However, at my last visit for a car service, the one that prompted the subsequent gift from Hong Kong, while sprucing up the exterior of my blue Mazda 6, they neglected to clean the interior, as they had done many times in the past. I was slightly disappointed, but given the wash and clean was a bonus, not detailed on the service sheet, I decided not to mention the apparent oversight, after I picked up my car. Nor did I bother filling in the post service appraisal survey to chide them for the lack of an interior clean, after the post service appraisal survey was sent to me a few weeks later (from within Australia not Hong Kong).
The ironic appropriateness of the cleaning mitt after the lack of an interior clean did not escape me. Maybe at my next service, if they forget to change the oil, a month or so later I'll receive a few litres of oil, via the post, from some exotic location.
The last time I gently criticized Mazda via their post service appraisal survey (for an inaccurate speedo issue), I received a flurry of letters and phone calls followed by a small Lindt chocolate in the mail, as a rather touching way of begging forgiveness.
I can't say which of the Lindt chocolate or the cleaning Mitt I appreciate more. One is worth about $8 while the other is worth about $15 and comparisons are odious. Suffice to say, with the recent lifting of water restrictions stopping car washing I can't wait to put my new Mazda mitt to work!
