At 5:39 this evening, my Passat was parked in the lot of the Volkswagen dealership in Grasse, waiting patiently for its first scheduled maintenance, the 1 year or 15,000 kilometer (whatever comes first) tune-up. There are a couple of dealerships that would be a little bit closer, but the one in Grasse is where we bought the car, and I always feel I get better service there. VW in Antibes once went as far as telling me that I shouldn’t expect great service if I insisted on buying my cars elsewhere! Needless to say, I haven’t gone back there. Tomorrow, we’ll leave Vicki’s Polo in Grasse for its tune-up when we pick up my car. They won’t believe their eyes: it’s a 2002 model and only has 17,500 kilometers (less than 11,000 miles) on the counter...