I’m adding an addendum to my Layla adventure tale today. I took in a 2003 Saturn sedan with a customer complaint of noise in the front ever since he had a minor accident, which required the replacement of the Saturn front bumper. After an initial inspection, I took the Saturn out for a road test, and heard nothing. He okayed my keeping the car for a drive this morning, because it sounded louder cold. It turned out to be how the bumper mated to the frame. When the car settled overnight, the noise would become audible until it was driven for a while. The customer explained every time he took it in to be checked, the noise would disappear, which led to the funny point I’m getting to.
The customer said, “My Saturn’s like the frog in the old cartoon, where it would pop out singing until…”
I started laughing, knowing right away what cartoon he meant.
“You’re really dating yourself, pal,” I said, which got him laughing too.
In the Warner Bros. cartoon, a poor sap finds this case which he opens. A frog jumps up with top-hat and cane singing ‘Hello my baby, hello my darlin’, hello my ragtime gal’. Every time he tries to exploit the frog for money, it simply sits and croaks like a frog.
I didn’t charge him for checking the noise; but I should have charged him a hundred bucks for planting that stupid song in my head for the rest of the day. :)