The morning of March 27th, I brought the Jeep in for service at TORRICELLI MOTORS INC.’s modest one-man auto repair facility.
I had brought with me from North Carolina a photocopy of the original 1950 Owners Service Policy in hopes of finding Sadler Motor Sales, the Willys-Overland dealership that issued the Policy. Jokingly, I had hoped to get them to honor the clause that in the Policy that states, “Throughout the life of the vehicle, the owner is entitled to have it tested and inspected without any charge every 30 days or 1,000 miles by any Authorized Willys-Overland Dealer …….” Sadly, the evening before, Jake had informed me that Sadler Motor Sales had gone out of business years earlier (who would have thought), leaving me with no reasonable recourse. Did I light up when I discovered that Alex Torricelli, owner of Torricelli Motors was the son of the subsequent owner of Sadler Motors franchise, the dealership that had provided the original Owners Service Policy for my Jeep.
- Figure 20: Owner Service Policy awarded to the original owners of our
- Jeep Station Wagon when purchased in July 1950.
Alex confided in me that this father had loved those Owners Service Policies, since (as in my case) some chargeable service could usually be found when the policyholder came in for his “free” inspection. Between casual conversations with passersby and the only other customer in his shop, Alex drove the Jeep onto his low-lying stationary rack and crawled under the car to manually grease the multitude of fittings and change the oil. He deftly adjusted the brakes, which required adjusting two brake cams at each wheel. I have done this several times myself, but never with the resulting “high pedal” that he achieved. At the conclusion of the Jeep’s servicing, I presented the 54-year-old Owner Service Policy to Alex and requested a discount. We both had a good laugh.