Cracked

Up and about early this morning to take Mrs C’s car in to have the handbrake checked. She says it’s not holding the car on a slope, though I’ve used on several occasions in the past few days and not noticed anything untoward. She also asked them to fit new wipers whilst it was in as the existing ones were making a horrible noise.
With the car dropped off, we took advantage of the early start to go to the gym before it got too busy. We’d not been back home that long before we received the call to say the car was ready. I’d noticed a week or so ago that the clear indicator glass in my offside wing mirror was cracked - it seems a stone had hit it with extreme accuracy as there were no marks anywhere else on the mirror casing - so I thought I’d pop in and see how much a replacement might be.
Expecting to be told, in usual BMW style, that you couldn’t just replace that bit and you had to buy a complete wing mirror assembly costing hundreds of pounds, it was a pleasant surprise to be told that, yes you could just get that bit, yes they had one in stock and would I like to have it fitted - it would take about half an hour.
Having ascertained that a) I wouldn’t be able to fit it myself and b) if I did nothing, water would inevitably get through the crack and stop the indicator working (a common MOT fail, which is why they keep them in stock) and also the actual - and definitely expensive - mirror mechanisms might be affected, I gave them the go ahead and settled down with a coffee whilst the work was done. I was even given a complimentary wash and vac after the work was completed. As you can see the indicator unit is totally crack free, and the car is a lot cleaner than normal.
So, not a cheap day. Mrs C’s handbrake did need adjusting and - as I know from previous experience - wiper blades do not come cheap these days. And even a small part and half an hour’s labour are quite pricey in the world of BMW. I count it as a bonus that I could tap my card to pay rather than having to insert it into the machine! Mrs C was not so lucky…