I went to have my car serviced today and left the car for the day. An hour later, Todd Harrington told me I needed a new brake lining; was it okay to put one in?

He explained what a brake lining was and why it was necessary. He said he wanted me to have my oil changed more often than the Toyota manual required.

I said sure.

I thanked him for taking care of my car, and he signed off by saying, “thanks, buddy, we’ll take good care of it. I’ll call when it’s done.” Maria drove me to the Toyota dealer, and she waited in the car. I texted her and wrote, “Hey, come in and meet Todd, the service manager. He’s like family; you should know him.”

Maria, who has heard me sing Todd’s praises for a couple of years, was happy to come in and meet him. They shook hands and met like old family friends. It struck me odd to have this relationship with a car service manager. It seemed unusual to me. I’ve never wanted a service manager to meet my family. It felt pretty natural. They each seemed delighted to meet each other.

I’ve never looked forward to taking my car in for service before. Todd makes it fun.

___

My friendship with Todd Harrington, the Assistant Service Manager at Coggins Toyota in Bennington, is unlikely.

It is an uplifting story about a good man working for a corporation who has humanized the often tense and confusing process of buying a car. And has softened my distrust and resentment towards large corporations.

He unknowingly helped me see how the future might work for people like me, him, and his big boss, Mike Coggins. I felt more hopeful.

As a hopeless ignoramus when it comes to cars, I have come to dread the intense and tiresome haggling and posturing now built into the system of getting a car.

I have a longtime distaste for corporations, which have, in my lifetime, destroyed the connection Americans often had with their employers, treated employees harshly, and are helping to eliminate our civic system, drowning it with money and legal bribes.

They also helped in their greed and obsession with profit to destroy the destruction of the newspaper world, which I loved dearly.

Corporations are working hard to cripple our democracy as well.

Our political leaders no longer need to care much about us; they spend most of their time kissing the feet of big corporate donors. This is perhaps the most significant reason we wonder why our wishes are ignored. It would help if you had millions of dollars to serve the people.

I write about this not because anyone cares a hoot about my car and its service manager, but because good people ought to be recognized, and people in power need to understand their value and importance.

Todd and I are not bosom buddies; we don’t hang out together, yak on the phone, or watch sports on TV. We aren’t meeting for dinner, our connection has mostly to do with my car.

But there is a genuine connection there, and it binds me to his company. I can’t imagine going anywhere else to have my car service. I am loyal to him, but the other side is that he is loyal to me.

I don’t think I could have navigated all this car stuff without someone like him.

In 2018, my old Toyota SUV, a big one, began to fall apart. I know nothing about cards, but I know when the repair bills hit four digits.

When the pandemic broke out, I had this smart (for me) idea that it might be a good time to buy a car, and it was. They were more desperate than I was for the first time in my life.

I decided to lease a black Toyota Rav 4, a bright and spunky small SUV, the first time I bypassed a bigger one.

I got an excellent price for the car. I couldn’t afford to buy the same car today.

 

And I wanted a hybrid, which ran the car alternately on gas and battery power. (51 miles to the gallon, which is pretty good right now.)

While hanging around the auto showroom waiting for the paperwork to come out and while the money people searched for a banker that would lend me the money for a car, I chatted with some salesmen and service people. I asked them how they liked the new management, a wealthy local businessman named Mike Coggins.

He had also purchased the Toyota dealership and the Honda and Ford one.

The three dealerships sit like three battleships alongside one another on the way into Bennington, Vt.

While there, I met Todd Harrington, who introduced himself as my service manager. I liked him right away. He has a quiet, honest, and unrattleable demeanor behind hard eyes that mean business.

I told him I was helpless and knew nothing about cards, including hybrids.

He took the time to talk to me about the car and what it needed.

I trusted him instantly. Like all the other people on the floor, when I asked him about Mr. Coggins, the new owner, he said pretty much what everybody said.

“We like him a lot. He treats us very well,” he said.

That is not what I usually hear from people working in corporations. And he was sincere. And secure.

Todd insisted that I called him when I had questions. And I had a lot.

I’ve never owned a hybrid before (it doesn’t need a battery charge, the car powers itself.) I fell in love with this car. It was, from the first, the right vehicle for me.

It was small and environment friendly, peppy and sharp looking, and it zipped along the road with enough power for me and more.

I initially insisted on leasing the car, but after a year, I called Todd and told him I wanted to keep it for years and years.

I wasn’t sure what to do; this was a significant monetary decision for Maria and me.

He sat down with me and went over the pros and cons. He said if I loved the car and wanted to keep it for a long time, I should buy it.

He said I should also take good care of it.

Todd gave me good advice. I did buy the car, and I find myself looking forward to bringing it in to be serviced at Mr. Coggin’s place.

I wouldn’t take it anywhere else. Todd had taught me through several panic attacks when I didn’t understand something the car was doing.

He saved me when I thought the electronic key was misfiring and locking me out of the car (this was true, but he got me another key, and I found I had been pressing the wrong button to lock and unlock it.)

He encouraged me to buy insurance that would pay for any major car repairs after the warranty.

Hybrids are new; I could imagine some trouble down the road.

The insurance was affordable and reassuring. I appreciated his protecting me.

When a scammer called and talked me into an insurance policy I didn’t need; he took the time to stop me and saved me from a dumb move.

He did yell at me at that time to cancel the deal right away.

I did.

Todd never makes me feel stupid, which I am about cars.

He never laughed at me (well, maybe once), and I was struck by the atmosphere of the place.

They seemed to like their jobs unless they were all excellent actors.

A company with content workers is very different from a company with disgruntled and insecure ones.

I can tell which is which when I walk in the door.

I’ve had friends at car dealerships; they are notoriously miserable places to work, known for demanding bosses, long hours, and intense pressure.

I don’t feel any of those things when I see Todd.

When I buy something now, I want a Todd to be there and to work with people who feel treated well.

The significant change for me is knowing Todd doesn’t have much to do with the car, although I am thrilled with it.

It has provoked a reconsideration of my relationship with corporations.

They are not all bad. They can easily be better.

Some give lip service to customer service while hiding between beleaguered foreign phone representatives and impenetrable phone trees.

They say they want to hear from me, but that is a lie.

They want me to go on their websites and struggle with IDs, passwords, and SS numbers.

I’ve learned some things from Todd. His workplace shows me that doesn’t have to be the case.

When I call, I talk to a human, and they seem to want to help me, not just get me off the phone.

I don’t know you, Mike Coggins, and I will probably never meet you,  but good work and luck. You’re on to something.

Todd has humanized the process of buying a car for me.

I’m sure some employees are unhappy and bosses who are not pleasant.

But that’s the nature of humanity.

I don’t expect a perfect world.

Looking into the future, I see a possible path to a better relationship between people like me and corporate America.

Coggins is sure to give me the choice of talking to a human or a website.

It helps to hire people like Todd, who are naturally lovely and honest and want to help.

It helps to treat people well because they treat customers well.

This is a throwback to the long-day heyday of companies like ATT&T and IBM, where people were loyal to their bosses for life and vice versa.

Perhaps the pandemic shook us up to the point that the people running big corporations realize they have to be nicer and less greedy, treat their workers well, and put real humans in between them and the rest of us.

Todd would do well to start giving lectures about that. He seems pretty happy where he is.