German engineering

Ever heard the expression "German engineering" and wondered just what that meant? I have a clue.

I took my car in to the shop to have the headlamp adjusted. We had recently had a bulb blow out and it was replaced, but it was not adjusted quite right as it shone a bit too high ... that is not the "German engineering" part ...

... so I am at the shop, and the shop-owner says "the trainee will be doing your adjustment". Hmmm, the trainee? I have had trainees work on my car in the States, so I am a bit sceptical, but, OK, carry on.

So the trainee goes out to my car, places a "neat sheet" on the drivers' seat, drives up to the garage doors, opens the doors, drives in, closes the doors, turns on the lights and starts the adjustment. When he is finished, he opens the garage doors, backs out, drives the car across the street to the other side, parks, gets out, takes off the neat sheet, walks back, closes the garage door and reports to his supervisor (der Profi - the professional).

At this point - I thought the job was done ... but no ...

Der Profi now goes across the street, opens the car, puts a neat-sheet on the seat, drives the car back, gets out, opens the garage door, drives the car in, closes the garage door, checks the adjustment of the lights, opens the garage door, backs the car out, crosses the street, turns the car off, takes out his neat-sheet, closes up the car, crosses the street, closes the garage door and announces to the receptionist that the car is ready ... the receptionist turns to me (as I am seated almost right next to her desk) that the car is ready and the keys are in it.

ok. So what makes this so interesting to me?

The trainee did everything that der Profi did. Exactly. Der Profi did everything the trainee did. Exactly. (By the way, the German word for "exactly" is "genau" with a hard "G" sound as in "get" - it sorta rhymes with "fowl"). So - it was very genau. That is German engineering. You do the task the exact-same-genau-way-every-time. You are trained that way, you teach it that way, it is just *done* that way.

German engineering. It's why my favourite car when I was a teenager was a 1963 Mercedes 190 D ... that car was great.