Let me, for the benefit to  start by saying if I were to be labelled a “fanboy” of anything…Mercedes-Benz would be one I’d be close to being guilty of. Exotic cars in general, but Mercedes has a special pull for me…I’m not sure if it’s my German heritage crying out to me or just something about them…I couldn’t put my finger on it, but hey, they make some pretty cool cars. Anyway…disclaimer aside, here goes… (btw…I was here 2/23/2010)

This has literally gotta be one of the coolest bathrooms I’ve ever been in. If it were in a Honda or VW or Ford or Kia or any other car dealer (despite Honda’s near-stellar reputation, I’m not a fan…I like Ford trucks, their now-defunct Excursion, and they did probably the best job of any company of renewing the retro side of the pony car-era with the new Mustang…VW owns Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, and Bugatti, so there’s some love there, and truthfully, although it took me a while, I like the New Beetle…I still wish it were a rear-engine configuration, but oh well)…I would feel exactly the same. No joke…this bathroom is cool! The first thing you notice when you walk in is the TV screens built into the mirror (see picture #5) and right above the urinal (see picture #1). I’m not sure if there are TV screens in the stalls, I didn’t check. Ironically, as you can see in pictures 4 and 5, the channel was on CNN, where James Lentz, President of Toyota USA, was discussing before a Senate panel the issues Toyota was having with sticking accelerators (some of those stories turned out to be fake). Finally, in pictures 6 and 7, you can see the sink they had in there. I tried to capture how the thing worked in picture #7, but it didn’t come out very well…anyway, there are no sinks per se. This is a solid slab of granite sloping toward the mirror, with a trough running behind it that collects the waste water and soap. The sink heads are automated and start when you put your hands under them (pretty standard).

For all the cool stuff in this bathroom, I’m giving it four-and-a-half rolls. “But, Bathroom Guy,” you might be asking yourself, “why only four-and-a-half? Why not five?” Let me tell ya, pardner! I’ve seen some amazing bathrooms on the web and in person (for some reason more when I was a kid than now…hmm). Although this bathroom is really cool, it can’t compare to the bathrooms in the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo for orginiality or design, and as I remember them, some of them are five-roll bathrooms).

Rating:

So I was here October 7, 2009. Whaaaa?!? Unfortunately, I got a little behind in my reviews and am playing catch-up now…I just found a ton of reviews I hadn’t done (like Thai Basil)…and then I found some more…dating back earlier. I’ll do my best to catch up…might be a few days.

Anyway, I was here to get the F-150 serviced…if you’ve ever had to get your “standard” service done at a dealership, you know it takes a while. Future Ford of Roseville consistently does a good job, and they’re deserving of their high rating from Ford (I was gonna say “Five-Star Status,” but I think that’s a Chrysler thing…maybe “Five Oval”…I dunno).

The bathroom was clean and smelled good (which is really a plus, even if you ‘re only in there for a couple minutes—and kinda tough when you have people going in and out all day). It’s been done in light colors, tans which have sort of a pinkish/dusty roseish hue to them under the light.

Three-and-a-half rolls ’cause they keep it clean and good-smelling.

Rating:

Well, that’s an odd place to have a bathroom review…and it would be, if it weren’t for over $3k in damages to the car. Ugh…oh well, that’s life, right? Kniesel’s (pronounced Kuh-nee-zuhls) does consistently fantastic work, and the car comes back tomorrow (this review took place Friday 10/02/09…three days’ worth of work seems reasonable). Anyway…onto the review!

You’ll see in the entrance shot (picture one) and the fourth picture they have a divider/partition in the bathroom. I’m not really sure why, this is a one-user bathroom with a lock on the door…I suppose if someone manages to get the lock undone it gives the poor sap on the toilet a chance to scream out “Wait! Someone’s in here!” without being too embarassed. Of course, you’d think the other guy wouldn’t have any issues with embarassment if it comes to picking a bathroom lock…

The car magazines in picture five and the painting in pictures one and six are a nice touch and keep in-sync with the fact that this is, after all, a body shop. I love to read while in the bathroom as much as the next guy, but I’m not really sure about public bathroom magazines (frankly, that’s what my Instinct is for…catching up on news—and of course taking pictures—while in the bathroom). Shared public bathroom magazines…that’s just wrong. Three stars for an average clean bathroom that’s got a few nice touches. I’ll add half a roll as a bonus for the partition; it makes me smile.

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