They may have mentioned the oil leak due to a safety inspection, most oversees bases require such things but maybe your area does not. Of course like many shops they may just be upselling the repair service to make money, that what shops do for a living but actually you need to do something with that leak, it could get bad enough without you knowing it until you run out of oil and kill your engine. You say the car is Euro spec so I am thinking that it was not shipped to Germany by another GI in its recent past which would make it a Japanese Domestic model. The valve cover gasket probably can just be tightened down a little, see if the nuts or bolts holding it are semi loose, do not over tighten them as a 10 mm or 12 mm nut stud or bolt will shear off easily. Buy some GUNK brand engine degreaser and clean it up afterwards but watch out for getting water into the spark plug area and in the distributor. Your AC has a leak but how fast it will leak is debatable, its too expensive to fix here in Japan so we just reservice a couple of times a season unless the leak is visible in the engine compartment, most leaks are under the dash at the evaperator and not worth fixing here but I do not know how much the work costs there, you may be ahead by at least getting it sniffed for leaks by a shop to ID the leaking area. If you need more help on a visual inspection let me or someone on this thread assist you. With your experience that the system worked last season the leak may not be too large but it wouldnt be right for me to tell you to just top it off, that is your call depending on where the leak is once again. The law here is very lacks on freon issues, you cannot get real R12 any more, we use a substitute that is designed for use in the R12 system, to do a real retrofit is very costly as R134a will leak right through your R12 rubber AC hoses. Based on my local prices for the valve cover gasket, possible half moon looking or round seal on the end and some rubber seal washers under the hold down bolts plus labor it would be about 75 clams to get it done here. You may not need all of these little rubber pieces which dont increase the cost much anyways. There really arent any more of these old versions left on the road in my area but parts are still available. You didnt mention which engine by engine type that you have. I suggest you do what you can to make the car last at least as long as you are going to be stationed there then you can throw it away if you like, my theory on repairing a trusted old car is better than buying a completely unknown nice car that could turn into a lemon. Duane in Japan

It's your TV. Bought my Philips sept "06 @ Walmart. Does exactly the same as you describe. I thought I was going deaf & was very upset till I realized it was the stupid TV, not my ears. I am on dish network but doubt that matters because I have trouble with sound on DVDs. I just rented Syriana and had to run it a second time with subtitles on so I could know what was going on. Your experience makes me dead certain it is your TV, (and mine too). I doubt they will take mine back after so long. I'd take that junk back if I were you. With AVL turned off it's a bit better but sound is erratic at best. What a lousy ripoff. Good luck with it. Geo

Midi's are notorious for having wacky default volume settings. I avoid them if at all possible.

Thanks for all your help everyone. I have only seen this little one 4 or 5 times in her life and now I will have her daily. I am not planning on being the fairy god mother and granting all her wishes; her mother did enough damage that way, but since she is afraid of us to begin with, I didn't want to start out being the meany. (Guess I have no choice). Unfortunately, it's a long drive (2 1/2 hours) and stopping every 5 minutes would take up our whole visit. I guess I'll try the 5 point harness with the car seatbelt for now. At least she'll have to think about that one for a while. And her dad will be going with from now on to pick her up. I raised one holly terror, I guess I should remember the rules! Thanks a million everyone... I'll try to check in more often and let you know how things are going. Dolce