Yeah, for sure unrelated. I guess I'm just humblebragging that my old car has been good to me so far. But of course I'm preaching to the choir.

I did check the fuse to no avail. I mean it looks intact--I'll check again with meter. But unless the mirrors are on separate circuits, I'm expecting it to be good, since the LHS mirror defrosts. Plus the lights on the switch (both the mirror and rear) illuminate as normal.

Not with this car yet, but I've had to deal with rodent activity where I live. I occasionally spray some repellant spray (smells like peppermint) in the wheel wells and on the insulation attached to the inside of the hood. They've eaten the foam insulation on my wife's old BMW, and I've seen droppings under the plastic cover that hides the coil packs on both of the T5s we've owned. I've seen them get into the airbox on a Honda, and into the cabin filter on my sister's Golf. My other sister had it the worst: somehow they made it up into the headliner of her fairly new Honda Fit. I've had them chew wiring on yard equipment (I'm wondering if this is what's going on with my 940). One of my vintage Vespas actually had a huge nest under the fuel tank, and their urine (why do they pee where they nest?) rotted out part of the pressed steel frame from the inside. I got it that way--happened to the PO on Martha's Vineyard. Being a New Englander (is Yankee a perjorative?) yourself, you likely have seen similar.

Yeah Bill, we chatted a little last fall when I got the car. I'm in the Hartford, CT area. I've moved around a bit, but always lived in CT. Boston has long been my favorite city (that I've stayed in, at least), but I recently tagged along on a business trip with my wife where we and the kids stayed in the Gaslamp quarter of SanDiego. That was pretty nice too, although we happened to be there during tropical storm Hillary. Oh the irony, because I visit California to get away from extreme weather (and visit family).