When your car has to stay in the shop and they give you a rental, why is it that the vehicle is never by the same manufacturer? You drive in with a crippled Beetle and leave the rental place with a Volvo.
Rentals have improved over the years in terms of model and appeal, especially if you’re in need of one because yours is in for repairs. In the old days, I found myself in some real hoopties (or, for you older folk, jalopies). I got to use a newer Nissan during a recent repair excursion. At least it appears to be a 20-something year model.
A car by another manufacturer has its own little quirks, and the renter doesn’t provide a guide beyond showing you where the obvious things are. I’m used to everything being non-power on a car; I crank my windows and lean over the passenger seat to adjust the right mirror so objects are not in the spot you expect them to be on I-295 driving 65. This car had power windows and side mirrors, and it had so many buttons on the steering wheel, I was worried I’d thump the wrong button with my hand by mistake and make passing truckers laugh at the silly lady driving with the flashers on.
I learned quickly how to make sure the buttons worked when I wanted them to, like by leaving the key on without the ignition. They don’t send you to Power Accessory Upgrade School for these things, you know.
The symbols on the controls of some cars are hard to read. I wanted to squirt some washer fluid on the windshield, but the curvy arrows on the turn signal wand didn’t provide a clue. Sure, wipers are wipers in any car, but if I contorted the wand in the direction the symbol indicated just to shoot some liquid on the window, I’d have wrapped the wand around the steering column. Fortunately I didn’t need the fluid badly enough to take the chance.
The dashboard panel goes from a bright orange letter “P” when I’m parked to an orange “D” when I’m driving. I don’t know why I need to see the obvious when I’m doing the shifting myself using a device next to my right leg that has the same lettering on it, but there you go.
Cars have different ways of telling you how much gas you’re wasting on your trips. My recent rental had a semi-circular row of orange squares that would vanish as the gallons disintegrated into the atmosphere. My poor baby in the shop has a needle that sweeps from “F” to “E” quite effectively. The rental agent asked me to return the car with four squares on the readout. That’s easy to remember: that’s my daily diet.
Finally, a rental vehicle loses any sort of distinctive odor after a few different people have driven it. The exception is if a driver smoked in the car. The interior of a rental is spartan; no fuzzy dice on the rear view mirror, no CD in the player or spare change for the toll in one of those spring-rigged holders. My rental did have an adjustable cup holder that can be shifted to accommodate two small drinks, two large drinks, or one small and one large drink. They thought of everything. I still took mine back from the shop and, even if this was the ploy the rental agency had in mind, I don’t think I’ll change car companies. I have a few thousand miles of window cranking left in mine.
Susan's Scribblings the Blog 