Car Rental Craziness

Over the weekend our car - a Subaru Forester - is getting the clutch repaired.  At 90,000+ miles it's about time, and this is the first major repair on the car.  A friend at work who used to run a clutch and axle repair business is doing the work for $200 to $300 less than the dealer would've charged, and he's servicing more components, too.  Great deal!

The problem is that this is our only car, so we had to rent one for the weekend.  My company offers group discounts to a variety of consumer products and services and rental cars is one of them.  National boasted a 20% discount so I tried them first.  I called the reservation hotline and talked to "Ralph" and his heavy Indian accent.  He barely spoke English and after 15 minutes of screw-ups I finally had enough; besides, they were only offering about 5% discount for some reason.  So I called Budget (which also offered a discount through my company) and got set up with the right deal in a couple minutes.

All was cool until today when Amanda and I picked up the car.  Or should I say cars...  I crammed myself into a Pontiac G6 and drove 15 miles to the repair shop where Amanda dropped off our Forester.  On the way there I had trouble driving in a straight line!  I had to turn the steering wheel about 15 degrees to the left to drive in a straight line, yet doing so with a continued drift to the right!  But if I steered any further left, I was in the next lane.  This car only had 8,000 miles on it, and the brakes were squealing, too!  The G6 is a piece of crap.  I know I'm a tall dude but I could barley see out the windows because the roofline is low to provide a sleeker exterior look.  They call it a midsize car but I had more room riding in my friend's Ford Festiva in Germany!

We drove back to Budget and asked for a new car that didn't have steering problems.  I was pleased that they upgraded me for free to a Ford Taurus - ahhhh, legroom!  It's not a bad car but not a great one, either.  The ride home was uneventful until we pulled into the garage and Amanda said "hey, what's that hissing sound?"  The right rear tire was leaking air!!  What the heck?!  We get right back in the car and drive back to the rental office, about 20 miles away via the back roads since I wasn't about to test the tire on the freeway.

The guy at the counter was rather surprised to see me yet again, but he had no problem giving me another car.  This time we got a loaded Pontiac Grand Prix - climate control, leather seats, the works.  Somehow we made it back home and the car is still working fine - whew!  In my entire life I've rented maybe three or four cars, and now today I went through just as many!

The worst part about the whole affair is that in all the confusion, I accidentally left my sunglasses case in the G6.  Normally I wouldn't care about a little case but this particular one I received as SWAG during one of my solar car races in college (ironically it was a promo from GM, the race sponsor) so it was sentimental to me.  Oh well.  At least I fit in this car, the wheels work, and it goes in a straight line.

P.S.  Why can't I tell stories briefly?  For some reason I can't help but to go into details.  Hope you all enjoyed it!