I finally got my car back.

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PlacentiaSoccerMom · #1 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 11:28 am

I finally got my Tahoe back, with a brand new transmission. This morning, I could resume my habit of taking Maddie to school in my pajamas. (The rental car was so tiny, I felt like everyone could see in.) I also went to Sam's Club and filled the back with stuff that we needed.

One of my friends asked me to take her kids home yesterday because she had to take her mom to the hospital. Her 12 year old son is 6' tall and she was worried that he wouldn't fit in the "clown car" that I was driving. The kids hated the car because it smelled like cigarette smoke from a previous occupant, so they called it the "asscar."

I saved money on gas with the rental, but I really feel safer in my big, tall car.

ghostjmf · #2 Post by **ghostjmf** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 4:02 pm

I've got a question. OK, don't worry, its a rhetorical question.

At an airport a few years ago they signed me into a pickup truck. I had a very bad sinus infection at the time, with no sense of balance (or much hearing on one side), & I basically whined at them that if I was to try to drive even their "small" truck, I would crash it from the no sense of balance & total disorientation & could they please give me a small car, as I'd requested. That time, they found one.

At another airport recently they were fresh out of "what you requested" due to stranded customers renting it before you got there, & they gave me some giant car the size & height of an SUV. I had to drive it up skinny mountain roads & hated every minute of it. The rental company gave me a $30 rebate for complaining, which I didn't expect; I just wanted my "when I say small car I really mean small car" to register.

At a local rental place recently, because my car is not trustworthy any more, I had to rent a vehicle for a "local" (400 mile) trip. I begged them for a both small & gas-efficient car, but they said they were limited by most of their customers wanting boats, so that's mostly what they had. When I worked as a lowly rental car shuttler many years ago, we were shuttling the size cars people asked for over to the local drop-offs. Apparently this just isn't done any more.

They gave me a Toyota something or other, which got excellent mileage but was the one that looks like someone cut the cab off a semi & perched it on, you guessed it, an SUV chassis. It was a lot more fun all around than that luxury boat on an SUV chassis from the airport previously, but was still an SUV. I can drive them, when I don't have ear infections & no sense of balance, but I don't like them.

So, the rhetorical question is:

Why do people who request teeny cars get the biggest, highest-off-the-ground cars the rental place can possibly come up with, while people who are used to SUVs & pickup trucks & probably request them get stuck in teeny cars?

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #3 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 4:57 pm

For me personally, I didn't think that I would be in a rental car for almost two weeks, so I took what they had. My insurance only covers $25 a day for a car rental, so I picked out a car that my insurance would cover and it turned out to be a "clown car."

My mother-in-law told me that we could afford for me to rent a better car, but I didn't want to spent the extra money.

I appreciate the heated leather seats, automatic door locks, large cargo space and power windows on my car after dealing with the "clown car." I also feel like my family is safer in the Tahoe.

geoffil · #4 Post by **geoffil** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 9:17 am

Every time I have been on vacation and the car I reserved isn't available, I get the line "We are going to upgrade at no charge". That is another way of saying we don't have what you want so we will just give you what we have and fool you with the upgrade comment. We were staying at the Venetian in Las Vegas and we were told they only had rooms left in the brand new Bella Venezia tower. So I got a "free" upgrade. The hallway connecting the hotel to the lobby was under construction so all guests had to make a 10 minute walk detour to get to the elevators to go up one floor. Then another 5 minute walk to a second set of elevators to get to the rooms. Ugrade, shupgrade. Beware of that word.

ghostjmf · #5 Post by **ghostjmf** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 11:14 am

As geoffil & I have indicated, just the act of asking for a teeny car should have triggered the "all we have is Hummers; its a free upgrade!" response. Maybe them being told its an insurance rental, & therefore sensing, even though you didn't, that you might be in posession of said Hummer for more than a weekend (what my rentals are usually for), caused them to actually gave you a car they could afford to miss for two weeks.

wintergreen48 · #6 Post by **wintergreen48** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 1:57 pm

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:I finally got my Tahoe back, with a brand new transmission. This morning, I could resume my habit of taking Maddie to school in my pajamas. (The rental car was so tiny, I felt like everyone could see in.) I also went to Sam's Club and filled the back with stuff that we needed.

Must have been a fun day for the folks at Sam's Club.

silvercamaro · #7 Post by **silvercamaro** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 3:20 pm

wintergreen48 wrote:
PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:I finally got my Tahoe back, with a brand new transmission. This morning, I could resume my habit of taking Maddie to school in my pajamas. (The rental car was so tiny, I felt like everyone could see in.) I also went to Sam's Club and filled the back with stuff that we needed.

Must have been a fun day for the folks at Sam's Club.

LOL!

Of course, if she was wearing her snazzy new shoes, I'm sure the Sam's crowd assumed the jammies were fashion-forward.

MarkBarrett · #8 Post by **MarkBarrett** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 1:14 pm

A clip from the Ellen Degeneres Show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdZvgtLgvsw

Forward to 4:15

WWTBAM Bored

I finally got my car back.

I finally got my car back.

Re: I finally got my car back.

Re: I finally got my car back.