Rental Cars

So here is the thing about rental cars.  Over the last two weeks I have had two.

The first was a red Chevy Aveo, red.  Why would anyone want a red Aveo.  It's like having red underwear, who cares?  Not a bad car really though, but ugly (butt ugly?) and it did not have speed control.  Why would any rental car company have a car without a speed control?  I rented this car from National car rental as Hertz, my usual rental firm, was out of cars that day.  The positive was that it was cheap to rent and it was clean.  The negatives?  Well it could barely get out of it's own way. With the low power and the lack of a speed control I had a terrible time keeping the speed to anything approaching steady.  I found my self slowing down to 60 going up the Arkansas hills and speeding up over 80 going down.  Several times I looked down to see I was going over 80 mph down a hill.  I would have a speeding ticket in no time with this car. I had to press the pedal down so much to keep it up to speed going up hill that I ended up going way over speed downhill.  The air conditioner worked okay and kept me cool but my left hip started hurting much sooner than in most cars.  The seats had only enough support for a tiny woman.  An adequate car for a teenager around town but uncomfortable for a fat guy and slow (and noisy) on the highway.  Speaking of noisy it did have a plug for my iPod but no USB plug for charging so my iPod was dead when I reached my destination.  Honestly everything should go to a USB plug for charging.  the cigar lighter plug has way outlived its usefulness.

Okay so the second car I rented from Hertz.  Hertz does rent some cars without speed control (Ford Focus I believe) but the local Hertz guy always gives me a choice if he has one of a Toyota Corolla or a Chevy Cobalt and though I like the Cobalt okay and it usually has speed control I took the Corolla this time.  The gold Corolla four door had a speed control which maintained my speed for me on the highway and the air conditioner worked great.  The seat was much more comfortable and my left hip did not start hurting until the very end of my drive.  The mileage was about the same and the stability of the vehicle on the highway was much better.  While in the Aveo I was almost blown off the road every time an SUV went by the Corolla was rock solid all the way.  In fact a VW New Beetle came a bit close when passing me in the Aveo and I thought I was going to lose it for a second.  The Corolla is a much better car and the cost was almost identical as well as the mileage so don't take the Aveo if you can get the Corolla.

Now as for the rental car companies I prefer Hertz.  National insists on having a walk around of the car before and after the rental which is ridiculous and just takes extra time.  I want to get in the car and go and I want the drop to be just as quick and national just seems to take a bit more time.  At Hertz it is all about me getting on my way.  I have paid more for Hertz when on vacation just for this reason.