Car kvetch
I am in California. I have the world's worst rental car. Sometimes when I am going to see my mom, if it turns out that it doesn't cost much more for a compact SUV, I go for it, because it's so much easier to get her in and out of such a car with a high front seat, and usually that gas mileage hit is not all that huge - they get in the low 30s, and so does a regular sedan, even the small ones (I'm not really sure what car manufacturers are doing to make a small car get bad gas mileage). Anyway, I have such a thing - it is a Chevy Trax. It's a 2018, which is pretty old for a rental car, but still seems to be fairly new in terms of general "being a car"; it's got 35,000 miles on it, and a Florida plate. (There's nothing really wrong with that, and it at least it shows people that I'm driving oddly because I don't know where I'm going, which is true.)
However, the rear hatch doesn't shut reliably. Three times it has said "trunk open" when I tried to start the car. So the last time I opened the hatch in order to get something out, when I tried to shut it, I checked if it was shut, and it wasn't shut, and it took like 10 tries to actually get it shut. In fact, it looks like the rear door is a little bit askew. I actually got inside the hatch and looked carefully as it was coming down, and it wasn't coming down square. So, I think for the rest of the trip I will simply not open it ever again. Fortunately, mom's walker will fit in the back seat, so I can get away with not opening it.
Also, this car does not have cruise control. What? I didn't think modern cars ever came without cruise control. Even granting the possibility, I would never expect a rental car company to have purchased a car without cruise control. It never occurred to me to ask about it. Naturally, it wasn't until the second day that I found this out, when I was 50 miles on my way and didn't want to turn around and redo a bunch of driving, especially since it would involve going through San Francisco again, so I just drove to Chico without cruise control. Turns out, my leg gets tired after an hour or so, so I stopped a couple of times at rest areas to walk around. And I'll have to drive back to San Francisco on Friday. (It's actually a new thing, the leg getting tired, it actually kind of got sore. Maybe I have some new strain or something.)
I suppose I should be grateful that they had cars at all, and that they are normal price (about $300/week including taxes and crap) instead of costing $600 or even more like over the summer.
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However, the rear hatch doesn't shut reliably. Three times it has said "trunk open" when I tried to start the car. So the last time I opened the hatch in order to get something out, when I tried to shut it, I checked if it was shut, and it wasn't shut, and it took like 10 tries to actually get it shut. In fact, it looks like the rear door is a little bit askew. I actually got inside the hatch and looked carefully as it was coming down, and it wasn't coming down square. So, I think for the rest of the trip I will simply not open it ever again. Fortunately, mom's walker will fit in the back seat, so I can get away with not opening it.
Also, this car does not have cruise control. What? I didn't think modern cars ever came without cruise control. Even granting the possibility, I would never expect a rental car company to have purchased a car without cruise control. It never occurred to me to ask about it. Naturally, it wasn't until the second day that I found this out, when I was 50 miles on my way and didn't want to turn around and redo a bunch of driving, especially since it would involve going through San Francisco again, so I just drove to Chico without cruise control. Turns out, my leg gets tired after an hour or so, so I stopped a couple of times at rest areas to walk around. And I'll have to drive back to San Francisco on Friday. (It's actually a new thing, the leg getting tired, it actually kind of got sore. Maybe I have some new strain or something.)
I suppose I should be grateful that they had cars at all, and that they are normal price (about $300/week including taxes and crap) instead of costing $600 or even more like over the summer.
This entry was originally posted at https://nosrednayduj.dreamwidth.org/101998.html. Please comment there using OpenID.