Monday, June 21, 2010

Project 365 - Kia Soul and Other Rental Car Stories




I made Kent stop outside the rental car garauge for a picture before returning our car at the Atlanta Airport following a great weekend in the Atlanta area.

When you travel with the frequency of Kent and I, you get exposed to a lot of different cars. Given enough time there are bound to be stories - the rental car in Greece that got the side mirror ripped off, the one in New York that smelled like an astray and the power outlet that did not work, the big truck for the ski trip to Lake Tahoe, the noumrous times we've been stuck with a mini van or grampa car, the speeding ticket in Mousarri, the convertable in Key West or the big station wagon in Itatly. Yes - we have had some intresting or memorable car rental experiences. We really only have three criteria - one that the car has not been smoked in, two that it does not wreek of some odor of unknowen origin and finally sattalite radio. We rent with National all the time and are Emarld Isle customers which allows us to make all arrangements online and completely bypass the rental desk to have to turn down the offer of purchasing insurance and not I don't want to prepurchase the fuel, I'll bring it back full - thank you very much! Emrald Isle also means that you walk out and pick out your own car - you get to see off it passes the smell test and assure it has satettle radio and that it's activated. We've been know to "test" several car before finding just the right one. You can bet that the grampa cars and mini vans we ended up with had not been smoked in, smell and that they had sattelite radio!

We have rented variuos Kia vechicles over the years and they are surprisenly nice cars. I've never rented on however thinking - "I could see myself buying one of these" until now. The Kia Soul was cute, it got good gas mileage, it was fun to drive, it was nimble and easy to park and had all the room we needed. This one was brand new - we were the first to rent it! I always feel a little bad because we rack up the miles. In our short little visit we put on over 1000 miles!

The story that will acompany this car will be the boot that got put on it when we parked it in a space in an apartment complex for a few minuites while we went into the Atlanta train station. We were litterly there for 5 minuites when I looked outand saw security booting our car! Crap - cost us $75!

Have a good one -

Jim

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

1 comment:

  1. Summer is here and I see you have sunshine. It is going to be hot here today. It is almost 80 % outside my kitchen window on the front porch. at 10:30 am. I expect it will be mid ninties today. Need to water! Went for a nice drive yesterday as we had someone sit with aunt Midge. drove a little over 100 miles and had a near head on with some idiot who was on a cell phone. No where close to your 1000 in a couple of days.

    ReplyDelete