Downward Spiral

“the desperate assumption that somebody... or at least some force - is tending the light at the end of the tunnel.”

I took my vehicle in to get the dash replaced since the patch work they did looked like a patch on a pair of jeans. You know the type, the jeans are a faded blue, and then there is a noticeable dark blue patch over the knee area. Well, the colors at least matched, but other than that the repair work which was done on it was sub-par.

I had additional work for the body shop as well; my rear bumper was struck this weekend causing some damage. The body shop did a real good job of repairing the door, and color matching, so I figured they could do a good job with the rear bumper as well. I kind of wish that it could have been the front that was dinged up because there are scratches on the front, and it always suffer more damage from road debris.

So I headed back to Enterprise Rent-a-Car to be supplied with a Chevrolet Montecarlo.

I wasn’t thrilled with this choice, but it was better than several of the other vehicles which were presently on the lot. So I got into the car after doing the standard “walk around”, looked at the gas gauge and saw that it was on E. I wasn’t going to take this so I strolled back into the building and asked “is it policy to rent out a vehicle which has no gas in it?”

I was not being factitious either; the individual who had the car before I got in it must have thrown it into neutral to roll into the lot. The alleged manager snatched up the keys and found a peon to get $10 worth of gas. I felt vindicated in some sort of weird way, but it was also going to cost me fifteen minutes of my life {insert Henry Rollins’ time murder bit here}.

So I get the car back and start to make my way home. I am a firm believer in seeing what the car can do, and abusing them since I don’t have to fit the repair bills which may incur. The montecarlo is the most poorly designed, unresponsive, slow piece of crap on the road. I was not going to be happy driving this thing, and the drivers seat offered zero comfort. I am not happy with this vehicle – in some weird way I preferred the sentra to this.

So Tuesday I decided to press my luck and request another vehicle. The same Enterprise employee was there who snapped at the peon, and I explained to her that I was not happy with the vehicle they had supplied me with. You think I would be given the Nissan altima – no I was thrown into a Chevrolet impala.

Same interior, same poor handling, poor engine performance, different shell, but after requesting a swap I figured it would be best not to press my luck by asking for something else again.

So not only is my opinion of these GM vehicles extremely low, but they still equip these vehicles with cassette players. No CD player was present in the car – are the people at GM stuck in the stone age?! Even a base model sentra had a CD player, but trust those “folks” at GM to cur corners every possible way they possibly can. What else can you really expect from a poorly designed car – maybe that is why GM is practically being forced to give these cars away with little no markup for the dealer.