Carship Enterprise

Not being able to drive your own car can have a crippling effect on your daily routine. Walking to work (when not metro accessible) will leave you tired, hot, and with worn-out shoes. You could put on sneakers, but then you become “Nike Suit Man.” You don’t want to be him. Nobody should.

You can lose your right to drive your own car by several means. Someone could steal it. Maybe for parts, maybe because they heard you had the new Foo Fighters album, and they had to take the car to get the tunes. OR, you could get your car towed. This is a rarity for most of you, as you obey parking signs and have private properties on which to store your wheels, but if you need a change of pace, visit us at Random Run. We’ll be sure that they yoink it before you can blink. OR, you’re not driving for the simple reason that your car is getting repaired.

DING!

This is exactly the reason for my situation. A few weeks back, I was walking out of church on Sunday morning, enjoying the company of the Family Pretz while strolling to my one Accord. As I got closer, I saw that a woman and a girl were sitting on the hood of their car, parked directly behind me. Odd. As I got even closer, I noticed a note under my windshield. Very odd. As I got within earshot, I was quickly and apologetically informed that this very nice family’s newly-learner’s permitted daughter hasn’t exactly mastered “pedals” yet. Long story short, my car is visiting his mechanic friends to get a bumper replaced. The girl’s family has been extremely friendly and helpful and are taking care of all related expenses. I am only out the convenience of driving my car to work. Which means only one thing…

RENTAL CAR!!!

Renting a car does not only have to be a necessity to get from here to there. It can also be fun! I spent this morning dropping off my car for its bumperectomy and even though Enterprise claims “We’ll Pick You Up!”, I simply walked two storefronts down to the dealer. The first thing you notice is that there is not a single car wrapped in brown packing paper with a nice bow. Apparently, this marketing strategy was quickly discontinued when employees had to begin renting cars after driving vehicles with brown packing paper COVERING the entire windshield. I thought that management would have been able to preemptively catch that trainwreck.

When you rent a car, price is most likely going to be a concern. Here’s some pointers:
- If you are under 25 years old, get a friend. Or a bike. Both are cheaper to get your around.
- The $16/day insurance is a rip-off. Spend 12 bucks the first day, go to the supermarket, and by a whole lot of marshmallows. Pad your car the Stay-Puft way.
- I don’t care if they have a Hummer on the lot. Stay cheap. Even 6’4” bloggers rent economy or compact.

Of course, going with a smaller model gives you very little room to experiment with your temp transportation style. When I rent a car in January, I was issued a Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible. Wow, a convertible! If there hadn’t been 5 inches of snow on the ground, maybe I would have taken the top down.

Going back this morning, I was hoping the Eclipse would be available. This is a much better season for it. But nay, I was left with only two models on the lot, and they were both named Chevy Cobalt. The only difference was color. Having driven in my life a white, a gray, and a silver car, I’ve kept it pretty basic. Which is why I went with this for my rental car.

Red 5 Standing By...