Oct 21
- For our vacation in Florida, I’m going to lump days 2/3, not enough details to warrant their own posting
- Let’s say this: 2 meals at Beverly Hills Cafe, one lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, 2 stops at the delicious and wonderful Ritters Frozen Custard, I got a haircut, one stop at Starbucks, one stop at Dunkin’ Donuts, some shopping and walking around the Sawgrass Mills Mall, 2 visits to the pool, some food shopping at Publix, and Miles now knows how to play and enjoy go-fish.
- I am suffering real bad on this trip. Avis stuck me the biggest piece of crap car I’ve ever had. Even though I’m preferred and all that crap, they gave me 2 choices – a Ford Taurus, which I’d refuse to drive to get out of hell, and a Chevy Malibu, which I knew would be crap, but underestimated the steaming piles Detroit is putting out these days. This one looks somewhat like mine.
The exterior just looks like a crappy american ugly mobile. Sitting at the wheel, as I’ve been doing the past 2+ days makes my blood boil. this is how it looks to me (photo below) and it isn’t pretty. My entire family can’t stand me, as I rant and rant every time I hit the gas. The dashboard is all plastic, with absolutely no character, and even worse, just the worst assembly of usability and features/functions. Hitting the gas feels like pushing a lawn mower uphill and slamming on the brakes has the feeling of wringing water out of a wet towel - it’s that bad. I can’t think of anything nice to say about it and while I knew GM was in massive trouble, I didn’t realize the UAW and GM management were so cripplied to put out any cars that don’t make me want to vomit. Every time I pass a Japanese car, I become green with envy. I’d rather drive the most basic of Toyota Corolla’s or Honda Civics – those 2 look like BMW 750il’s compared to this hunk of shit that Chevy built and Avis is renting to customers. I always liked Avis, and have had some nice mini-vans in the past, even a sweet Pacifica, this is as low as it gets. We get to Orlando on Monday night, and if we can stop at an Avis place to exchange, trust me, I may.
- Some points of note about this POS car: 1) it has an auto down for the drivers window, one-click and it goes down. it does not work for auto-up – STUPID.
- the shifter has a +/- on it. it really reminds me of the trim on a boat, that allows you to move the engine up and down, which you need in shallow water. assuming this car isnt capable of going underwater, my next assumption is that it’s one of those manual overrides to force the gar up/down a gear, even though it’s an automatic – but nope. the button is GM’s version of an vestigial auto feature, like your appendix. they designed and installed a button that doesnt do crap.
- the car doesn’t even have map lights! do any cars not have map lights these days? YES! the chevy malibu.
- when you use air conditioning, it’s often advised to put on the re-circ button to keep the cool air in the car. to my surprise, the car actually does have one of those buttons! however, even though i put it on every time i’m in the car, every time i turn the car off, it reverts to the intake from outside setting – man, that annoys the heck out of me.
- my car does have cruise control, but despite a flurry of buttons on the steering wheel, none of them control the stereo volume. hyundais do that! i think there are cars in india and china that cost $2,000 that have volume control.
- all in all, i knew GM was screwed and that the UAW had them paying billions to pay for retirement benefits and other GM perks. i see that, coupled with complete design idiocy has left them for dead.
- maybe this is a just a part of the “fleet” business, but avis, shame on you then!
