I once bought a used car from a car rental company.
People thought I was crazy. ‘Don’t you know how those cars
are treated?’ they all asked.
I thought they were treated better than the average person’s
car. They got a good going over every time they were returned. They got regular
maintenance (probably more than your average car.) They were washed
often. Detailed often.
I thought I was being pretty smart.
Besides, it was a four cylinder Ford Pinto station wagon.
What were the chances the renters were pulling wheelies, doing donuts in the
parking lot or power braking in a drag race? I don’t think a Pinto is even
capable of those things!
It was a good price with relatively low mileage. It worked
for me.
So when the time came that I needed another car my thoughts
turned once again to the rental company.
Until………
My mother came for a visit.
Her car was in the shop so she rented one.
As the old cliché goes…..it was a dark and stormy night.
Actually it was a ‘nor'easter.
Our neighborhood was at sea level and flooded on sunny days. During a storm we were
mostly submerged.
We were lucky, our street was slightly higher than
most of the other streets in the neighborhood so we usually only got about six inches of flooding. But the street around the corner….the one that we used to leave the
neighborhood by….that was another story.
That street turned
into a veritable swimming pool.
I don’t know why I never mentioned this to my mother. I just
didn’t think of it I guess. Or I thought she knew…….
We had a lovely visit, said our goodbyes….hugs and kisses
and she climbed into her rental car and left.
About twenty minutes later she knocked at our front
door, shoes in hand, slacks rolled up to her knees, hair matted to her head, wet to the bone.
She had driven the rental car around the corner and straight
into the dip in the road into what she called ‘the gaping maw of a lake’.
She had tried to restart the engine but soon realized it
was a lost cause.
Being the good children we were we donned our raingear and went
to try and rescue the car.
There in the middle of the street was the car…….in all its
glory.
The driver’s door was open; the water was covering the
seats. The lovely cream colored leather seats of the brand new Cadillac
Seville.
The rental company told my mother she was the first one to
rent it!
The brand new submerged car in the middle of the street that
was now, for all intents and purposes, a community swimming hole!
The tow truck had a heck of a time getting to
it much less hauling it out of the puddle.
You know how in movies when they pull a car out of a river
and the water pours out of it……forever?
Yeah, like that!
Needless to say I didn’t but my next car from a rental
company.
(Yes, she had taken the extra insurance when she rented it.
Smart woman!)
