Full Size Car

When we flew to Chicago last month, we reserved a full size car at the rental agency. I was expecting something like a Ford or Chevy sedan. The biggest car they had was a Dodge Charger, and a Charger is no longer a full size car, at least not the way they measured full size cars thirty years ago. They had a little placemat-like chart on the counter to help you guesstimate how big a car you needed. A Charger, by their estimate would hold five people, which was enough, but it would only hold two bags. As we had seven bags, I could see that this was not going to work. The only vehicle they had that was any bigger was a Dodge Durango. I am thinking: "What? One of those behemoths?". But that's what we got, and it was tight fit. Bags packed to the ceiling, and a forty dollar a day surcharge. But what you gonna do? Got places to go, people to carry, so we load up and off we go.

Ugly vehicle to my way of thinking, big chrome headlight and taillight fixtures, but it is practically new, everything works, and it runs smoothly. Best feature was the automatic passenger window switch. Power windows on the drivers door often have a "one touch" automatic down feature. Press the down button once, and the window opens all the way. Up until now I had only seen it on the drivers window. Here they have it on the front passenger's window as well. Nice when you first get in the car after it has been sitting out in the sun for a while.

It turned out the forty dollar a day surcharge wasn't, or else the original rental was close to free. They did have more paperwork about insurance that was a nuisance, which caused me to walk around the car before I took off. I think this must be because of the scumbags who bang into things and try to claim "it was like that when I picked it up".