BrianandLibby.com

The most tangible perk of my new job is the fact that they supply me with a fleet vehicle (def - free car for both work and personal use, for which I do not pay gas, insurance, maintenance, etc, and is never more than 2 years/60k miles old). Pretty awesome. I won’t get my car until after training, which ends in mid August. I was, however, given a rental on my start date. Enterprise manages the rental, and on the day I happened to drop in, the only car they had in the “full size” class was a Jeep Compass. My initial reaction was that it was my lucky day. The test of time has shown that, alas, it was not.

I have since compiled a long list of complaints for this car. I immediately noticed that visibility in it is horrible…and I’ve driven cars of all shapes and sizes. Every lane change is a leap of faith in this vehicle because there is such a large percentage of space around you that you absolutely cannot see, neither directly, nor via mirror. Next, I noticed that it has power roughly equivalent to that of a lawnmower. When you accelerate quickly, it just makes an extremely loud noise and sort of slugs along. You kind of feel bad for it, so you let off the gas. This way it never has to work too hard. Sneaky little car.

Even more negatively impactful was the fact that any passenger in this vehicle (and sometimes even the driver) found themselves extremely nauseous and sometimes lightheaded. This I cannot explain, but trust me, it’s been tested, and it’s true. The last straw was when I discovered (while driving 3 hours to Stamford, CT) that the Jeep Compass does NOT have cruise control. Combined with the fact that the gas pedal is so oddly situated that my heel does not touch the ground when I drive it, this was a dealbreaker. I have to drive back and forth from NJ soon for training, and I need me some cruise control.

So I called Enterprise first thing Monday. They put me in a Mitsubishi Galant. I was prejudiced from the get-go (because I’ve test driven them and, well, didn’t buy one) but I went to pick it up anyways. It smelled strongly of smoke, was dirty, and had squealy brakes. I was back at the store within an hour. Sorry, I’m usually not a pain but this is my primary transportation mode for the next 6 weeks, and I will be spending a lot of time in it.

They offered me a white Dodge Magnum, which the rep described to me as “P-I-M-P” (yes, he spelled it). Can you picture me, in all of my five foot two glory, driving one of those? I’m not sure if he thought I would want one or if that was all they had, but I think my facial expression conveyed my lack of enthusiasm for the Magnum.

Fortunately, the Magnum wasn’t where it was supposed to be, and I ended up with a sweet new Maxima, which I expected to be acceptable, but has proven to be much more. Not only does nothing bother me in this (awesome) car, I’m actually looking for excuses to drive every hour or so. It will be a miracle if I do not get a speeding ticket in the next six weeks. Don’t worry, I’m staying within reasonable and usually legal speed ranges, I just get there quicker :)! When I get on the highway I’ve noticed that it’s so smooth that my speed creeps up without me noticing. Fortunately, I should be ok, because it DOES have cruise control.