dirty rental cars

a couple of weeks ago, my sister-in-law backed into the freestyle with her minivan. i've been reluctant to even say anything about it because i know how it is when you make a mistake with your car, and there is nothing to gain by making someone feel bad about it. even though her husband jim has been pushing me to make the most of this situation, i still don't believe in rubbing any salt in the wounds. the beautiful mrs k backed into her brother's car in the same driveway last year...it wasn't pretty. let's just blame the tight driveway and leave it at that.

so a dented door and fender meant that the freestyle once again had to go under the knife. you may recall last years trip to the body shop when a wayward man bashed the rear bumper whilst we were on our way to the movies. it seems the freestyle's body is a magnet for trouble. anyway, we dropped the star crossed minivan surrogate off at the body shop and went to enterprise to pick up a compact sedan to use during the rebuilding.

enterprise, although they may pick you up, doesn't clean up. as in clean up their cars. my rental was the stylish 2007 pontiac g6 four door gt. i've always liked the lines of the car; smooth, flowing, with tidy dimensions. after driving a couple of them, though, the gm of old comes through with fisher price interiors and turned me off. so, i wasn't expecting too much out of the silver rental. but, i got more than i expected. trash. dirt. the stench of cigarettes. no washer fluid. service engine soon light ablaze. only 28,000 miles, and it's kind of beat.

well, at least it doesn't cost much.

it is fun to drive, i think. it's got the 221hp 3.5 in it, so it gets out of the way quick. and it handles pretty good, although it has a healthy amount of torque steer. actually, i like driving it. i wouldn't want to live with it forever, but it's easy to overlook the cheap interior once underway.

now, if enterprise could just take care of their cars a little.....