Full Size

On Friday when I went to pick up my rental car, imagine my shock when my Full Size SUV waiting for me was a Ford Freestyle. It was started and getting warm for me, but as soon as I saw it I went to the service counter to see what my other options were since this was clearly not going to be large enough for me and my colleagues. It doesn't help matters that the rate was 89.99 a day. Even though it's not my money, I'm not going to pay 89.99/day to drive a Freestyle. (My apologies to those who drive Freestyles, but they're not for me) The gentleman behind the counter was very nice, and realized the sham that was being pulled on me. They didn't have any SUV's cleaned, and had the Freestyle, a 4x4 clean and ready. They were thinking that I wanted a 4x4, not necessarily an SUV because of the predicted bad weather here. I explained to him that I needed to fit 4 people my size and luggage in this vehicle, so I needed a Trailblazer or Explorer, and I'd even pay the upgrade fee for an Expedition (knowing they would probably just give it to me). They offered me a few other small 4x4 cars, all of which I turned down, as well as a Hummer. Yes I turned down a Hummer. Actually it was an H-3, and believe me, they're small. After telling them I wasn't in a hurry and I'd wait for a little bit for them to clean an Explorer, I drove off the lot 15 minutes later in a Ford Explorer.

Unfortunately this is a growing trend. Somehow, rental car companies are now considering a Chrysler Pacifica, a Montero, an Escape etc as full sized SUV's. They consider a Ford Taurus, a Ford Focus and a Honda Accord a Full Size car. I think that in their efforts to be more environmentally friendly, they're trying to steer people to smaller cars. Perhaps they're looking out for me and trying to help me save money on fuel. They don't understand that I NEED the larger vehicle. I don't care about the fuel expense. If we get a larger car, we can save on the number of cars that we get, which in the end, saves money.