Between the news that Hertz is buying 100,000 Teslas—sending its market valuation above one trillion dollars—and today’s 1993 Cutlass Ciera post, a car I rented way too many times, I pondered briefly what the most memorable rental car I’ve ever had. I’ll tell you after the jump, but it wasn’t really all that exciting. More like sad.
But I’m sure you’ve got a good (or bad) story about a rental car experience.
In December of 2008, right in the depths of the financial market meltdown we took advantage of dirt cheap airfares and absurdly low hotel rates to finally treat ourselves to a couple of weeks in Hawaii. In typical Niedermeyer fashion, no, we did not book a resort or time share; we decided to keep moving and see things.
The first ten days we spent circumnavigation the Big Island, in a really crappy 2008 Dodge Charger. Mediocre 2.7 L V6, and black Rubbermaid interior. It certainly didn’t spoil our fun, but it didn’t enhance it either. It was a splendid week, and we saw and experienced so much.
The second (short) week was to be a bit more relaxed, renting a house on Kaui, which is one of the smaller islands. The airport is pretty small too, because the big guys had crazy high rates, I ended up renting from a little local outfit, that had only used cars, like Rent A Wreck. I was given the keys to a very well used 1993 Camry V6, with 174k miles on it. It was technically a beater, especially the interior; not nasty, just well used.
But the quality of this old Camry still shone brightly. The V6 pulled as hard as ever, significantly more so than the Charger. The shifts of the automatic were both crisp and soft. The shocks were a bit soft too, but it still handled just fine. Ironically, this 15 year old beater quickly endeared itself as a vastly better car than the almost new Charger. My appreciation for these Camrys rose that much more.
On the way to the airport, we were in constant stop-and-go traffic on the main road (there are no highways per se on Kaui). I was behind a big, tall Ford pickup. At one point, Stephanie said: “Look at that gorgeous beach!” As if we hadn’t seen any constantly for two weeks. But I turned my head to look, and a second or two later noticed the Ford’s brake lights in my peripheral vision. It was too late: Kapow! I ran the nose of the Camry right into his big bumper and hitch.
The young driver was apologetic, as he admitted that there was actually no reason for him to stop so abruptly. There was zero damage to the Ford’s bumper, but the Camry’s hood was badly smashed, and steam erupted from the broken radiator. And our flight was leaving in less than an hour. I asked the driver if he could take us to the airport, and he obliged. We tossed our bags in the bed and hopped in. And I called the rental place and told them where they could find the Camry. And apologized.
I felt really bad about that, putting down a fine old steed like that which still had a few more years of life in it. FWIW, it’s the only time in my life I’ve totaled a car, and I’ve never had a crash of any sort since. And it had been a long time before that, too.
Distracted driving, the primary cause of all crashes.
I’ve actually only had one rental car experience, as I’ve generally either driven to where I’m going, or had my own (or a family member’s) vehicle waiting for me when I arrive. That one exception was two days after Good Friday in 2000 where I set off with a friend to retrieve my Pyrochicken (a 1995 Firebird) that had been stolen two days before… making that not a particularly good. Friday. The thief made it to Tremonton, Utah from northwestern Montana, and the car had suffered some minor damage from being stopped by nail strips while passing rush hour traffic at 120mph going toward Salt Lake City. My insurance agent sorta brushed me off, so we just rented a car and headed out.
The car was a new Oldsmobile Alero in either an anonymous silver or anonymous beige- I don’t remember which. It had the 2.4l 4 cylinder, and it scooted us to our destination at up to 90mph without drama and better than I figured a 4 pot would, and returned decent fuel economy to boot. We had the back of the car loaded with tires and tools, as the police weren’t very clear what kind of damage my car sustained.
The rest of retrieval of the Pyrochicken is outside the scope of this story, but suffice it to say that it all turned out reasonably okay. I also do recommend the Alero as a rental car. Hold on… whaa??
I can only remember renting a car a couple of times, but I remember enjoying the Focus I had for about a week when my Taurus had warranty transmission work done.
I was surprised that it was as much fun to drive as it was. I was kind of bummed to get the Taurus back.
The only thing I didn’t like was the hard cheap plastic interior. It was just awful.
Awesome mpg too. I drove a ridiculous amount of miles that week and it cost like $8 to fill up (2008).
I even tried to be the “cool dad” once and drove extra zippy in the Focus around some corners to impress my boys. The Taurus was a competent car but no one would call it “zippy”, so I didn’t want to waste a chance to enjoy some corners for a change.
They were not impressed, felt carsick and I felt stupid and embarrassed.
I travel to Hawaii Island, aka Big Island, at least yearly to visit relatives, and sometimes Maui with friends that have roots there. My last Maui rental car experience almost ended like Paul’s on Kauai. I was driving a Dart in fleet white, which led to my friends landlord thinking I was the building inspector. Driving into the sun, an old pickup with invisible rear lights suddenly stopped to turn left. I barely escaped using the right shoulder.
Due to the mountains I have learned to despise CVT’s and found Ford’s dual clutch transmission actually works, just not in stop and go traffic. Last rental was a Buick Encore. The turbo four and six speed traditional automatic worked well, even climbing and descending the steep terrain, while delivering remarkable gas mileage. With more ground clearance than a sedan, I was right there with the jacked up local pickups on the more remote beach roads. Only one spot did I chicken out.
In 2009 my wife and I went to a wedding a few states away. Nothing incredible about the car (white Dodge Charger,) but I had no idea there was no radio antenna on it–they’re not whips like when we were kids and whatever what was supposed to be there wasn’t.
We realized this about 40 miles in after one CD. I stopped at a hardware store and played around with foot-long threaded rods until I found one which fit.
Antenna for the stereo should be in the rear glass.
Worst rental I ever had was a brand new 2008 E150 Toyota Corolla/Auris hatch while my 2005 Mazda 6 was being repaired after I hit a cow on an unlit road at night. The Corolla’s interior featured creaky hard plastic everywhere, the gear shift was weirdly located and quite unergonomic, the handbrake design was angled up sharply meaning it got in the way all the time (and frequently pinched my fingers upon use), the ride was poor, and the boot was pathetic. It was so bad I took it back after 3 days and hired a 2002 Ford Mondeo instead. The Mondeo’s dashboard had a lot of hard plastic and a stupid cup holder, but the ride was incredibly plush, not at the expense of the handling, and it was so comfy I didn’t want to give it back when my Mazda was ready.
We had a 2002 Mondeo 2.0 manual as a milk runabout a couple of years ago not a bad car and fast no Eroad either so it wasnt tracked, I got told to chase my truck down over the Napier-Taupo hwy, take the Mondeo was the command,I had it up around 160 kmh most of the way till I caught my DAF near Tarawera it handled great at speed not as well as my Citroen nor was it as comfortable but a good car no mistake it was a favourite amoong the drivers which made it hard to get until my swap partner got hold of it kept hiding the keys so everyone else was relegated to Commodores or the Ranger ute.That Mondeo had 420,000kms racked up and still went well it had been maintained well
I know I’m late to the party, but I just got back from a trip to my native New Hampshire today (hi John in NH). I flew up for a week to visit family and try to find something to do while folks were at work. I reserved an intermediate car, or something like a Jetta. When I arrived the guy offered me a Hyundai Venue. I told him I wasn’t interested in a crossover and he then asked if I’d consider something sporty. He had my attention and I was thinking Challenger but just as the car appeared seemingly from the mist, he asked if I’d ever driven a Miata. I hadn’t and I really wanted to. And, to top it off, it was an RF, exactly what I want. Well, this one is an automatic, but what do you expect from an airport rental?
I was thrilled and immediately put the top down. It was a beautiful 5 days with temperatures just warm enough to allow top down driving. In fact, I never drove with the top up until the day before leaving when the rains came.
I drove it to the beach with my dad, drove all over southern NH, and took it up to the famous Kancamagus Scenic Highway and thought, what the hell, and drove it up Mt. Washington (with the top open the entire time). I drove almost 1,000 miles, with all but about 10 of those miles in NH.
The car wasn’t perfect. It’s a 2020 and had 24k miles on it when I picked it up, and it was worse for the wear. It had 4 brands of tires on, the driver’s seatbelt didn’t retract right and it wouldn’t buckle unless I jammed it in hard – and sometimes not even then, the fuel door didn’t work right and was badly dented from people pushing hard on it to open, the engine was knocking and dieseling, and the infotainment system was incredibly frustrating to use and buggy. It would frequently randomly disconnect, the input method using the click wheel was inefficient and non-intuitive. It has a touch screen, but only when using it outside of CarPlay/Android Auto. I was never able to figure out how to have a text read to me despite the little message saying I could do it by tapping. Tapping what I never figured out. The volume knob would be ok in the middle but it sits too far back to reach easily while driving. And the windows would roll down a smidge and then roll back up when putting the top down, but they wouldn’t roll up when putting the top back up even if the windows were all the way up before. I’m guessing it was in a significant accident at some point based on the seatbelt issues. And finally, it is loud inside with the roof up, nearly as loud as with it down.
All in all, what a fun car to have as a rental, I couldn’t have asked for anything bette. I’m seriously considering getting one. But I certainly wouldn’t buy THAT one.
Knocking and dieseling? A 2020 model? Wow, it must’ve really been seriously abused!
Trying to upload the photo again…
Land Ark’s account of the Miata reminds me of another reportable memory. Bill and I used to go down to Tucson more or less every January to converge with friends and get some sun-and-warmth relief from Toronto winters. This always involved a rentcar, and one year I was offered a Sebring convertible. Tshure, why not! The top was already down.
We were on the highway, about halfway to the hotel when a big chunk of metal flew off (or out from under) the vehicle in front of us. Not a piece of sheetmetal, I mean something solid; I only saw it for a second or two, but I think it was an axle-and-flange assembly or something like that. It missed Bill by very few inches, turned the radio antenna into a pretzel, and put a big divot in the top of the quarter panel.
I dropped a very shaken Bill at the hotel, turned around, went back to the airport, and exchanged the convertible for a car with an actual roof. That one came with a primitive navigation system with a prim Englishwoman’s voice we immediately dubbed “Emma”. Plenty laffs over the rest of the trip as Emma would give us impossible directions (turn us onto a cul-de-sac, then order us to proceed one-point-three miles straight ahead) and scold us for ignoring her directives.
My most memorable rental was a Landrover Defender 90 in the UK in 1998. It’s still the only time I got to drive one and was great fun rumbling around Hampshire and the Isle of Wight sounding like a Routemaster bus. We also got a few laughs 10 years later while visiting family in DC when the only thing we could find to move 4 people and 4 bikes was an F150 Crew Cab.
I worked for Hertz as a transporter in ’77 and ’78; my first thought when I heard this was “are they going to provide training for the people renting?”
I realize that Tesla and other electric cars aren’t too uncommon, but would think that still many people renting have no experience with them. Probably isn’t hard, but owners learn the charging drill and where to find charging locations ahead of time, but they know they will be using the system for as long as they own the car (i.e. a reasonably long time hopefully). If you rent a Tesla frequently, you’ll also probably want to learn, but what about occasional rentals (or really infrequent rentals)? Will they get a Tesla, or be directed to rent a gasoline car?
If people aren’t going far, it probably doesn’t matter. I’d guess lots of travellers only rent for local use, and even if they don’t/can’t figure out how to charge it they’re probably OK. But there some (that paid my upkeep when I worked there 43 years ago) that rent cars one way, maybe to avoid wear/tear on their own cars…maybe they’ll be directed to renting conventional cars? If not, will there be “rescue” vehicles to give them a replacement and somehow get the car back to a place it can be charged…if so, will there be an upcharge for this service (kind of like the fueling charge is now for gasoline, but probably higher. I guess this could happen in a conventional gas car (if someone just didn’t fill it up) but probably less common, but there are always “Kramers” who either take it as a challenge to get every mile out of a tank, or a charge, or people who simply have other things on their mind (but I’d guess at some point the car itself prompts the driver to seek out a charging location before it goes completely flat…but what if they can’t get there, or just assume they can drive into rural areas that might not have charging infastructure?
My most interesting rental, well I’ve had to drive back cars that were in bad shape (stolen), or had mechanical problem (bad alternator) to our home location when I was a transporter, but I really didn’t have the job long enough to have too many stories. Lots of times I had to find a car not being familiar with the area, some Hertz locations are pretty small (remember trying to find the one in Lake Placid) though some we went to all the time, like Harold’s Gulf in Montpelier (but it was only 45 minutes from our home location, so most common though small). Sometimes we’d be up all day (doing something else) and they’d call us for a pickup, even though New England is pretty small, lots of trips weren’t in the order you’d normally expect (i.e. pick up cars in Montreal, and Boston, 2 different directions…lots of time there were more than 2 different places) and you’d be driving a long time if you ended up being the one who had to go to the “last” location, usually farthest away, maybe after being up all day already. I also remember always being asked to open the trunk of my car as I went through customs at the border, a 19 year old driving a late model Thunderbird (with no parents, alone) looks a bit odd.
In terms of my own rentals, I remember a few. One kind of reminds me of the Tesla, but instead was my only manual transmission rental, which was in the town I now live in (in the sunbelt) before I moved here, back in 1983, a Toyota Starlet. I’ve rented cars in Europe (not in Asia though, the only other place outside the US I’ve been) and all have been automatic, but also all have been since I rented the Starlet. I’ve rented in the UK, and having to drive on the other side, as well as tighter roads, (though there are also places in the US that are like that, in my experience most of them on the east coast) so I can appreciate why it is tougher to get a license there, you have to use your skills often.
One time I was travelling with my family, we rented a car in Switzerland, drove through Germany, Austria Hungary and into Slovakia. I failed to decelerate fast enough and got two different speeding tickets on the same trip (believe it or not, never have in the US, despite working for Hertz, I’m basically a slow driver). I had gotten pulled over earlier in the day, and my Father was a bit upset with me about it, we were in Hungary, crossing the border into Slovakia. We went through the normal border crossing, but we must have matched a profile (way different than when I had to open trunk on the Thunderbird going into the US from Canada working for Hertz all those years ago)..instead we had a Ford Scorpio wagon loaded to the gills (my family aren’t exactly light packers, and they were all with us) with Swiss plates. Right before that, we’d stopped at a town (I think it was Miskloc) to buy gifts (mostly liquor) for our relatives, whom we were going to visit. About 25km past the border, we were pulled over, my Father was really mad at me but I insisted I wasn’t speeding, but fortunately my Mother (who was born in the US, but both parents were Slovak, so that was her first language) understood that they wanted us to turn around and follow them back to the border. My Father eased up on me, but I made sure I drove slow as molasses back, I wasn’t about to risk a speeding ticket, and didn’t know why they wanted us to go back. It turned out they just wanted a better look at us, they asked for our passports (again) and at one point indicated that they wanted me to open up the rear hatch of the wagon so they could take a look. We got a bit nervous as we had bought a fair amount of alcohol (we don’t know our relatives well, but we did know it’s pretty common hospitality there) which we’d put there (along with many cans of diet coke, which my sisters found in the store and I think bought out what stock they had). Anyhow, on top of the luggage was my Father’s day bag, which they wanted me to open…the most interesting thing in it I can remember were packets of instant oatmeal…the border official seemed to give up, indicated that they were satisfied we were who we appeared to be (tourists with a ton of luggage) and sent us on our way. I must have asked our relatives about it, but I don’t recall what they said (it was probably in Slovak, of which I only know a few words, or they might have shrugged their shoulder). One of our relatives does speak English, but she was much in demand with this skill, and I don’t think I ever got her to find out what happened (or maybe they just didn’t know, though I doubt that). The rest of the trip went smoothly. I also remember being told to park the car inside fenced area, there are lots of gypsies in the area, and guess (at the time, maybe less so now) our car really stood out. We actually paid more to park the car in a fenced area (instead of outside the fence) than we did for our actual accommodation which was about $1 to park and $.50 for the lodging (an autocamp)..and that for 5 people in our family. We’ve since had a few relatives come to visit us in the US (including two who stayed a summer, before they married), but they never needed to drive in the US, we took them where they wanted to go (or they took the bus when they wanted to be independent).
Though Hertz still specialized in Fords back then, and we still had more of them at our location than any other make, we also had Dodges, and I worked for them in ’77 and ’78 so…yes, I drove ’78 Diplomats as well. Even recall driving the 2 door coupe (but maybe only one, they weren’t uncommon but the Sedans were more popular. The odd thing to me was that we did have Aspens but not as many as Diplomats, of course the mix of cars varied by location but would have expected that Aspens would have been more common. On the Ford side, Granadas were common, along with LTD II and Thunderbird, but there were no Mavericks nor Pintos, I would have expected more of the latter. In ’78 we had plenty of Fairmonts, but of course none in ’77. I don’t remember any Plymouths either, just Dodge and Chrysler..not sure why (maybe resale?)
I even drove a ’78 Magnum (only one) it was uncommon car even then, but it stood out, Though I knew fuel mileage was king, maybe I was in denial since that size was available since ’62, but it disappeared quickly (when the Mirada replaced it). I drove similar cars (mostly Thunderbirds, but also colonnade Grand Prix and Cutlass, strangely no smaller ’78’s) but didn’t realize how quickly they would disappear though they had been common up to then. Drove an AMC (Pacer), Toyota and Datsun (Corolla liftback and 510 (late 70’s of course)). We had some GM, mostly compacts, like Olds Omega and remember one B body, but they were’t common at our location.
Guess it helped get it out of my system, such that I’ve owned few cars myself, I got to “sample” different cars (and cars seemed more different then compared to now). The funny thing is “mundane” cars back then like the Omega and Nova are pretty uncommon now (namely RWD cars); I don’t think Hertz had a single front wheel drive car at our location..guess because other than Tornado or Eldorado they would have had to have been imported, which were still rare as rental cars. Things changed quickly just a few years later, but I stopped working for them by that point.
I hadn’t rented a car for years until 2016, when my Father and both his brothers died (his whole generation) and all of the funerals were out of town….we moved around so much and never lived in his hometown, which is where his and his youngest brother’s funerals were held (other Uncle was in a different town, 1900 miles from where we live).
The airport is so small in that area, even though it is shared with another city, most of the flights are commuter, it is hard to fly directly in (though we did for my Uncle’s funeral) that for my Father’s, we ended up flying to a nearby larger airport and renting a car. It worked out OK, though the cars we rented weren’t exactly what I’d plan for a funeral…the first one was a Jeep, which came in handy when there was a bad snowstorm after the funeral, which delayed our trip home, but still used the 4WD. The next month my Uncle died, and we had much less driving (since we flew into the nearby airport); we got a Ford Fusion, which would have been fine, but it had black wheels, which might have normally been OK, but wasn’t in keeping with something you would drive in a funeral party. The third rental (actually my last rental, though 5 years ago) was a Ford Explorer, which I really didn’t want/need since I was on my own (no other family came with me) but I had neglected to update my phone, still had a flip-phone without GPS, so I agreed to get bumped up (probably more than one) class to the lowest level they had that came with GPS service (yes, pocket took an ouch, more than doubled the rental cost)….I kind of knew the area, but it had been 35 years since I last flew into that airport and significant reconstruction (the big dig) occurred since I’d last been there, so I assumed large changes, plus my faulty memory which would have forgotten parts of the route, and of course not wanting to risk bothering my family for directions along with my admittedly luddite stance upgrading my phone to something that would have been much less expensive and continuously useful for that task thereafter. It all worked out fine, sometimes doing things too late causes you to have to spend more money. Anyhow that last rental was the only one I’ve had keyless ignition, and at the pickup spot I wasn’t able to find the (fob, or whatever you call the thing you keep in your pocket that gives proximity to the car) and although I could start the car, I didn’t want to drive off without knowing where it was, after all I was going to have to find it if I was to exit the car and not risk someone just getting in and starting it. That’s where I’d recommend the rental agencies put a holder somewhere on the dash to keep it evident, not just throw it on the seat or dash or other surface where it can slide out of view to who knows where. With concern for my family, and not knowing the roads as well as I would have liked, didn’t need more uncertainty about transportation, especially since I was paying more than I figured for that part of the trip.
Over the last 40 or so years I’ve flown over to USA from London UK many times to visit friends in New Mexico and/or San Diego and pick up bits for my ’55 Fleetwood and ’47 Indian Chief. I book rental car beforehand from a European site specifying that I want the cheapest smallest economy car as usually it’s me on my own. However as I usuallyfly into one of the airport hubs like Houston, Dallas, Phoenix I have found that on arrival at the pickup desk I’m alwys asked if I want to upgrade, at cost of course, to a larger vehicle. On replying No I’ve always been given a four door largish saloon as I guess they actually didn’t have any small cars (this is up to 2010 haven’t been over since then). Now to my best rental… in 2010 flying into Houston I was given a brand new 3.5 L high output Dodge Charger which was fabulous and looked so good in photos , like this taken in White Sands, NM.
Another reason for asking for an economy car was that I usually drove about 4000 mile round trips, so even with the low cost of petrol (as compared with UK) it still mounted up. On the 2010 trip in the Charger I went from Houston to NM(stayed 5 days with my friends), then up to the Tetons in Wyoming via Arizona and Utah, and then back to Houston via Nebraska, , Kansas , Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi , Louisiana. Quite a long drive that in just under 3 weeks.
On these trips I have taken many hundreds, maybe thousands of photos of vintage cars parked up, on the road, in junk yards etc so was very interested when I found your Curbside Classics site.,
Never really had any really bad cars not even in Mexico where I’ve also driven many times and thousands of miles and always liked getting a fairly beat up one there as they usually took a knock or two which didn’t notice.
I’ve driven fairly low slung cars round teh Monument Valley trails which can be pretty rough going, I’ve noticed most tourists preferring to take the Jeep tours , I’m sure reference has been made to the fastest car over very rough ground … a hire car !
John Low,
You have a 1955 Cadillac Fleetwood in the UK? Do you know the couple in Andover, Hants with a ’55 Fleetwood 60s?
Hi Bill,
I bought my ’55 in the ’80s in London, was running beautifully but needed body and interior work so I drove it up to Coventry about 25 years ago and it still resides there in a workshop (it’s a long story…had too many classics and not enough time to enjoy). At that time I only knew of one other 55 Fleetwood in UK which belonged to couple who also had an airstream, it was blue I recall. There’s probably a few more by now but i haven’t been going to shows etc for a long time, too many things on teh go. I was a member of teh Pre 50 club for many years and the Cad owners club from it’s start
Cheers
John,
Yes, that’s the couple I was referring to. I know them [and their cars] very well. That blue ’55 is a no-rust car with factory A/C from Texas. Had you not known them, I was prepared to put you in contact. Did you know the Brooklin model of the ’55 60s and the airstream were modeled from their car and caravan? That’s why the early version of the Airstream has the UK type of cooking gas cylinders on the front frame.
Hi Bill,
I didn’t know them, bumped into them at shows, was the lady’s name Jan or something like that ? I recall they were involved with a club,maybe Pre 50 or another more local one, I used to go to a few with various vehicles but the 60S was only taken to one at Syon Park, …. then I took it up to Coventry and forgot about it. Did you know Patrick Bowers who had a ’56 60S in the original pink ” Mountain Laurel” ? Soon after mine “was sent to Coventry,,,” a friend asked to borrow it for his wedding if it got finished in time but as not I borrowed Patrick’s and chauffeured them. Instead of going straight to reception after ceremony in SE London I drove them and a friend who had a super 8 camera all round London, him getting out and filming us driving round Buck palace, Piccadilly etc… Jap tourists taking photos of us… a grand day, shame it wasn’t in mine. I particularly wanted a ’55 Fleetwood as I was a teenager in the late ‘50s and a great Elvis fan and in mid ‘80s met a guy in the Pre 50 (I had been a member for a long time having a ’43 Willys Jeep , a ’43 HD WLC 45 and the Chief) living near me in SE London who had a ’49 fastback and 3 ‘59s, one of which was an Eldo Brougham, all needing restoration and a ’55 which had been completely restored running wise which I bought from him
Sold the Jeep a couple of years ago as like the 60S I just hadn’t used in years, still have the 2 bikes and a ’55 Citroen TA Commerciale and a ’71 DS… how about you ? what’s your classic interest ?
Cheers !
And another photo, this taken at Syon park show, Patrick’s ’56 can just been seen 2nd along from mine , can’t quite see the pink body but white roof stands out (photos digitized from old film)
John,
Yes, that’s my friend’s Cadillac, and I should point out she’s proud to tell people it’s HER car! Their names are Jen and David, and they created and operate the big “Spring vehicle meet” every Easter Monday* at the Newbury Showground. They have a rather eclectic vehicle collection, from a 1932 Essex Coach, to a 1965 Lincoln Continental 4-door drophead.
*So as not to confuse anyone, this past event’s date had been changed to September of 2021 due to Covid19 restrictions.
another photo of the Dodge
My brand new Honda Prelude was in an accident in 1987. I was given a red Chevy Corsica as a rental car. It was miserable. It kept running out of gas when the tank was full. The rental company towed it away and I was given another Corsica, green this time. That car kept breaking down as well, but in a different way. They towed that away and brought me a miserable yellow Dodge Aries. Horrible car, but at least it ran. Both cars were miserable compared to my amazing Honda Prelude. It’s no wonder that Honda thrived and GM failed in the 80’s and 90’s.