>> I get to my destination and go to the counter and invariably i learn
>> that I have been "upgraded" into some medium-sized car or worse.
I will never forget the rental car I had the week I spent in Simi Valley.
The travel agent that was used by the comapny I was working for at the time
specialized in finding the lowest price for a rental car. When I arrived at
LAX, I looked at my travel instructions and found the name of the rental
company, something like "International Car Rental". I searched the rental
board and found no sign of them, so I went back to my instructions to find
that I was supposed to go out the door by the rental board and pick up the
pay phone there and dial a number. A lady answered the phone "All Travel Car
Rental". I apologized and explained that I was looking for International Car
Rental. "Oh, that's us, too." OK then. She informed me that a white van
would show up in about ten minutes to pick me up. I started to look for
white vans... there went the white Alamo van, there's the white Budget van,
etc. After ten minutes a white van with NO NAME at all pulled up. We drove
out of the high rent district and got to their site. I showed them my
paperwork and my guaranteed reservation for a subcompact. They were all out.
I explained that it was guaranteed and they could not possibly be out. We
discussed it amicably for a while then they disappeared in the back and came
back to say that they did indeed have one, but I would not want it because
it was a clutch. Hah!!! I spent the week tooling around in a brand new Mazda
323 with a five-speed and the 16-valve engine as used in the Escort GT.
There are a lot of good driving roads in that area, including Decker Canyon
Road (rt 23). That car had about 100 miles on it when I got it. It had a lot
more when they got it back ;-) I still believe that some employee lost the
use of his new car for a week...
David Lieb
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