Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Rental Car

I dropped the minivan off at the body shop and got the rental car. As expected, my deductible is waived as I was not at fault.

I got to see it with the bumper off. There is damage to the metal under the bumper (um, the chassis?) It looks pretty mangled in that corner. Somehow they bang it back into shape or something. I tried to ask questions so the guy would tell me exactly how they do it, but he just kept answering "we repair it, we don't replace it, since that part is the size of the whole car." So, yeah, whatever, they "repair" it.

They said it should be done by Friday, March 7. Two weeks with the rental car...

It's a new N i s s a n A l t i m a. Or as The Boy refers to it, "the grey car." It has a wireless ignition. This is weird: there's no key, just the thingy with the buttons for unlocking/locking the doors. Let's call it the "fob." As long as the "fob" is in the car somewhere (pocket, purse, kid's mouth, whatever), you can push the "Start/Stop" button to start the car. "Wow, cool!" thought I.

And it is pretty fun to start the car without a key.

For about a day and a half.

Then, it's "so what?" I mean, I still have to take the fob out of my purse and push the unlock button to get in the car, so it wouldn't be a big deal to then stick it in the ignition rather than sticking it in my purse. I also have to take it out to push the lock button when I get out of the car. Is sticking the key in the ignition and turning it any inconvenience to anyone?

So, yeah, I think it's kind of a fun toy, but it doesn't seem to me like it's worth the effort it took to invent it.

Anyone out there have a car that has this feature? Do you see the point? Enlighten me.

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