Stupid Rental Car or Stupid Smart Car...?

[Jester]

So my nine day, three Florida city vacation begins Saturday. Stage one sees me flying to Orlando to hang with one of my adult nieces and her boyfriend, drink beer, go to. Universal for the rides, go to the Space Center at the Cape, and perhaps drink some beer.

For getting around Orlando I have two options:

1. Rental car. Positives are I'm not imposing on or inconveniencing my niece by using her car, and I'm not beholden to getting her to her job on days she works. Negative is mainly cost. While several rental car companies out of the Orlando airport have what I consider great rates, every one of those companies with those great rates has not just bad, but horrible reviews, including multiple claims that their low rates are a sham, and they end up charging you a lot more. Which leaves me with the usual suspects in the major rental car companies, the cheapest of which will still set me back $125 for my four day rental for a compact. (I hate the economy class, as they are tiny little roller skates, and if I'm paying that much, I might as well pay a little more, in the case that little more being $6 for the compact class.) Also the pain in the ass of returning it with a full tank, since their other gas options are a ripoff.

2. Niece's car. Niece has said she would gladly let me use her car. The positive is obvious: it's free! One negative is that I would then have to get her to work and pick he up from work on her work days. Which could be a major crimp in my style if I decide to hit the bars. (For those of you wondering why a rental car would be better for such activity, no, I would not be driving if I drank too much, but rather, would hang out at the bar and have my niece or her boyfriend pick me up when I was done, and retrieve the rental car the next day.) The other major negative is that her car is a Smart Car. Which is even smaller than those roller skates in the economy class at rental car companies. Driving a Smart Car in a compact city like NYC or Boston, I could see. Even a small town like Key West. But driving around a major metropolis like Orlando in one of those things sounds like utter insanity to me.

So, what are your thoughts, folks?

[Kittish]

I'd be rather inclined to go with the rental. The expense is considerable, to be sure, but the freedom and convenience (not just to myself, but to my hosts as well) would be worth it to me.

[dalesys]

Though the bonus benefit of borrowing the niece's Smart Car is...

Jester the Magician can do the Clown Car Trick solo!

[darkroxas45]

Though the bonus benefit of borrowing the niece's Smart Car is...

Jester the Magician can do the Clown Car Trick solo!

duh duh duhduhduh duh duhda (in the usual circus theme but ts hard to do a song like that slow so it might not be right)

[Jester]

Went with the rental car. Got a Mazda 2. Spunky little thing. Can't complain.

[Ophbalance]

Eh, they're actually pretty roomy. Now if they brought in the diesel that every other bloody country gets, it'd be smokin' ride . The deal breaker for owning one (to me) is the stupid notion of having a manumatic... it has a manual transmission that is automatically shifted for you. Just... why?? I'd go with the rental, mainly as I wouldn't want to rely on being a shuttle and having to curtail late evening activities to be a driver in the early morning.

[Chromatix]

I think the idea of the "manumatic" is that it's more efficient than most automatic transmissions.

A torque converter loses 20% of the power fed to it - under *optimal* conditions. A fluid coupling loses only 10%, but doesn't give you a torque boost at low speeds. A "manumatic" uses an ordinary friction clutch, thus losing no power at that stage.

[Jester]

My problem with the Smart Car is simply the size, or lack thereof. Not internally....as you said, and as I've heard, they're relatively roomy. But it would still be like driving a roller skate to me, and I just could never feel safe in a vehicle that teeny. Not tiny....TEENY. Tiny's little brother. As it is, the Mazda 2 feels reall small to me, and it's huge compared to the Smart Car. Matter of personal preference, I guess.

Now, let me make it clear that I DO think that there are appropriate uses for a Smart Car. In small places with low speed limits like Key West, or commuter cities like New York or San Francisco, I totally get the Smart Car. It makes sense in such places. But in highway cities like Orlando, Miami, or Phoenix? Oh, hell no! Sometimes size really DOES matter!

[wolfie]

My problem with the Smart Car is simply the size, or lack thereof.

I've encountered the Daimler Urban Mobile Box before. At my previous carrier, the street the company driveway opens onto has 3 lanes at a traffic light (left, straight, and right). I was waiting to do a right turn, when out of the corner of my eye I saw something moving on my left. It was one of those DUMB cars (same colour as the Peterbilt of Natural Selection, so a glimpse of his roof could easily be dismissed as a glimpse of my hood) whose driver thought I was taking too long, so he went in the "straight" lane and did a right turn in front of me. If a truck-sized space had come along, and I hadn't noticed him (would have been easy due to colour issue), he could have scratched the chrome on my bumper.

[protege]

My problem with the Smart Car is simply the size, or lack thereof. Not internally....as you said, and as I've heard, they're relatively roomy. But it would still be like driving a roller skate to me, and I just could never feel safe in a vehicle that teeny.

I sat in one of the Smart Cars, not long after they had arrived here. They truly are tiny, both inside and out. Plus, the mileage isn't all that great. In fact, it's pretty shitty when you consider how small those things are. I guess I never understood just why you'd buy one, when for a bit more...you can get a real car. Something with more seats, a real trunk, bigger engine...

[Chromatix]

...and which requires about twice as much parking space. In some cities, especially on *this* side of the Pond, that actually matters quite a lot. The original Smart Car was able to park nose-on to the kerb without taking any more of the road width than a normal car parked side-on.