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And You Call That a MiniVan?

The Rental. Would You Call That Mini?
Long story short: this young girl hit my Prius in the parking lot and put a little crack in my bumper. This resulted in going to an autobody shop and having it fixed, thus forcing me to rent a car for the two days.

 The rental place only had a van. He called it a “minivan” but there was nothing mini about this vehicle.

The kids loved it, of course, and I left work a little early to pick them up on the first day – so I could watch the joy in their eyes as they jumped in. “These people,” Alice said motioning to the other cars on the road, “think this is our car. They don’t know that we have to give it back.”

After two days of driving around I find it incredulous that people actually own these monster vehicles and use them on a daily basis. I didn't trust my blind spots, so drove slower. I had a hard time parking in urban Evanston. I lumbered around turns and there was almost no pickup when entering the highway. And I was so distracted by all the gadgets; running the DVD for the kids, satellite radio for me, cooling the interior space with the AC.

But here’s the kicker: I drove it to my office in Evanston (about 40 miles each way) for two days and I had to put $45 in gas to get it back to where it was when I rented it (I used about half the tank). Meanwhile, I have a Prius that I spend around $30 to fill the tank and I don’t need to fill up more than every two weeks -- less if I don’t drive too far on the weekends. I’m not great with numbers, but that’s one HELL of a difference. (In my patchy estimation: $22/trip compared to $4/trip to work.)

I've never been one to rant about gas prices fluctuating the way other people do, but I guess if I drove a "mini'van that gets under 20mpg, I’d probably be WAY more concerned about it. Sheesh! Loving my Prius today!


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