Archive for the ‘Car Stuff’ Category
Car Hire
On my last visit to my home city Melbourne, I had arranged a rental car with Hertz or Avis. I was only visiting for one night for a birthday party so just needed something basic (read: cheap) to get from the airport to the Eastern suburbs where I was staying with family, into Southbank for dinner, back to the ‘burbs afterwards and to the airport the next day. The flight from Coolangatta to Melbourne was uneventful, well, as uneventful as 800km/hr at 30,000 feet can be. I booked a Corolla hatchback – or equivalent – and made my way to the carpark at Tullamarine airport to collect it.
This is where things took a turn for what I at first thought was the worse. An irate young guy, maybe in his early twenties, had become all worked up and begun a rant about the car he was allocated. It was clear from what he was saying that he didn’t feel a Hyundai Excel was remotely equivalent to a Corolla, which is what he had expected when he booked and paid. It was equally clear this kid hadn’t travelled much, and likely never hired a car before in his life. He expressed an unpleasant sense of entitlement for his $59/day and started to act like an upset Donald Trump or CEO of a major corporation. Raising his voice and arguing the point was making things worse and the car hire operation fell into a bit of disarray.
I waited for a break in this conversation of sorts and handed my receipt to the lady attendant. She excused herself momentarily and returned with a set of Hyundai keys – I admit I was a little disappointed myself because the Corolla I hired the previous trip was a great little car and perfect for my needs, but I understand the meaning of “or equivalent” and made my way to the nominated parking space.
Arriving at A17 though I found no Hyundai, but a very nice Camry Altise.
I know the Camry to be a reasonably good car, they even have those headlights that turn on automatically – for people who apparently qualify for a drivers license but are still too stupid to realise when it’s dark.
Sighing, I returned to the booth and said there had been some sort of error, no hatch to be found. By this time our young friend was demanding a free upgrade as he was not going to accept his allocated car and the scene was becoming increasingly heated. I smiled and politely said that there was no hurry and I was happy to wait until they worked out which cars were where.
The lady apologised for the mistake and said there was no need to wait, she swapped my keys for those of the fancy Camry and wished me a nice visit to Melbourne. The other guy finally shut the fuck up and got in his Hyundai.
-Greg
Driving
Folks, please wake up. Stop doing this nonsense. Driving is not to be taken for granted. Needless carnage. I see this here in Australia and now my good buddy Sean Brown @ProtruckR in Canada shares these real photographs direct from the scene there. If there’s anything I can say or do to stop this, I’ll do it. I am aware the issue is not that simple. As a professional driver, endorsed & licensed by the Confederation of Australian Motorsport and having operated transport businesses for years, I’m aware of the hazards of driving at speed. It’s what we do – in the appropriate arena. This incident occurred on a public road, on a public holiday. Heard of that before?
What is even more horrific is that the truck involved was travelling at no more than 30km/h – on an incline (uphill) in the slow lane – and the passenger vehicle, in this case a Volks Wagon Jetta (an ordinarily very safe vehicle) was likely travelling in excess of 150km/h. Do the math yourselves.
The following images are not for the faint of heart, but they are real and really did just today occur. The firefighter leaning in the rear window of the sedan is supporting the neck of the passenger as paramedics secure them.
Sean spoke on the telephone with me tonight of the screaming that could be heard as he approached the accident as the first on scene. The fate of those involved is as yet unknown, but needless to say those that survive this will bear scars that cannot be seen, and worse still cannot be undone.
- Greg
Second
Motoring journalist and TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson makes me laugh. Describing the Audi Q7 as second in its class, he said:
Who wants second? It’d be like driving around in Buzz Aldrin.
Naturally the Volvo XC90 was first 
- Greg