And the rental is...

Well, this time I acquired my rental through Hertz. I have to say, the experience, and the car is much better than my experience with Enterprise. Not only did the guy stay after closing time by 15 minutes because I was caught in traffic, he didn't try to push their crappy insurance on me.

So, the car is: a VW Jetta. So, first and foremost, the things I like about the car (besides the fact that it definitely doesn't look like a shoe, as you can see).

I like that I can adjust the seat height. This works just like my Civic. Pull up to lift the seat and push down to lower the seat.

I'm happy I have power windows and locks (another thing that was annoying about the shoe). Plus, there's plenty of room to stuff things in the door.

I'm also a fan of the extra blinkers on the mirror. It took a little time to get used to the blinking in my peripheral vision, but it's pretty cool.

And my favorite feature: the key! I have been playing with this thing since I got the car.

I do have some features of the car, I'm not so sure about. They're okay, but I'm not sure that I'm just totally enamored with them.

First would be the trunk. I haven't decided if I like that the trunk completely opens or not. My trunk key on my Honda pops the trunk open, but you have to lift the lid. I think I lean more towards my Honda because then the trunk is open when I get to it, but you'd only know if you were standing next to the car. With the Jetta, it's going to be completely open for anyone to steal something out of it. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that unless I'm very close by.

The radio would be another thing I'm not so sure about. It's not bad. It has an mp3 CD player (another huge step up from the last rental). I'm not sure I like the buttons. They almost scream "We didn't want you to get lost so the buttons and the text is huge!"

The shifter is okay. It's not as stupid as the shoe. It's a little odd because you have both Drive and a "Sport" option. I looked up the difference between the two in the manual. Basically, the Drive gear is more fuel efficient than the Sport gear. They claim Sport is supposed to be more "fun" to drive but suggest you leave it in drive. Yeah...no idea on that one. Plus, it's sort of like a weird half-ass manual. It doesn't even have a clutch. You can move the shifter to the right when you're in drive and then you push up to go up a gear and down to go down a gear. It just makes me miss my manual.

The control for the wipers is okay. Nothing really special to note. You can pick the frequency they clear the windshield like most cars.

The Jetta has cup holders. But I'd definitely say my Civic's cup holders are better. They limit the size and I miss my cute little sliding door.

Finally, things I'm not so crazy about. First would be the dashboard. It's not bad, but it's certainly a step down from the design inside my Civic. I've been spoiled by the digital speedometer and the digital face on the Jetta's dashboard looks cheesy in comparison to my car.

I'm not so much a fan of the crank on the side of my seat. The one that helps with back support makes sense. The one that cranks your seat angle forward and back is annoying.

Yet another dumb feature is the light above the visor. My thought was that the goal is to have the light shine on your face. This light isn't all that helpful. Plus, it's just one more thing that can break. Are you really going to take your car in because the sliding door on the mirror doesn't turn the light on anymore?

Another thing that has gotten in the way and also confused me when I first got the car is the center console. I'm sure it's supposed to be clever, but it's just generally annoying. If you don't pull the lid up high enough, it won't go back down.

I also hate the turny-button for the lights. Yes, that's right a turny-button. But it doesn't lie. However, it's below the dashboard, between the driver's side door and the steering wheel. I am so used to turning the end of the blinker stick towards the front of the car, that this is annoying, plus what is on the blinker stick is probably what makes this worse.

That brings me to the stupid blinker stick. Which also has the cruise control on it. Yes, the cruise control. This is where you turn it off and on and you set the cruise speed or resume your speed. Putting the cruise control in this stupid location means you have to tap the breaks to cancel your cruise or you risk accidentally turning your cruise control on. Oh, plus, if you nudge the blinker, it blinks like 4 times after it's already been returned to the "neutral" position. Yeah, this thing drives me crazy.

Last, but certainly not least, the Jetta doesn't get nearly the gas mileage my Honda does. So, while I would definitely agree that I was given a "comparable" car for a rental, I am glad I didn't buy one. I had considered it for a bit when I was looking at cars, but I'm not so sure I'm the type for "German engineering in 'da house." However, I hope you enjoyed your tour of the Jetta. It's a nice replacement, but I miss my baby.

I'm looking forward to getting my car back. However, it sounds like they were just able to start work on it this week and the stupid deer caused about $4,500 worth of damage. The body shop cited me about 9 days of work.