Altima, Maxima and 300

Since my last post, I've been out on three trips.

Tooele, Utah.
Las Vegas, Nevada.
San Francisco, California.

Tooele is in the general Salt Lake City area, and it was beautiful.
The landscape was incredible.
The mormon temple was all lit up.
There was a thousand lights on every tree, which was truly stunning.
It's amazing what you can accomplish when you start your own cult.

Las Vegas sucks.
Don't ever go there.

San Francisco and the surrounding bay area is truly gorgeous.
The town in funky and hip.
The northern bays (not sure if that is accurate but since I'm not a local I can call it that) are stunning and diverse in landscape.

Now that we've covered that we'll get on to the more important things -- rental cars.

In Utah, I rented a new Altima.
It got great gas mileage but it was really boring.
Nissan's devotion to the CVT transmission is absurd.
You step on the throttle and you just wait for something to happen.
A Car and Driver article reffered to the transmission response like a rubber band.
They're right.
The driver's seat had no lumbar support.
It served it's function when I needed it but it was super boring in the process.

In Las Vegas I rented a white Maxima.
I still love those things.
They rip, they growl and they look mean.
'Nuff said.

In San Francisco I rented a Chrylser 300.
One of my co-workers said they were really nice.
It was an OK car.
The driver's seat had good lumbar support but lack any side bolsters.
It also had tremendous stroke of adjustment in every direction.
I could slam the seat way down so that I could barely see over the steering wheel.
The leather was supple but really slippery, which amplified the lack of side bolsters.
The stereo was only adequate. I was expecting more out of a car of that caliber.

So far the Ford Taurus Limited has set the bar really high.
Now, I don't know a lot about car audio but the Taurus could make the mirrors rattle.
I know that when you crank your shit up really high and a rental car stereo rattles the mirrors, that rocks. Usually they have crummy, low-end sound systems.
The Taurus' sound system wasn't.
The 300's sound system got loud but didn't thump.

Next week is a trip to Ohio.
Maybe I'll get a tiny little thing and see how a micro-spec car and see how it stacks up.

Revival of the travel blog--rental cars and too much food

This blog as a travel log back in 2008 with m trip to Italy.
Since, perhaps, a year ago she has lain dormant and neglected.

However, now that I have been travelling a lot lately with my job I have decided to resurrect this girl and chronicle my travels, which will most likely be rental cars I beat on and the food I eat too much of.

So far this year my destinations were:
-Boulder, Colorado (Ford Focus)
-Detroit, Michigan (utterly forgettable car)
-Chicago (Chevy Malibu)
-Hamilton, Ontario (utterly forgettable car)
-Grafton, Wisconson (Nissan Maxima)
-Cudahy, Wisconson (Nissan Maxima)
-Houston, Texas (Dogde Charger)
-Deerfeild Beach, Florida (Toyota Camry)
-Seal Beach, California (Chevy Malibu)
-Newport, New Hampshire (my car)
-Smithfeild, Rhode Island (my car)
-Anderson, South Carolina (Ford Taurus Limited)

I'll hit the highlights on what I remember in list form.
-Beachwood BBQ in Seal Beach.
-Back Country Pizza in Boulder.
-Little Piggies BBQ in Anderson.

Since most of these trips are rather distant memories I won't try to rehash all the details of each trip.

So far the Nissans of Wisconson were the funnest cars I've rented.
Those cars can move! They have lots of balls. Sometimes that's all that matters, just throttling the hell out of a rental car can make any week out on the road fun.

Second place goes to the Taurus. Great stereo, great driver adjustability (even the pedals can be moved!), however, lacks lumbar support.