In alt.home.repair, on Wed, 02 May 2018 12:28:54 -0400, micky
wrote:

In alt.home.repair, on Wed, 2 May 2018 09:59:57 -0400, Ed Pawlowski
wrote:

On 5/2/2018 9:53 AM, micky wrote:
For the first time renting a car, I damaged it. Just scuffed the paint
on a front corner (thought probably would have dented it if it weren't
made of plastic).

When I returned it, the employee asked for details of how it happened.
Is this typical?

Even after I told him I hit a post and no other car was involved? Even
though the post is 6" thick and I didn't damage it either?


They have to fill in the blanks on the form. Also want to be sure it
was not a pedestrian you hit and the police will impound the car.

I have to think back. No, no pedestrian. It was actually a 3' 6"
diameter post meant to keep cars from driving onto the sidewalk. (It
was a T-intersection, I was in the center-line of the T, and there was a
sidewalk ahead of me.) I started to turn left, noticed that even though
there was no sign, the oncoming traffic was in one lane and all coming
toward me, so turned right instead, but by this time I was so close to
the post I coudln't see it.

I think this was partly because I'd had their smallest car for 5 weeks
and only got a bigger one a week earlier. With the smaller car, i
would have made the turn. But I had seen that coming and I told myself
over and over, the car is bigger. Probably kept me from several other
accidents but not this one.

I had had a Nissan Micra, then a Hyundai i10, and the new one was a
Honda Civic, which is 2 sizes bigger than the Micra. And it was 2
feet longer and about 8" wider than the Hyundai. So that's proably
part of the reason I hit the post.

I had to return the Micra because they said it was due for its
(annual??) inspection, but I wish they had told me that earlier, or even
given me a car that wouldn't have needed ispection during the time I was
scheduled to have it. If they'd given me more notice, I probably drove
right by the airport, which I think has lots of cars, but they only gave
me two days' notice and where I was, there was only one car in the same
class, the Hyundai i10, which was no way near as nice as the Micra.
Smaller "trunk", manual side mirrors (and when you're alone y ou can't
ajust the right one), and it didnt' seem to shift well, up or down, when
the shift lever was in the "choose your gear" position. What do you
call that? Plus it didn't have bluetooth like the Micra and the Civic
had.

The bluetooth worked fine in the Micra, and in the Civic at first, but
after a couple day, it worked with phone calls but wouldn't play the
other sounds my phone was making. it said the phone and radio were
connected (and it would answer the phone), but nothing came out. I had
to use the AUX cable and turn the volume all the way up to the top.
Even then I had to close the winddows to hear the sound.

OTOH, the Micra bluetooth worked fine** but it had NO AUX input at all!
**Well, it played fine but was not strong enough to charge the phone,
which got weaker and weaker as the day went on. When I noticed, I
switched to a USB adapter that plugs into a cigarrette lighter, and that
did charge the phone. .