The Rental

So....for the trip to Myrtle Beach, SC, we decided to rent a car rather than be comfortable in our own Ford Escape which has 170,000 miles on it.  See?  That is why we decided to rent a vehicle for this trip!

Anyway...a trip to Enterprise on Thursday afternoon and a quick visit with Tyler set us up with a mid-size car which we thought would be great.   After all we had rented a Toyota Camry for the trip to Niagara Falls, through Canada, and back home through Michigan two years ago and really enjoyed that vehicle.  We were hoping for the same.

You may have picked up those words 'two years ago' and you may have read a recent blog post about looking for a new-to-us vehicle to buy.  Some things have changed since that time (the two years ago part) and getting in and out of a close-to-the ground vehicle has become a little more difficult.

You guessed it!  Our rental is a Ford Fusion, which is a really nice car, but it does sit close to the ground.  At least it is closer than the Escape is, and it requires a little bit of maneuvering to get in and out gracefully.  After a few practices, I think we are going to be ok for the week, and by the time we return home on the 23rd, we should be pros.  Of course, wishful thinking is playing a big roll in this statement.  And 'big roll' is what Gary says he is doing each time he tries to enter the driver's seat. 

This vehicle is a 2019 so the bells and whistles are much different that what we have in our 2012 Escape.  We don't even have a back-up camera in the Escape, but we do have heated seats in the front (which I remind Hilary of frequently).  The Fusion has so many tricks that we have had to learn. 

First of all---starting the car and turning it off.  Who knew that no key was needed and that a push button was all it took!  Plus when the push button does what it is supposed to do, the start is SO quiet that neither of us can hear whether the car is running or not.  Finally we noticed that there is a note on the dash by the steering wheel that says 'car is ready to drive' so that is the sign that we are ready to go!

Next  the PRNDL is much different than what we are used to.  There is no lever.  There is just a circular dial that is turned to the correct notation and the car will move accordingly.  Yes, that takes a little getting used to also.

On the Escape our outside mirrors have little mirrors in the bottom corner that allow us to see vehicles that may be coming into our 'blind spot.'  The Fusion has a spot on each side mirror that has etched two vehicles with a yellow light that flashes when another vehicle enters that blind spot, I suppose to indicate that caution is needed (thus the yellow light). 

Wipers are sporadic.  We went through one rainy section in North Carolina and when Gary turned on the wipers, they adjusted for the amount of rain that was pelting or sprinkling on the windshield.   No manual adjustment was needed.  Cool.

Of course the center of the dash had a touch screen that housed various adjustments to the temps (for driver and passenger sides), fans, radio controls, other climate adjustments, GPS (not sure if we can use that or not since the manual did not include any instructions for that or for phone hook-up), setting the clock, and other things that we haven't tried yet.

All in all, the car is a cool car. We are enjoying it so far (now that we can get in and out of it a little more easily).  It should be fun week, driving it around the Myrtle Beach area.  Plus the gas mileage is wonderful---40+ mpg since it is a hybrid.

The only problem is....with no key needed to start the car, we need to be sure the key fob is always in Gary's pocket.  The car sales guy we talked to earlier in the week suggested that we just toss the key fob in the cup holder.  Now that just won't work.  How would it be if we forgot to pick it up and take it with us, locked the car, and had no way to re-enter?

Stuck in Myrtle Beach forever!

Well, that might not be THAT bad!