I'm not a big fan of driving someone else's car.
It starts even before I get in the vehicle. I worry about smacking it up, getting a scratch, or even just someone keying it while it's in my possession.
Once I get in the car, it's a whole other type of hate.
First thing is the seats - which have to be adjusted, the mirrors - switch them too. Then after everything is moved so I can sit in the car, I have to take a couple of minutes to figure out where stuff is located. I hate it when I go to turn the lights on, habitually go for the lever where it is in my car, and the next thing I know, it looks like the windshield wipers are having an orgasm all over the glass.
And we can't forget the music.
I can appreciate that different people have different musical tastes, but when the only selections in the car are ZZ Top and some country, what are your options? Do you sneak in a good CD of yours, and hope they don't notice? I think blatantly throwing in a stack of disks and saying it's "Because your music sucks." is a bit rude considering they are letting you use their car. Changing any preset radio stations crosses the line as well. (God help me, is there any reason to listen to AM radio anymore? Sports radio notwithstanding?) People can be sensitive about stuff like that.
After you are driving for a bit, and sometimes even before you turn the key, the smell suddenly hits you. What possesses someone to scent their car like it's a whorehouse on payday? If I have to open the window because my eyes are watering, that means the air freshener is a bit overpowering. My main question would be what smell are you trying to conceal by filling the air with fumes from the labs at Glade?
I can't say that this applies to all cars, but it does apply to most. Some are better than others, some are worse.
Getting back in your own car is a welcome relief. Everything is where it should be, the music is the right kind, and any smells can be directly attributed to you. In my slightly obsessive compulsive world, that's a good thing.
Later.
I used to buy an air freshener every time we went through the hand car wash (see that resolution?) in Jersey. It was the kind with blades that go whooooosh in the airvent.
ReplyDeleteBy the time I left NJ, the car'd had 2 of them constantly rotating through them. Didn't even notice the scent from the leaky shyster sunroof the dealer put into the car at time of sale (never get a sunroof put into a car after it leaves the factory -- ever) because the car was constantly New Car fresh. And I think the whirligigs add a few horsepower, or at least that was the running joke.