DeTomaso Mailing List: June 97, Message #3
     



From: MikeLDrew@aol.com

Subject: Re: Trash The Rent-a-Car

Date: Sun, 1 Jun 1997 13:34:36 -0400 (EDT)



Jack wrote:



(snip)



We don't

really need the rear axle... then got back in the car and drove it into the

Avis lot, dragging it's rear bumper like a gut-shot animal.



(snip)



Actually, although quite a few details got mixed up, this story is

substantially true.  The Mazda Chronus (626 in this country) handled a little

strangely with the rear axle broken off, and I had to eject my three

passengers and make them walk because their additional weight was causing the

tires to rub the inside of the fenders!  As one rear control arm was still

partially attached to the car, the bumper wasn't actually dragging.  I had a

tough time getting the trunk open, and when it did, there was a loud POP as

the whole rear of the car shifted two inches to the left (thus preventing the

trunk from closing again).  Uh-oh, bent chassis! :<(



As the car had slid sideways into a 14-inch curb and then nearly flipped

over, the whole car had a deep curb-shaped crease in all right-side sheet

metal pieces.  Yes, the rental company was Not Pleased.  I skipped town that

afternoon (under previously scheduled orders) to another town in Saudi

Arabia.  I later learned it cost $12,000 to repair this $14,000 car.  I

expected to get hammered over this incident and perhaps be held financially

liable, but my immediate superiors thankfully kept it quiet and the colonel

never found out, and thus it just sort of blew away.  I presume the Air Force

just paid for the damage.



Your tax dollars at work! :>)



That's the worst I've ever trashed a rental car, but this wasn't the first

one, nor was it the last...



Mike



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