The Road Trip
Going back to the rental car; I hadn’t envisioned this being a very difficult thing until factoring it being peak season (Christmas) and secondly a little thing I’m calling: “the mexican way“. Now ordinarily I’d assume renting a car could be tricky at any peak season, and I took that on-board. What I hadn’t factored in was that logic has no place in mexico; they’d gladly rent you a car they don’t have available, or quote you for a car where the numbers jump 30-40% without any conceivable reason. Eventually, after a long day’s walk around the town popping into every car rental shop going. So despite never having used Thrifty, I had heard the brand back in Europe and in the US and figured a establishment that large couldn’t be so inept. After being quoted a fee that seemed “reasonable” for all the requirements we wanted (2 drivers, full insurance, unlimited mileage, 3 weeks over the Christmas period); we set the date and felt relieved that that was one thing less we had to arrange.
However, things aren’t set in stone in Mexico. We arrived on time on the day to collect the rental car, all our luggage in our hands received by the same attendant as the day or the quote, and suddenly the price of the car was almost 50% cheaper than we were quoted. Alarm bells were ringing! I cross examined the same attendant that quoted us this a few days earlier. You’d think: they’d have this booked in on their computers or have it written down on a customer file. This was not the case. And sure enough, this new quote was just for 1 driver, I explained it was for 2 drivers, and then questioned whether there was insurance for this… suddenly the rental was going to be now 200% the original quotation, which we’d already been over the day we got the quote. Meanwhile, Rosa was texting me at the same time telling me she was off work for a few weeks, and we could have used her car. Busy trying desperately to get this Thrifty attendant to rationalize the price to what we had been quoted beforehand, had him jumping and stabbing numbers in the air like it was a bingo game. Our confidence was ruined. I got in touch with Rosa, asked her what the terms and so on were to use her car. Basically, pay the fuel and her accommodation and board, (which in mexico is next to nothing). Like I have said, I’m not overly happy with the idea of making grand plans with someone I’d only dated a couple of times, least of all with my mum. But weighing up the options we decided to go with it, besides, having someone who knew her country and could reason with Mexicans seemed like a plus.
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