Excuse me whilst I bash my head against the wall to cure this latest attack of "teh stupid." Buick Lucerne, here I come...

Question that has plagued me for many years: Why do some people smell like maple syrup? :confused:

I have not smelled these people, but would like to. It would be a vast improvement over some of the odors I have experienced aboard aircraft.

It's not a bad drive at all, and crossing the Canadian border seems to take less time than crossing the US border on the return (IME) - just a straight shot up I-5 to the border, then another straight shot to Vancouver.

Vancouver is a great city, by the way.

Indeed. This will be my fourth trip to that lovely city. Can't wait to get back out to Victoria, as well, and see Butchart Gardens in midsummer form.

You can do better than a Lucerne at SEA - they tend to have a wide Premium selection.

I couldn't agree more, I had a chance to go a few years ago and I look forward to going back, now the only question is finding the time. :)

A dilapidated Dodge Charger with 15Kmi and Cloth Seats was in the premium aisle at IAH the other day. :rolleyes:

Still can't believe they put a f***ing Aveo on the Aisle at one National location...

Emerald, Executive, or Premium? If they put an Aveo in the Premium Aisle, that's just hilarious.

Sorry - Emerald Aisle. Who in their right mind would pay for a midsize and pick up a subcompact?

That's hot. :rolleyes:

One must be careful with booking Premiums at certain locations because they keep a very small stock. Recently, I had booked a Premium at a small station (the train station in DC) where they only had one Avalon ready, and it had some maintenance problem. They offered me a selection of smaller cars (S40, Camry with cloth) that I refused. They also had a new Malibu with leather, as well as a brand new G8 sport, both of which they refused to give me because the managers were using them to drive around for "business purposes." :rolleyes: I argued with them about that, so they offered an S60 with 19k miles that had just been returned. I then made them kick an employee of a new Impala SS - he was just sitting in there listening to XM and not doing anything. Note that they did not offer the car - I had to ask for it. :rolleyes:

At many stations, the Emerald Aisle/Executive Selection translates into the "Whatever Types of Cars Take the Least Amount of Effort for the Employees to Stock from the Return Section" Aisle/Selection. That is why you often find EA's with a few premium cars while the ES has only midsize and full size. Of course, you will find employees sitting around in new Malibus or SUV's listening to XM as you pick up your regular Impala with smelly cloth interior and 20k miles from the Executive Selection.

Sure beats the base model PT Cruiser we had at SEA last month. Of course, I didn't book the rental, and was joining the BF who was already there on a business trip. He had rented from Thrifty. After driving that POS all over Washington state for five days, even he was in agreement that one should never rent from Thrifty.

Tonight we both fly to IAH together, and the rental is booked on my last couple of free day coupon's from National's One-Two-Free promotion last fall. I'm hoping for an excellent Executive Aisle selection to help drive home my reasoning for using National, even if they charge a little more. He's a car guy, and works in the auto industry, so if there's good stuff on the Aisle, he'll be thrilled. Unfortunately I can't reserve anything larger than mid-size on these coupons, but they're good for anything on the Aisle. So probably no premium cars this time.