Things that only happen in a rental car
 

Was in Omaha at the gas station closest to the airport about to fill my rental car when all of a sudden my speakers come on and start talking about supply chain issues. My radio is off.
The Bluetooth corner of the car steroids read Gene's IPhone. My name is not Gene and I am a Android user. I quickly hit the hang button and immediately the phone dials out again, but again I hit hang up. This repeats several times as I attempt to umpair the phone from the car.
Took me a while to figure out that Gene must have traveled to Omaha before and previously rented this same Ford Edge from Avis and paired is phone.
It was just pure chance that we were at the same gas station at the same time. Usually I pair my phone but this time I did not.
Lessoned learned now is to always unpair my phone when returning my rental car, especially if it's a city I visit frequently.
Also I'd like to apologize to Gene for hanging up on his phone call and probably make him curse his IPhone and Apple.

I tried to pair my iPhone in a rental car last weekend while not wearing my reading glasses; the previous driver had all the commands displaying in Spanish ... while I got four years of A and A+ grades in high school Spanish, that was a really long time ago, so I just did without a paired phone for a day

checking FT on my phone while waiting for the jet the next morning I noticed that some of the pop-up ads were in Spanish ... my son is almost 25, so I have absolutely no need to see ads for Huggies in any language

Redlining on a cold engine
Driving it like its stolen
Not giving a poop during refilling once the pump is done if gas ends up on the paint
Not caring if driving on a dirt road...

You get the idea ;)

Then there's this old question: What's the difference between an expedition-equipped Land Rover and a rental car?

You can take a rental care anywhere!

Rented car in OGG several years ago. Was so annoyed when I couldn't roll the windows down. After a few minutes I realized the car did not have electric windows. I actually had to roll them down manually :eek:

Yeah. I own a Toyota Corolla. My last rental was a Toyota Corolla--I deliberately picked it because I am happy with my Corolla. I found it an infuriating experience as it was a lower trim level--close enough to my car to make me try to manipulate controls it didn't have.

Things that only happen in a rental car
 

Picked up an Avalon in PHL once.

It had memory seats keyed to the key fob and I was surprised at how well the seat fit me when I started it up.

Then the radio paired to my phone. I spent a good 30 seconds chuckling to myself before pulling out of the parking stall.

I realized it was the exact same car I had rented two weeks earlier. I usually make sure to unpair my phone upon return, but then recalled I was on a call and in a hurry the last time I had returned, and must have forgotten to actually delete the phone after sending the call to my handset.

Things that only happen in a rental car...
 

... not being able to locate the fuel filler door release.

I rented a Chrysler product a few years ago, stopped at a gas station on the airport perimeter en route to turn it in, and could not for the life of me see how to pop the gas cap. Looked everywhere. Finally took the car back half full, told the attendant what I'd just been through, and he couldn't find it either. He did not charge me for half a tank of gas.

I was on the shuttle bus waiting to go back to the terminal when the attendant bounded aboard and spotted me... "I found it!" He said it was a tiny unmarked black button located inside the driver-door map bin, out of view -- locatable by feel only. He was very pleased.

Worst gas cap release button ever.

I don't just unpair my phone, I completely delete it. Some pairing processes also download your entire contact list.

I've rented many cars with "Mary's iPhone", "Steve's Phone" and many contacts.

Years ago it was trying to figure out how to remove the key from a Subaru. Seems like it took three hands...

Getting dinged on the bodywork..without having touched anything.

If you pair your phone to a rental car it's critical from a security standpoint that you "delete" the phone before you return the car - if you just "unpair" it your contact list can still be left in the car for the next renter (who might just be a business competitor, or a stalker!).

Or do what I do....when it pairs, my phone asks if I want to download my contact list, I just hit..."no".

Good point! I often delete a bunch of the other phones-- usually because the car is at its limit and they're all called "iphone" so it's hard to use voice commands, but I generally don't bother deleting mine. The chance of overlap is probably pretty small in my case.

Lust! Lust for a vehicle we can't get in North America. It happens to me often. Most recently a Toyota RAV4, diesel with a 6 speed manual transmission in the UK. I had just gotten over the similarly outfitted Toyota Fortuner that I drove in Africa. Before that it was the Hilux, the Honda Accord Estate Wagon and the CRV with a stick shift none of which are available here. :(