RAW = rent a wreck type car rental place

To save a few bucks I went with a rent a wreck type rental car place
for a 10 day rental on vacation.  Saved about half of what it would
cost to go with AVIS or similar.

Got picked up at the airport by the car rental people. They picked me
up in a small something or other, stick shift cavalier or Neon with
the muffler about to fall off.

I went for the full sized car so I got a 1996 Tarus. The gal at the
place said it was their best car. It had 153,000 miles on it.  Ran
good.. if you didn't mind the CEL being on all the time.  It had been
wrecked at some point in the past and the drivers side door and fender
had been replaced.  Whoever did the work got lucky and got replacement
parts from the junkyard that were ALMOST the same green color as the
rest of the car. They almost put the door on in alignment too, just a
small gap at teh top, plus they never bothered to hook up the
"snubber" to keep the door from flying open and hitting the car next
to you.  Or maybe it was too rusty.   The passenger door was original
and the outside door handle had to be forcibly pushed back down after
you pulled it up after opening the door.  Undoubtedly rust taking it's
toll.  The electric locks didn't work so good either, more rust no
doubt.  

Found out that no one bothered to make the drivers door key lock match
the car key so had to unlock the passenger door, flip the electric
locks, luckily the drivers door electric was still good, so I could
get back in teh car.

Also luckily the electric trunk release still worked since the key
didn't open the trunk.. which was missing the mat.

At first I thought the transmission had lost overdrive because it
sounded like it was stuck in drive, or even second gear. But that was
apparently just a whine from some bearing somewhere (or maybe holes in
the muffler) as a careful observation of the tack showed it did have
all four gears.  A very smooth shifting tranny....

Got a small scare with the AC/Heater... when I went to adjust the temp
the temp knob went all the way around and around and around again.
Just broken stops apparently as it did regulate the temp properly and
in the cold NY weather a heater is a must.  Not sure if the AC worked
but I think it did, too cold to be sure.

Checking under the hood showed no major problems, just lots of rust, a
few missing bolts and nuts here and there but apparently nothing major
since nothing fell off while I had it.  It seems that 2 of the 3 strut
mounting bolts are sufficient to hold the strut in place.

The 3.0 L Vulcan engine seemed to have plenty of power for buzzing
around, better then I expected.  

Went to a park that was not very busy and found a huge empty parking
lot with patches of wet leaves.  Big enough to make a nice skid pad so
I put the tarus thru it's paces and checked out the ABS in straight
line and turns.  Worked well.  Did some skid pad runs thru the leaves,
nothing unexpected happened but the tires were smoking/steaming when I
was done and there was a faint smell of hot oil and a little smoke
from some of the leaking oil getting dripped on the hot exhaust.

When  I took it back there was a large black guy waiting and we talked
a bit.  Seemed he was back for car number three, he was hoping to get
one where the muffler would not fall off and that had a working
heater.  I told him the Tarus was a good car but he couldn't talk them
into giving it to him so he went off in Neon #3 with his buddy, hoping
that third time is the charm.

Overall I was surprised at how bad the clunker fleet was.  Don't these
people EVER buy replacements????  I'm wondering if it's a worthwhile
business to get into.  Naw....