It was just not my day. After a nice long wait at Hertz (forgot to prebook), I became the proud driver of an ecofriendly Toyota Yaris (don’t ask!). Experience! Yessir! Explore!
Three words about the car. It’s ecofriendly. Full stop. It does not accelerate, it has no breaks, and a suspension that is about as mandible as a Queensize waterbed. It has no room, the personality of the inside of an eggshell, and is as boring as a retired Black and Decker drill. If this is what will save the planet, I’m not exactly sure it’s worth it.
O… forgot the most important option: it has a Neverlost navigation unit. That was what made us rent the Yaris in the first place.
Now Neverlost is fun. The design looks like it may have been beasty cool in the seventies (it reminds me of James Bond Moonraker). Long story short: way too ugly to steal. It talks pretty funny to. Like 50 women each got 67 street names to record. And it is sloooooooow. You need to give it a bit of headstart before it detects anything between 0 and 4 satellites. Honestly, Stevie Wonder who was singing through the speaker system found the satellites way before Neverlost did.
But enough backstabbing and black hatting. It is fun. First of all, as it does not know where it is, it gives you entertaining side seeing tours through neighborhoods you would never ever plan to visit. It tests your reflexes by asking you to turn right a minute ago, tests your traffic code knowledge by trying to sweet talk you into making U turns on a highway. It has a sense of humor, our Neverlost system (we baptized it Seraphine) made us pass the same toll booth three times in order to get to our destination. It’s a device that is an excellent way of seeing if you need any more of those anger management classes…
Kudos to their Social Media Helpdesk. Honestly: they were concerned, fast, helpful and on the dot.
We had a great day. I’m just trying to figure out where I am, exactly 🙂
