Car Rental: Mitsubishi Mirage ES Sedan
4/1/1

The alarm was set for eight on Saturday. It went off and Aisai got out of bed and started getting ready. I stayed in bed.

The plan was that we would pick up the rental car and get some food. We weren�t sure what order we would be doing it in, but the gal at the car rental place said that the best time for good selection is from nine to ten. Since I was so slow getting ready, and we actually left the house at around 9:10, we picked up the car first.

The car I ended up getting is a 2000 Mitsubishi Mirage ES sedan. It is a nice little car, but has no options. Well, it does have a CD player, but it�s security system has me locked out.

They had another Mirage, a silver one, that I wanted more. They had to clean it, though, and then activate it�s stereo. The green one that I got had already been cleaned, but the stereo had not been activated.

The gal told me that I could just read the owners manual and I could activate it. After eating a lousy breakfast at McDonald�s, I sat in the car in the garage and read the manual.

The manual says that when you press the button to turn the deck on, that the display will read �CODE� and then you use the four buttons to enter the four-digit code. Button one, if the first digit is a five, gets tapped five times until a 5 is displayed. Same with button two, etc. However, when I hit the button to turn it on, it says �OFF�. So I read more.

It seems that if you put the wrong code in three times, the unit locks itself and can only be unlocked by a Mitsubishi service person. The service department is out for the weekend and will be back in on Monday, says the man at the Mitsubishi dealer�s phone number.

However, I have an �if�then� that makes me have to take the Mirage back into the car rental place on Monday. But I think the two events are related.

When I picked up the car, Aisai was in her Camry and it took me a while to get the Mirage�s mirrors and seats adjusted. As soon as I exited the rental place and got on US72, I noticed that the �Service Engine Soon� light was on. I pulled over into the Jeep dealer�s lot and told Aisai.

Making the left turn onto 72 was fairly difficult. I managed to get a good gap, but when that gap of mine got near Aisai, who was using a different exit from the parking lot than I was, it wasn�t to her liking in both directions so she just turned right and must have made a U-turn at the light in front of the research park.

The odd fellow who had nearly run into Aisai as we were leaving was the one who met me and first talked to me about the car and the light. To summarize all the words he said with his big smile going: �I don�t care.�

I don�t see why a person who rents cars feels he has to give me the Glad Hand and yak it up with me, har har, chummy style. Conveniently, the gal who took my call the day before and handled my rental just minutes before came out and told me she�d make a note of it and for me to bring it back on Monday if the light hadn�t gone off.

The light hasn�t gone off. So I�m talking it back on Monday.

However, I think the two events are related. I think the car�s light is telling me to take it to a service place since only they can unlock the stereo.

The car is nice. When I first got in, I didn�t like it. I hate the seats, but I�m starting to like the overly firm road feel and the quietness of the engine. I looked the car up in Consumer Reports. They said it was quiet and cheap, but the back wasn�t too roomy and it depreciated like a rock.

Hey, if my SC2 is totaled, I might want something that has already depreciated like a rock.

Since it only had 88 miles on it when I picked it up, it smells funny. After you drive it, the engine smells like it�s baking all the little plastic things around it. Not terribly unpleasant, just that odd, new car smell thing.

When I sold my 323, I wanted the inside of the car to smell nice. I had bought the SC2 and it had a new car smell to it, even though it was five years old. So, I bought some New Car Smell Air Freshener at the store and put them into the car. One in the floor and one in the trunk. But it made the car smell sweet, not that smell like a new car. Since my SC2 had been destroyed in a tornado and repainted and the seats inside replaced with new, it had funky smelling plastics outgassing to unsweeten the smell. So I bought some clear, plastic floor mats. They reeked, but hey also mad the car smell like a new car.

I couldn�t leave my floor mats in the 323. They were a gift from Aisai for Christmas. Each mat can hold a gallon of water or your favorite drink. When I had bought the SC2 and switched my mats over and Aisai and I went to go show her brother, the first thing he said was, �Man, you�ve got to get rid of those ugly floor mats.�