POS Van
So I rented a van the other day. I needed to take my old sofa to a mates house to make way for my new sofa (that's another story), and also pick up all my CD cases from my parents where they've been stashed for the last billion years.
Anyway, the van was a skip on wheels.
It started out badly. The van rental company was situated in the middle of Leicester. I had to leave my car on a side road in an area that I really didn't like the look of.
Getting the van, I took it home. I was immediately struck by the extreme lack of power. There was almost nothing there.
I got it home nonetheless, and proceeded to reverse it up my drive. Reversing is easy: you just use your mirrors. The problem was the lack of power again. My driveway is on a slope with lots of little pebbles. The van reached a point where it just didn't want to know. I didn't want to put on too much power because of the surface I was driving on.
It didn't matter though. The power I was putting to the wheels wasn't shifting the van, so instead decided to wheel spin on my gravel. It started to slide back down the drive, with me in reverse gear.
Thankfully, the gate slowed me down:
That's a picture of the rear wheel arch. The full length of thescratch gash is an impressive 4 meters. When I do something wrong, I do it in style. Anyway, it was the vans fault for moving me forward instead of backwards.
Because I paid a £10 insurance waiver fee, it didn't matter that I'd damaged the van. If I'd not paid that £10, I'd have lost my deposit of £150, and also had to pay an insurance excess of £150 against repairs.
The motorway journey to my destination wasn't much fun. I was having to shift down into 3rd gear to get up hills. The side door lock didn't work. The main beam didn't work. At some point the speedo and odo stopped working. It was then I knew I was in a wreck.
On the way home, I discovered the fuel gauge didn't work: I ran out of diesel and broke down at about 11:30pm on a cold night on the M1.
I think I kicked the van.
It was 4:30am by the time I got to bed that night, all the while worrying about my car parked on a dodgy side road in Leicester.
For your viewing pleasure, here's the moment the tow truck arrived.
Download it here.
Nobody at the rental company died because I got a full refund, including the £10 waiver fee that allowed me to damage the van. Score me!
Anyway, the van was a skip on wheels.
It started out badly. The van rental company was situated in the middle of Leicester. I had to leave my car on a side road in an area that I really didn't like the look of.
Getting the van, I took it home. I was immediately struck by the extreme lack of power. There was almost nothing there.
I got it home nonetheless, and proceeded to reverse it up my drive. Reversing is easy: you just use your mirrors. The problem was the lack of power again. My driveway is on a slope with lots of little pebbles. The van reached a point where it just didn't want to know. I didn't want to put on too much power because of the surface I was driving on.
It didn't matter though. The power I was putting to the wheels wasn't shifting the van, so instead decided to wheel spin on my gravel. It started to slide back down the drive, with me in reverse gear.
Thankfully, the gate slowed me down:
That's a picture of the rear wheel arch. The full length of the
Because I paid a £10 insurance waiver fee, it didn't matter that I'd damaged the van. If I'd not paid that £10, I'd have lost my deposit of £150, and also had to pay an insurance excess of £150 against repairs.
The motorway journey to my destination wasn't much fun. I was having to shift down into 3rd gear to get up hills. The side door lock didn't work. The main beam didn't work. At some point the speedo and odo stopped working. It was then I knew I was in a wreck.
On the way home, I discovered the fuel gauge didn't work: I ran out of diesel and broke down at about 11:30pm on a cold night on the M1.
I think I kicked the van.
It was 4:30am by the time I got to bed that night, all the while worrying about my car parked on a dodgy side road in Leicester.
For your viewing pleasure, here's the moment the tow truck arrived.
Download it here.
Nobody at the rental company died because I got a full refund, including the £10 waiver fee that allowed me to damage the van. Score me!
posted by Adam Lee at 9:57 PM
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