My mom is in town now, and she rented a car since we don't have one here in Middlebury. When she arrived, the only two cars they had available were an SUV or a Mitsubishi Eclipse. She assumed SUV meant something like a Suburban, so she went ahead and took the compact Eclipse.
Big mistake. And she knew it pretty much within 15 minutes of leaving Burlington for Middlebury.
So my mom showed up at our house driving a completely impractical-for-our-purposes sports car. At first, I thought we could make it work. Sure, it was only a two-door, but at least it was compact, right? Sure, the body style featured oddly placed lumps of molded design element that stuck out, but who really needs to know where all portions of their car are at any given moment? And sure, Miriam couldn't see a thing from her carseat on the inside because the back windows were so small and the front seats were so big, but she'll get over it, right?
Wrong. We ended up taking it back to Burlington the next day. By that time, they had a nice, normal, boring 4-door Ford Focus available for us. I'm really glad we made the switch because every time I tried to maneuver myself into the Eclipse, a little bit more of my body fell apart. The seats were so low and bucket-y! I can't even imagine having to do that after giving birth. I actually wonder if it would have been physically possible.
Sometimes I wonder why rental car agencies even stock cars like these. Although, I guess if you're tall enough to see over the dashboard (my mom and I hardly are), and not physically encumbered, and not a 2-year-old in the backseat, what's not to like? Still, I'll take a Ford Focus any day.