I Love Rental Cars!!

[americanjebus]

ok so my friend did something stupid and backed her car into a trucks bumper, truck didnt have a scratch but her quarter panel and headlight got ripped a new one. anyway she told insurance someone hit her and its getting fixed and they gave her a rental car for a week, a new 05 cavallier with 20k some miles on it,

one thing, NEVER buy a used rental car, cus you can bet those miles were all at redline.

anyway, she comes to pick me and a few friends up and we go to safeway, my friend says "im driving" and just WAILED on the thing, those cars have no balls, he practices brake boosting and the ebrake is useless, so i get turn, since its fwd we just put in reverse crank the wheel and gun it, i know its not the smartest thing to do in a rental car but my god it was freakin fun, im renting a freakin monte carlo come spring.

 

[ma71supraturbo]

you'd better hope that that rental car didnt have a tattletale on it

 

[americanjebus]

yea no shit, where are they usually, piggybacked on ecu??

 

[Justin]

you'd better hope that that rental car didnt have a tattletale on it

other than common sense, is there somewhere in the rental agreement that states how you're allowed to drive the car?

 

[Charlie97L]

no, most of them now have dataloggers that record abusive driving, ie. speed, rpm, launches, etc. they check it after every return and you can get fined if you abuse the car. it's in the fine print that no one reads.

that plus insurance fraud and i'm sure this girl is gonna have a fun time if someone catches on.

 

[Mr.SelfDestruct]

^they have those in most newer vehicles, imagine an insurance company being able to use the data from one of those to choose whether or not to cover you.

 

[lanky189]

there's gonna be a right to privacy problem with those boxes in cars..i can see it now.

 

[drunk_medic]

there's gonna be a right to privacy problem with those boxes in cars..i can see it now.

If it's in the fine print, and you signed the contract, there's nothing you can do - signing it means that you read and understood it.

 

[Charlie97L]

right to privacy... i agree with that, but just to play devil's advocate, i don't think they'd hurt you for hard driving, but merely speeding. 120 mph on a public road isn't legal even if no one sees you. :-D

i don't agree with the boxes, just talking from the other side... also, there has been discussion among a lot of corvette owners (my father's friends) about what this kind of box would mean for the weekend warrior. i mean, if you are dragging at a legal strip, and it clocks you going "significantly over the speed limit" and mails you a ticket, that's just crap.

however, the auto industry is putting the spin on it that it will be like an airplane black box, and help them and insurance companies determine the causes of accidents, and will mainly be a safety thing. yeah, right.

 

[mkiii222]

however, the auto industry is putting the spin on it that it will be like an airplane black box, and help them and insurance companies determine the causes of accidents, and will mainly be a safety thing. yeah, right.

Everything I've seen about the boxes is exactly that. Only has access to the last 30-60 seconds.

As far as this being linked to OnStar(which having GPS I'm sure it can already get all the vehicle info it needs), that's a whole other privacy issue.
I've heard of magazines having OnStar call them in the middle of testing new cars(hard braking, swerving...), so I'm sure they can call the cops on you.

 

[lanky189]

a couple points
1. the privacy issue is only one i forsee coming in the new car sector...when i buy a new car...i dont want anybody but me monitoring my driving.
2. On Star will not call the cops on you, you're payin them 14 bucks a month..not the other way around.

 

[GrimJack]

OnStar will not call the cops on you. However, given the laws that keep getting passed down there for wiretapping, anti-terrorism, and everything else, the police may demand access to this information, and get a law passed to back it up.

 

[ma71supraturbo]

Some guy in Canada was prosecuted using the vehicle's stored on board data. Basically they were able to show that he was going over 100mph for a period of time before hitting and killing some innocent bystander. The guy of course should have gone to jail, but it opened up the use of such "black boxes"

 

[GrimJack]

Sometimes they don't even NEED a law.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/23/AR2005102301352.html

 

[Charlie97L]

Sometimes they don't even NEED a law.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/23/AR2005102301352.html

that's it, i'm moving to Canada. at least there i can get RHD cars easier.

 

[Mr.SelfDestruct]

^ or you could do like me and go to japan...

 

[lanky189]

Some guy in Canada was prosecuted using the vehicle's stored on board data. Basically they were able to show that he was going over 100mph for a period of time before hitting and killing some innocent bystander. The guy of course should have gone to jail, but it opened up the use of such "black boxes"

there was a guy in cali convicted of manslaughter for racing his camaro or someting..killed his passenger/girlfriend, they checked the box noticed high speed, high rpm shift points etc...