QOTD: Have It Back by Close?

The other day, we posed the question of whether you’ve ever regretted lending your vehicle to another individual. Not hard to see how something could go wrong in a hurry in that situation; God knows we’re a flawed species. Hopefully the memories weren’t too painful.

Perhaps less soul-destroying is what we’ve come here today to ask. While this has everything to do with the loaning of personal property to another, the situation is reversed. And the “friend” element is, for the most part, gone.

We’ve all dropped our ride off at the dealer or the local mechanic for necessary surgery (or BS servicing required to keep the warranty intact), and not all of us had a friend, spouse, or bus waiting to take us back home or to work that morning. Instead, we were handed the key to a wholly unfamiliar car.

The loaner. Often as mysterious and broken as the loner in that Neil Young song, the drive-it-for-half-a-day ride that sometimes becomes our companion for a week or more can be as varied as the psychological makeup of a hitchhiker.

As temperamental, too.

Once upon a time, my mechanic saddled me with one of those three-door, egg-shaped Hyundai Accents for a day. A car where my forehead comes awfully close to the windshield/headliner divide. Never mind the discomfort — what happens to my beautiful, beautiful scalp and neighboring face if I roll this thing?

I’ve always harbored an intense hatred for that particular Accent, despite its ability to run terribly forever. A friend’s mom owned one. A threadbare rental agency once left me piloting one of these things, prompting a sense of emasculation when I picked up a certain someone in it, rather than in my spacious and praiseworthy Camry.

Of course, a month-long loaner also led me to the realization that I can be happy in a crossover. And not on a temporary basis, either. With the right engine and transmission and a comfortable seat, I’m perfectly content to ply the roadways of North America in a two-box blandmobile — even one with a remarkably low-rent interior. Do you remember the model?

Tell us your stories of vehicular hate or enlightenment that arose after a dealer or mechanic handed you someone else’s keys.

[Image: Murilee Martin/TTAC]