We needed some extra space to go on our partially cross country road trip, and we didn’t want to have any car trouble. With these facts in mind we decided that renting a mini van would be our best option. We rented through a company called enterprise which has locations all over the United states. In fact their website boasts 6000 locations. This company seemed like a really easy one to work with and the car was in good working condition. It had all the little “bells and whistles” so to speak as well. Above all though, the car was VERY clean when we got it. It had that freshly detailed new car smell and look. I must say that I appreciated this.
Bells and Whistles:
The car we got was a newer model Chrysler minivan and had automatic doors with push button features. This is a seven-passenger van and the middle seats are the bucket seat style. They both can be folded up very easily by lifting a small latch on the side. The seats would then automatically fold themselves up. The sliding doors had cup holders, so did the middle console in the front, and there were cup holders in the back on the sides of the car. I make note of this because I feel like kids have multiple drinks at one time and it is nice to have more than the standard amount of cup holders. Next, there was a place to control the air conditioning in the back and there were vents in the ceiling that opened and closed. This allowed people to stay and some what happy temperature. Furthermore, all of the seats were leather, and I personally am a big fan of leather seats. The last feature I wanted to note was the rear backing camera that popped up on the screen in the front any time you are backing up. I would absolutely love a feature like this in my car. If you are traveling any place new where you get lost or must turn around a lot this feature is totally helpful as well!
The Negatives:
I hate to admit there were negatives about renting a vehicle for vacation, but to give you all the full honest story I must. For me and most of the people riding with us, we are used to a low riding car smaller car. So, when you sit toward the back of a high riding car you tend to feel a little nauseated. I feel like the back of this car tends to flop around a lot more than a smaller car and you can feel all the bumps. The seats, even though they were leather like I like, were uncomfortable. There was little to no padding on the seats in the middle or back row. I road the entire time in one of the middle seats. In the back two rows there is very minimal leg room. This is being said by someone who is around 5 feet tall so for a taller person it would be difficult for you to sit in the back with your legs on the floor. The middle seats did not move forward or backwards so they were not adjustable. To my knowledge neither did the back bench seat, but again I didn’t spend a lot of time in that one so I wouldn’t know.
The Positives:
You can imagine as a mother it is important for car seats to fit into cars safely and comfortably. I just wanted to report that this car provided both of those aspects. If you so chose you could fit up to five car seats into this car because each of the back seats has car seat latches. Of course, all the bells and whistles were nice positives as well.
Start your own rental car journey here with enterprise!
Thanks mama’s for checking out this edition of the vacation series and I hope this puts your minds to ease about renting a vehicle if you haven’t already rented one in the past. Over all it was a good experience and I would do it again. Stay tuned for more great travel tips and adventures in the posts to come!
Happy Vacationing,
Brie
