Rental Car Story III

The rental company owner got a call from the Honolulu Police Dept. He was asked to come down to one of the parking lots at the end of Waikiki to retrieve one of his cars. When the owner arrived at the scene, he saw a group of cops standing next to his TR looking at a small video camera. They had caught three visitors from Australia that had imbibed in one or five too many Fosters and they had been burning do-nuts in the parking lot. In order to impress all the folks back home, they had also been taking video of all the proceedings.

The owner brought his TR back to the lot and the cops did their thing with the Aussies. The TR did not have any visible damage and seemed to survive the whole affair, but within a week or two it suffered differential failure. The differential housing split open and pushed itself right out of the aluminum gearbox case.

That was the first time that I had a TR differential apart. I was not impressed. For the power and weight of the car, it seemed like a pretty weak design.

 

Thanks for the encouragement. I wasn't sure whether the stories were providing entertainment or merely irritating people. I am sure the owners of the several rental companies have many more stories than I can remember, but I wouldn't be surprised if they would prefer to forget all the disasters. ;>)

 

M.James

Thanks very much for your story about ejoying Hawaii and your time with the TR. There were quite a few cars that came and went through the rental companies. They arrive shiny, new, and pristine and it doesn't take long before they get to be tired ,old beaters. Some did get into the hands of private owners that brought them back to good condition, others simply ended up as parts cars.

Thanks for your tale and thanks for not ripping the differential out of the thing when you had it!! ;>)

 

Hi Mike

As far as I know, the only Ferrari that is for rent in Waikiki is a red 355 spider and I don't know how much longer even that will be available. The number of visitors here is way down and many of the business that are dependent on toruism are suffering. If you are interested in checking on the car, PM me and I will give you a phone number to call.

As far as bars and clubs: no shortage there. You will be able to find almost any kind of music and food that you want. There are many free publications that will give you a big range of options. One good source is the "Honolulu Weekly". It is a free newspaper that is widely available and it gives comprehensive coverage of all the happenings that week.

 

Hi Pettit

Yes, the rental car business was interesting. I am sure the people who ran the rental companies have many more tales of woe than the ones that I was part of. They had a very wide variety of cars. I only saw the Ferrari end of things. It is good to hear that you were able to enjoy some time here. Please come back!! Everbody could use the business. ;>)

Your memory is good. Many of the patrol officers here use personally owned cars. They do get compensated for their use by the city. The choice of car is up to the individual officer, so it wasn't that they all had GNX's, but I do remember seeing at least one with a blue light on top. A popular model now is the Mustang. As you can imagine, this makes keeping an eye out for the police a bit harder while driving. One developes the habit of scanning the rooflines of cars in the rearview mirror, looking for the light on top.

 

HI

Thanks very much for your note of encouragement. I haven't posted here much lately because time always seems so short and, the truth is, I kind of used up the most interesting stories. Most of the rental repairs were pretty mundane. It was just cranking out the clutches, water pumps, belt changes, etc...etc. I really was surprised to see that a Hawaii section had been added and I wanted to help in providing some interest and content. I duplicated some of the posts in the more heavily viewed sections, such as 3X8/Mondial and classic, and got a much stronger response.

Also, being the dim bulb that I am, I decided to fix the A/C in my Quattroporte and have been posting about the progress on that project in the Maserati section. It has been the classic case of "while you are in there" and putting in more time and money than the car is worth.

Well, I do have some more rental car stories that might have some general interest and I will try to get organized soon.

I see that you are in Hawaii. Are you on Oahu?

Aloha
Larry

 

Hi

I don't think that the police put any people in their own cars. They do not have cages in them. If they need to transport one of our outstanding citizens, they will call for a blue and white.

It is a little harder to see the police cars now. They have changed to some very small and thin light bars. Some of them have SUV's with factory roof racks and the light bar is very difficult to pick out against the roof rack.

Aloha
Larry

 

Hi

I don't know what happened to the Aussies. It is very likely that very little happened to them. They might have gotten some sort of citation, but it isn't something that they would be put in jail for. I imagine that they got on the plane at the end of their stay along with the camera and video and never looked back. Hawaii needs the visitors as it is a huge part of the economy so no one is really out to see people return home with bad stories to tell.

The owner of the rental company paid for the repairs. I won't say that this kind of abuse to the rental cars was "normal", but it was not unusual. I really don't know how the fellow that owned the business kept his sanity. People would routinely damage a car, pay for the damages, as per the rental agreement, with their credit card, then go back home and call the credit card company and contest the charges. I don't think the credit card companies ever ruled in favor of the rental company.

 

Hi Jet-X

I am pretty certain that there are no Ferraris to rent on any of the islands anymore. The "last man standing" is a company that is in the same location as the old "Ferrari Rentals". I think they may have some Corvettes and Porsche. I have not been through Waikiki for a month or two, but I think that they are still there.

 

Hi

Thanks for the story and the picture. Congratulations on the engagement!! Yes, those cars lead a very rough life. I often thought that it might be disappointing for someone to have their first Ferrari experience in one of those workhorses.

For a while, there was actually two places that rented exotics there. One was very close to Lahaina Town and the fellow that had Ferrari Rentals in Waikiki also had an outlet near Lahaina. It was out on the road that went by the small airport in West Maui.