Once embraced within the Gawker fold, Lore Sj

berg has now become a rogue free agent, and he has posted a great article over at Wired on the ethereal pleasures of rented cars.

In particular, he mentions the almost sentient courtesy that rented car seats employ to caress his spine ergonomically, the perpetual eau d’auto that saturates cars which have undoubtedly been sprayed with every human excretion the body can produce and, of course, all those cool buttons:

Rental cars these days also have buttons all over the steering wheel, which makes me very happy. This is because like all rational, mature adults, I want to be Speed Racer. All I need is a child and his chimp in the trunk and I’m ready to rock. It’s not precisely totally 100 percent the same, though, because Speed’s buttons transformed the car into a boat and launched a robot homing pigeon, while my buttons engage cruise control.

Given the service and quality of rental car agencies, definitely an optimist.

In Praise of Car Rentals [Wired]

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