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Mason Condominium |
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Royal Palm Bay Villas, Orlando, Kissimee, Florida , USA. |
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RENTING A CAR AND MOTORING |
| America is built for the car with its long straight roads, cities designed on a grid pattern and, to us Europeans, cheap fuel. Car hire used to be a problematic area with the old advice of 'buyer beware' never truer. However, things have improved greatly and nowadays there is little to worry about so long as you take a few simple precautions. Always book with a well known and reputable firm, such as Alamo or Dollar. The best deals can be pre-booked before you leave either on their own websites or along with your flights through someone like Airline Network. Always ensure that you have full cover including collision damage waiver, uninsured driver protection, and so on. Insurance works differently in America and you are not covered for everything over the amount of your excess but rather for everything up to a certain amount. So the potential to be financially crippled is there even if you are insured, if you do not ensure that you are covered for all eventualities. Personal accident is not necessary if you already have such insurance but some policies specifically exclude cover if you are driving a vehicle of any kind. Always have the rental papers and your driving licence with you in the car. Cars tend to be larger than they are here, although the designs may well be considerably more basic. Very few American cars are available in Britain and even those US ones that share their names are rarely the same as their European counterparts. Likewise with Japanese cars which tend to be designed for individual markets. Most of the German manufacturers have factories specifically for the North American market but their cars differ little from the home grown products except that the standard engines tend to be larger to cope with the huge distances travelled in the States. An Astra/Focus/Golf sized car is considered a compact in America , just as a Mondeo/Passat/Vectra would be a midsize car, a full-sized one being the equivalent of the old Vauxhall Omega/Ford Scorpio. Then there are large cars, premium cars, sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks, sports cars, and minivans that are what we would call a people carrier. Since rental prices are reasonable it is worth having something larger than you would over here for the increased comfort if you are travelling any distance. So long as you stay out of the large cities and remember a few basic points motoring is easy in America . They tend to be relaxed drivers and you will be forgiven for making a mistake so long as you are not aggressive. Speed limits are enforced, especially in towns, and vary along a given stretch of road even more than ours do. They tend to go up in 10mph increments from 25 to 75mph, and the locals keep somewhere near them. There are virtually no roundabouts but traffic lights abound in towns. At most of them you can turn right on the red so long as it is clear, and that means that there is nothing coming at all not that you can nip out into a gap. You also have to give way to pedestrians under all such circumstances. The other major difference is their four way stop junction where everyone has to do so. Then you proceed with care in the order you arrived. If stopped by the Police do exactly as you are told and you will be OK. All everyday American cars have automatic transmission that, once you get used to it, makes for very relaxing driving. Parking brakes are often foot rather than hand operated. There is some terminology one needs to master. Petrol is gas (green pumps are diesel and black are petrol), the bonnet is the hood, the boot is the trunk, the windscreen is the windshield, the central reservation is the median, the road is the pavement, the pavement is the sidewalk, traffic lights are stop lights, and so on. Most gas stations allow you to pay at the pump with plastic cards, although debit cards often ask for a zip code (their equivalent of our postcode) which means you have to go inside to pay. If you keep your wits about you, you should have no difficulty enjoying driving in the US . |
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