[317] My Hilarious Car Rental Adventure

[317] My Hilarious Car Rental Adventure

Hey amigos y amigas! Join me on a hilarious and educational journey as I share my experience of renting a car in New Zealand. Learn useful English phrases and expressions while enjoying my funny rent-a-car anecdotes. If you’re travelling soon, this episode is for you. Enjoy! :)

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Transcript Snapshot (My Car Rental Adventure in NZ)

Hey guys! You’re listening to the English Made Simple Show! This is episode number 317, number three hundred and seventeen, numero trescientos diecisiete.

You’re tuning in to the English Made Simple Show, and as always, I’m your host, Milena. Welcome back amigos! Welcome back to the show. Today, we’re going to have some fun talking about my recent adventure of trying to rent a car in New Zealand!

Don’t forget, you can learn more about the EMS show and what it’s all about by visiting the englishmadesimple.net website. If you want to listen to the podcast directly from the website, simply type in englishmadesimple.net/podcast into your browser and start listening.

Easy peasy japanes-ey!

You know what else is easy peasy?

Today’s episode!

Well, maybe not the actual experience of my renting a car, but talking about it is certainly going to be fun and hopefully it will be easy for you amigos to follow.

Let me start off by asking you a question:

Have you ever tried renting a car in a foreign country? It can be quite the adventure, especially if you’re not used to the types of cars they have there.

So, amigos y amigas, imagine this: I’m in New Zealand, excited to explore the beautiful South Island, and I decide to rent a car. Sounds straightforward, right? Well, not quite.

First, I went to the car rental place and told them I wanted to rent a car. The rental agent asked me if I wanted a petrol car, a hybrid, or an electric vehicle. I thought, “Why not try something new?” So, I chose a hybrid Toyota Corolla.

Now, a hybrid car uses both petrol and electricity. It’s a bit more environmentally friendly. But here’s where things got interesting.

I’m used to driving manual transmission cars. You know, the ones where you have to change gears yourself. Driving a manual transmission car feels like an upgrade from a Flintstones’ car, you know, the prehistoric cartoon vehicle that was powered by the driver’s feet. Unlike the Flintstones’ foot-powered car, a manual transmission car uses a clutch and gear stick to change gears, making the driving experience more modern and efficient.

Anyway, let’s get back to my rental car…

So my new rental, Toyota Corolla, was an automatic. And not just any automatic – it had all these fancy buttons and screens. I felt like I was in a spaceship!

So, I sat in the car and tried to start it. I pushed the button, but nothing happened. I pushed it again, still nothing. I started to panic a bit. What was I doing wrong?

That’s when I realized I hadn’t put my foot on the brake. You see, with many modern cars, you need to press the brake pedal while pushing the start button. It’s a safety feature. So, lesson number one: Always press the brake pedal when starting an automatic car.

Eventually, I got the car started. Hooray! But then, I had to figure out how to drive it. There was no gear stick! Instead, there was a little lever that you move to put the car into drive, reverse, or park. It took me a few tries, but I finally got the hang of it.

And then, there was the silence. When you drive a hybrid or electric car, they are super quiet, especially when running on electric power. I kept thinking the car had turned off! I had to keep checking the dashboard to make sure it was still on.

I had to go back to the Rent-a-car office and ask the agent to show me how to drive this darned car.

So apparently, the car is ON when the dashboard shows the words ‘Ready’.

How the heck was I supposed to know that?

Back home in Australia, I drive a soon-to-be-extinct manual transmission car. I feel like I’m in The Flintstones cartoon. Haha, driving an ancient, prehistoric car.

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