Italian car rental

During our vacation at Sicily we had a rental car the first week which was part of the package bought from home. Since our most recent experience was, that you should get plenty of engine power, we went with a fair sized car (and engine) – or so we thought anyway. The nice sales guy at home had promised us a “B category” car which would be a common 5-door Fiat Punto with a 1.2 size engine (or likewise). Not impressive, but it should be sufficient to drive around.

In Catania airport however, the folks at SicilyByCar was all out of the B category cars. They did however (free of charge) offer an upgrade to the “C category”. Isn’t that nice, we thought. The “C category” is a Fiat Stilo 1.9 (or likewise) and should have plenty of horsepower under the hood.

It didn’t however. Either the categories didn’t match the catalogue or someone decided to give us their rent-a-wreck car. Our “Fiat Stilo 1.9”-class car turned out to be an Opel Corsa with a (dying) 1.0 engine.

While it was a decent car during rush hour, it really wasn’t supposed to leave any towns at all. Out on the highways it didn’t go above 80 kph (and only 70 kph if you left the aircon running).

I’ve just written to our travel agent and asked them to explain to me how they figure a Stilo 1.9 and a Crosa 1.0 is equivalent cars, because I really don’t get it.

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