...what a gorgeous sight.
The rental Rio, seen on the right, served us fine for five days and 1200+ miles. Even in rental spec, it was mostly soulless. A true stripper - you know, crank windows, manual tranny, no A/C - those car have a special kind of soul. I know, because I drove a base model Geo Metro for some years, and that car made me truly appreciate it for what it was. It was made to be a tool, but revealed itself to be so much more, simply because it never TRIED to be more. It simply WAS, and it was enough. Today’s strippers feel confused. Big screens, cruise control, power windows, A/C...cheap plastic, terrible headlights, and definitely not really fun in even a slow-car-fast sense.
Maybe I'm just old and grouchy, and modern car culture has passed me by. But it felt so nice to see the Six again. Even better to drive her.