I went to Connecticut on business the last three weeks. The first week I rented a Dodge Avenger. This was not the first time I’ve driven one – on both my trips last year to Everett I drove an orange one. I found it amusing that on those two trips I ended up renting the same car. What are the chances? The most interesting thing about the Avenger is the name. In every other respect it is nondescript. I think I can say there was absolutely nothing interesting about the car.

My second car in CT was a Ford Focus. Not a bad little car. It can’t really be compared to the Avenger – anybody thinking about buying one won’t really be considering the other. I’ll compare them anyway. I found the Focus better looking and more comfortable. It seems car designers have fun moving the controls for lights and wipers from place to place in different cars. I found them quicker in the Focus than in the Avenger. Although I found the Focus more stylish, I never confused any other car for the Avenger. Somebody parked their Mazda 3 a couple spots away from the Focus and I nearly got them confused.

On my third trip I got to drive a Fiat 500. I don’t think I’d ever be interested in owning any of these cars, but I was curious to drive the Fiat. A few things jumped right out at me when I got behind the wheel.

First, the instrument cluster is a circle about six inches in diameter. The speedometer goes to 140mph, although the car probably doesn’t do much more than half that. With the seat adjusted for my comfort, I could see only the bottom part of the speedo. On the left side, I could see 0-20 and on the right 120-140. That meant that while driving, I could almost never see how fast I was going without ducking my head down or peering over the top of the wheel. If I drove with one hand on the wheel, in the 12 o’clock position, the entire thing was obscured by my hand – all I could see was the faint orange glow.

Second, I found it odd how high you sit in the thing considering how tiny it is. It felt almost like driving a truck. With the seat adjusted so my legs were comfortable on the pedals and my arms comfortable on the wheel, I was quite upright. Driving next to much larger cars I found myself looking down on the other drivers.

Finally, or perhaps it was really first, is how big and heavy the keys are. This is probably exacerbated by the fact the rental company felt it necessary to give me two keys on a key ring that doesn’t allow them to be separated. Even if I’d had somebody else on the rental contract as a driver, there would have been no way to share the keys. Where one was going, the other couldn’t be more than a few inches away. And these things are big.

None of these three cars had handling worth mentioning. Anybody buying any of them probably isn’t the least bit interested in how they perform. As to fuel economy, the Fiat got the best and the Avenger got the worst, which is pretty much what you’d expect based on their relative sizes.

On a completely different note, I went to Ferrari of Denver today to pick up the Lotus. While I was working in CT, it was in the shop for a minor repair and a manufacturer recall. I paid the bill and they called for somebody to bring the car around. He said it probably hadn’t been washed and asked if I’d wait 10 minutes for him to do that. While I waited, I checked out what was on the showroom floor and took a peek into the shop.

It must have been Testarossa week. In addition to the two in the photo, there was another one on the other side of the aisle. These two both had their engines out. I couldn’t help but notice the engine for the yellow one is on a yellow cart. Do you suppose the engine for the red one is on a red cart? Looks expensive in any case.

I dropped the car off on a Saturday and didn’t get a chance to walk the showroom floor. But I did peek in the window. A pretty silver Exige caught my eye. They move the cars around quite a bit so today I had to search for it. Turns out it’s an Exige-S and is one of fifteen in the USA. Looks like it’s a track toy – full cage, no passenger seat, no headlights. I doubt there are too many folks able to put $109k into a car they can’t drive on the street.