Nissan Tsuru?

Luckily, we were on the end of the “foreigner” lines nearest the “Ciudadanos Mexicanos” (Mexican citizens) line. There were maybe three ciudadanos Mexicanos on our flight, as well as the three or so flights before us that we were in line with, so the gentleman at the ciudadanos counter was taking people from our line as well, essentially doubling the speed people passed through our line. We got through with maybe a thirty-minute total wait. When we finally made it up to the front desk, we waited with anticipation for the customs official to finish stamping the documents, and raced through to – well, to wait for Andrew to finish getting his documents stamped in a different line. But he was only about thirty seconds behind.

At the Puerto Vallarta airport, the customs area bottlenecks as it runs through ticket counters at the end of the international terminal. Most of the airport is relatively dark and dirty, but the international terminal has been recently updated with – of all thing – drywall and white paint! There are quite a few holes cut in the drywall, that I’m sure served a purpose at some point (if nothing more than keeping the airport from looking too civilized), but the white paint was a refreshing change.

Shortly after the white ticket counters, the international terminal opens up into the rest of the airport, and you’re immediately accosted by taxi drivers, tour guides, shuttle drivers, and various other in-your-face sorts. We made our way to the Dollar rental counter. At first, they couldn’t find our reservations. We’d rented a midsize car anyway, with one large bag each and three bags of Pete’s things we’d brought down to leave with his friend here, so we sent Danielle, Debbie, and Andrew, and a number of bags ahead on a taxi.

After quite a few minutes, the reservations magically appeared in the system. We then continued to wait through a few more phone calls in rapid Spanish between the counter woman and presumably the lot, when she finally gave us directions to the rental shuttle. We made our way through the thick mass of various salespersons, and boarded the Dollar shuttle. We disembarked the Dollar shuttle five minutes later, directly across the street from where we boarded the shuttle.

When we arrived at the rental lot, everyone was in high spirits. That is, until the lot brought out the rental car. It was a beat-up Nissan Tsuru, which the rental agent swore was a 2006, but which didn’t look like it could have been newer than 1998. I wasn’t familiar with the Nissan Tsuru, and I don’t believe that Nissan sells a comparable car in the U.S. So, it may very well have been a very 1998-looking 2006 Nissan Tsuru, but Dad wasn’t having it.

The thing about Dad is, he doesn’t always handle things well that he’s not having. He tried to ask patiently for a different car, but the patience lasted all of about thirty seconds. The agent opened the trunk with the key (because there were no power features on the car other than steering – maybe), and tried to show him how much room there was. When the agent offered Dad a Jetta for significantly more money, promising that the original-Neon-sized Tsuru was indeed a midsized car, Dad made very clear that he was not taking the Tsuru or paying more, and that we were walking down the street to rent from a different company.

The short of it is, we ended up with the exact same car from Budget – with more than a few dents – for more money. The Dollar website won’t tell me what their midsize cars available in Mexico are. I have since confirmed that, according to the Budget website, a Tsuru is labeled as midsize.