Dark Penguin
Newbie
I very rarely need to rent a car, but due to recent car trouble and daylong repairs, on a day when having a car was indispensable, I rented one just for that day. The fact that what I'm about to describe happened to me the one and only time that I've rented a vehicle in recent years suggests that it's something that more frequent travelers will want to watch out for.
Simply put: the lighter jacks didn't work, so I couldn't power up my Magellen, nor recharge my Android based phone. There was no power supply at all in the car. I did find a USB jack on the console, but apparently this was only for iDevices, in order to allow owners to play music and other content through the car radio. Still, when I tried to use the USB connector for my phone that I happened to have with me, the familiar prompt appeared asking if I wanted to use the SD card as a storage device. I tapped no.
At this point, the phone seemed to be recharging, because the battery indicator was flashing and showing the lightning bolt icon that usually means it's getting current. I continued driving to my next destination, but when I got there, I found that the connection had been draining my battery's power rather than adding to it. At one point later in the day I had to stop by the rental office and ask them to print me a map of and directions to my next destination.
So in a nutshell: Whenever you rent a car, before you drive it off the lot, make sure that whatever car chargers you brought along will work in their car the way they're supposed to.
Simply put: the lighter jacks didn't work, so I couldn't power up my Magellen, nor recharge my Android based phone. There was no power supply at all in the car. I did find a USB jack on the console, but apparently this was only for iDevices, in order to allow owners to play music and other content through the car radio. Still, when I tried to use the USB connector for my phone that I happened to have with me, the familiar prompt appeared asking if I wanted to use the SD card as a storage device. I tapped no.
At this point, the phone seemed to be recharging, because the battery indicator was flashing and showing the lightning bolt icon that usually means it's getting current. I continued driving to my next destination, but when I got there, I found that the connection had been draining my battery's power rather than adding to it. At one point later in the day I had to stop by the rental office and ask them to print me a map of and directions to my next destination.
So in a nutshell: Whenever you rent a car, before you drive it off the lot, make sure that whatever car chargers you brought along will work in their car the way they're supposed to.
