Car rental

[kphoger]

For what it's worth, that six-speed manual Nissan pickup was an awesome rental.  It took no time at all to get used to the clutch.  At first I wished 2nd and 3rd gears were closer together, but it ended up that the low gearing in 2nd made it really easy to drive slowly around town.  The second row seating was narrow (like our old Pathfinder) but halfway decent to ride in, and we used the cargo bed for both materials and people throughout our time there.  We took it 8 km up a desert track for a village work project once, and it handled it like a champ.

The only time it was even a tiny bit annoying was when there was road construction on the toll road from Monterrey to Saltillo.  One lane was closed on a steep uphill, and traffic was crawling along at 0.00003 mph.  Even that granny gear couldn't handle that low of a speed without needing some clutch work.  Really made me appreciate the skill of the truckers in front of me.

Our pastor drove it back to Monterrey, and he did say he once went to downshift from 5th to 4th for a hill but accidentally went into 2nd instead...