It's Not Easy Being Green

I owe Kristen about a bazillion dollars. Okay, not that much, but I owe her money for tonight's hockey game and last week's Legal Seafood dinner. In order to start paying down my debt, I offered to drive her to the grocery store in a Zipcar. The best thing about Zipcar, and what I've used it for primarily, is doing large-scale grocery shopping. The days are over when I had to enlist a few friends to help me carry my bags of milk and juice home. If I need to buy flour, TP, paper towels, or other cumbersome items, I just reserve the Zipcar and do it up right. I'll even drive to the Shaws in Allston to enjoy fresher produce than the World's Smallest Shaws on Beacon Street.
In Washington Square, there are four Zipcars. A Jetta, a Scion xA, a Highlander, and a Prius. I drove the Scion first (the acceleration in that thing was nearly nonexistent), then the Jetta (which I seriously love) so I decided to drive the Prius. Kristen then decided she wanted to go to Whole Foods, so we elected to put on some Birkenstocks and head on out in the Prius.
When you reserve a Zipcar, it gives you a little information about how to run the car. For the Scion and the Jetta, it consisted of "the gearshift is on the steering column" or something relatively simple. The Prius' instructions were about a page long. I read them, absorbing most of the information, but I decided not to print them out.
Colleen, Kristen and I arrived at the car and opened up the door. Unfortunately, Zipcar doesn't keep the dome light on when you open the door in most of the cars (just slide the switch, please!) and the lot isn't well-lit, so I had a hard time finding the unlock button on the door. I had to open the doors manually once I got inside. I tossed my purse into the back seat with Colleen as Kristen played with the multiple glove boxes and I was presented with the world's most confusing instrument panel. It was confusing because there wasn't one. There isn't even a key. I remembered that from the instructions. There is literally a "power" button. For an automobile. I pressed it, and nothing happened.
"Oh yeah," I said, "I have to press the brake while I do that."
I pressed the brake and the power button, and the car came to life. It was the quietest car I ever heard. The only reason I knew it was on was because the digital instrument panel came to life.
"Is the engine on?" Colleen asked from the backseat.
"This thing is like a Jetson car!" Kristen exclaimed.
All the Zipcars come with satellite radio, which is pretty fun. Kristen turned it on, but someone had used the regular radio and we had to figure out which frequency the satellite tuner was operating on, which involved mastering the operation of the Prius' spare instrument panel. Most of the functions are operated through the touch-screen, but we managed to figure out there's a tuner knob. Once the radio was on, we had to figure out how to turn on the windshield defroster. "Oh, the buttons are on the wheel!" I said. My first car was a 1992 Taurus, and there were some functions in the wheel too, which I really enjoyed. I turned on the defroster.
"Are your lights on?" Colleen asked.
"Nope," I said. The headlights were in the normal place, and I turned them on. This made it easier to find the shifter, which is right below the digital screen where the instrument panel would be. I slid the shifter into reverse, and it bounced right back, beeping at me.
"Uhh... hmm," Colleen said, leaning forward.
"I don't get it, it won't stay," I said, playing with the shifter. Then I looked on the dashboard and saw the car was in reverse, even though the shifter didn't stay put. "Oh."
I backed the car up slowly, getting used to the quiet engine and annoying beeping noise the dashboard makes while the car is in reverse. I managed to get out of the spot, turn onto Washington Street, and drive the Prius two feet to the Whole Foods.
I pulled into a spot, feeling like I was treating the planet with a deep respect by driving a fuel-efficient car to a store that supports organic foods and treating their employees well. Then I realized I had no idea how to stop the crazy car. I tried to remember the blurb I'd read on Zipcar's website, and looked for the "park" button, which is just a "P". I pressed it, and slowly let off the brake, hoping I could stop the car again before it bumped into the car in front of me. The car stopped, and I pressed the power button again to turn it off. I got out of the car, relieved to be done with it for a few minutes.
The car was peppy-- I zoomed down Washington after we dropped Kristen's groceries off and it had better pickup than the Scion did. But I'd recommend trying one out in the light of day, when you can see all the funky buttons clearly.