When the Wild Car(d) Wins

On a recent trip to Houston with my 16-year old son, I needed to rent a car. I was not looking for anything too fancy - just a car for a week. The best price option I was offered for the class of car I wanted on one of the "aggregator sites" was a "Wild Card" option. I thought to myself - its a car, what's the worst that can happen?

Upon arrival in Houston, the agent offered me a two-door or four-door car. Being in Texas, I naturally responded, "Bigger is Better." As the agent was about to assign me the four-door, he said - "You know its $10 more a day, right?" Nope, didn't know and immediately told him to give me a two-door car that was part of my original order. 

Thinking I was going to have to fit my 6 foot+ frame into a Fiat for my miserliness, I sauntered to the parking garage only to find it practically devoid of vehicles, with three other customers waiting for cars to be cleaned. I was annoyed. We had already been delayed 3 hours because of a storm, and now the rental car lot -- usually overflowing with cars to rent -- was basically empty. I figured we'd have to wait another 20-30 minutes before we got on our way. Ugh!

But suddenly, the Wild Card magic kicked in! My son spied a charcoal gray convertible Ford Mustang in the corner of the lot. He said, "Maybe that's our car!"  "Um, no" I said. "I would never pay for that -- it's probably $300 per day." But just then the agent came over to me, pointed to the Mustang and said, "Sir, you can have that car if you want - you wanted a two-door car, correct?"

Bingo - just like that, the Wild Card wins. For our weeklong, mid-winter trip in Houston, we were cruising around town, top-down and enjoying the winter sun and coolness -- while the heater and radio blasted -- and the throaty roar of the Mustang as it did its thing. 

Lessons Learned:

1) Go with the Wild Card. It's for that reason that we have introduced a new original newspaper product - The Wild Card Birthday Newspaper.  What is it? It's an original newspaper from any date you want, with a twist: we choose the paper for you! This item is for customers that don't mind a little "uncertainty" in their lives -- and who don't have control issues ;).  The plus is, you might be surprised with the paper you get, and we've lowered the price too as an extra reason to throw caution to the wind! Give it a try!

2) Mustangs Rock. Honestly, when we put our original framed Mustang LIFE Magazine ad online, it had been decades since I had been in a Mustang. After my wild car(d) experience, I'm doubling down. Ford Mustangs Rock - that's all there is too it. Grab a framed Mustang ad - before there are no more wild cards, wild cars or wild horse left.