Someone went to the trouble of shipping an ex-rental Chevy Sonic from Hawaii to DC

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein) 01/21/2020 at 16:15 • Filed to: None

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I noticed this Chevy Sonic with a Hawaii plate on it the other night on my drive home. I want to say I’ ve seen this car more than once, as tends to happen when I see cars on my commute that are notable to me for some reason or another.

Upon closer inspection, the tag frame reveals this car began its life at Hertz:

Which means that someone bought this cheap-ass former rental Chevy Sonic from Hertz in Honolulu, and then decided when moving to the DC burbs, they needed to pay to bring said former rental Chevy Sonic along with them. I don’t know if anyone will be this committed to a Chevy Sonic ever again. 

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Textured Soy Protein 01/21/2020 at 16:20

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Saw a minivan (last gen Toyota Sienna, maybe?) with a Hawaii license plate over the weekend, but this is on another level.

dogisbadob > Textured Soy Protein 01/21/2020 at 16:22

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Maybe it was Obama or Tulsi? :p

lone_liberal > Textured Soy Protein 01/21/2020 at 16:23

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Probably a military person who got transferred. They ship your car for you.

Stapleface-Now Hyphenated! > Textured Soy Protein 01/21/2020 at 16:23

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I assume this is a military family. The govt probably paid to relocate them. That being said, I'm not sure I'd bother with a Sonic.

Chuckles > Textured Soy Protein 01/21/2020 at 16:24

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I retract my comment. Just saw the plate.

MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) > Textured Soy Protein 01/21/2020 at 16:29

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Don’t kink shame? They’re clearly some kind of niche masochist 

Textured Soy Protein > Stapleface-Now Hyphenated! 01/21/2020 at 16:31

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That makes sense although the part of town where I spotted it isn’t near any military stuff. Given that this was during evening rush hour I’d guess maybe a military spouse on their way home from work or something. 

Textured Soy Protein > dogisbadob 01/21/2020 at 16:33

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If I ever encounter Tulsi in my travels I will not have kind things to say.

Tristan > Textured Soy Protein 01/21/2020 at 16:36

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Someone stationed at Hickam got  orders to Andrews. That’s unfortunate.

Ash78, voting early and often > Textured Soy Protein 01/21/2020 at 16:40

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The only Hawaii tags I ever see are military, and usually nowhere near a military base. I think there must be some tax reason, sort of like how so many rental cars and U-Hauls are licensed in AZ.

Textured Soy Protein > Tristan 01/21/2020 at 16:40

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Andrews is clear on the other side of town from me in Rockville. The c losest military facility is Walter Reed.

Textured Soy Protein > Ash78, voting early and often 01/21/2020 at 16:42

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Walter Reed is in Bethesda, MD. That’s the next town in towards DC from me in Rockville. Walter Reed & NIH are across the street from each other and lots of people who work there live in Rockville or points north of here. 

benn454 > lone_liberal 01/21/2020 at 16:46

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On an aircraft carrier if you’re lucky.

Under_Score > Ash78, voting early and often 01/21/2020 at 16:49

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U-Haul’s HQ is in Phoenix. It’s like why all the Nissan press cars have Tennessee plates. 

facw > Textured Soy Protein 01/21/2020 at 16:49

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I’m guessing the US military paid to ship that to the mainland.

Ash78, voting early and often > Under_Score 01/21/2020 at 16:55

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True — but beyond the HQ, I mean lots of rental cars, too (all brands). I was doing some random searching and it looks like AZ has some of the cheapest and least restrictive licensing/inspections in the country. I guess it’s like having a financial service company in Delaware.

Ash78, voting early and often > Textured Soy Protein 01/21/2020 at 16:55

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So they have to stay at Walter Reed AND drive a Sonic?! Don’t our servicemembers deserve better?

/s

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Textured Soy Protein 01/21/2020 at 16:56

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I think most everyone else got it, but yeah, it’s a military person. Cheap car bought used from Hertz - checks. One of the rental companies, and I think it’s Hertz but not 100% sure, has a deal where you can buy their used rentals through Navy Federal Credit Union for an extra discount.

W hen you PCS (Permanent Change of Station) move from one base to another, DoD pays to ship your car.

As for bases, you’re right that Walter Reed is pretty big and in Bethesda, but there’s also the Pentagon, and several smaller commands in the area like the Navy Yard, Carderock, NRL, and probably few others I’m forgetting. It could also be a recruiter.

Textured Soy Protein > Snuze: Needs another Swede 01/21/2020 at 17:11

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Not that nobody does it, but not a ton of folks are commuting from MoCo to Navy Yard etc.

(I actually interviewed for a job in Navy Yard but thankfully I was candidate #2. That commute would’ve sucked from Rockville. Metro would’ve involved a red-green transfer and then Navy Yard shuttle, otherwise driving I’d be 270> 495> GW> 395 which I’m sure as you know is blech. )

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > Ash78, voting early and often 01/21/2020 at 17:25

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U-Hauls are registered in AZ because that is where they are based and also because AZ doesn’t have inspections for vehicles less than 5 years old, and has exemption options for vehicles that are out of state. 

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > benn454 01/21/2020 at 17:27

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I like the one jet completely boxed in on the deck exposed to the elements. Super useful.

Chariotoflove > Snuze: Needs another Swede 01/21/2020 at 17:37

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DoD should have a specific person whose job it is to find a better solution, kind of a military Automatch Tom.  Could save money and trouble for everyone.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Textured Soy Protein 01/21/2020 at 17:52

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The problem with Navy Yard is there’s nowhere good to commute to that place from aside from the houses/condos right next to it. I have a coworker who actually lives in one... and she commutes up to our shop in Bethesda!

It amazes me the commutes people are willing to make in this area, though. We only have 2 people in my division of 13 who live in MoCo. Everyone else (besides the person in DC) lives in VA. Most of us are in Sterling or Arlington/Alexandria, but we have a few in far flung places like Leesburg, Stafford, and Winchester.

I spent a summer at Dahlgren and worked with a guy who commuted down there every day from Frederick, Maryland!

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Textured Soy Protein 01/21/2020 at 18:51

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Could also be someone doing naval  post grad school which is for any university in the Baltimore/dc metro area

Sovande > Textured Soy Protein 01/21/2020 at 19:00

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Plenty of people commuting to Bethesda, however. Walter Reed is a large facility.

ranwhenparked > Chariotoflove 01/21/2020 at 19:27

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I know when a friend of mine was stationed at Pendleton, they were told to bring the sales agreement back to be reviewed by an officer before signing anything. I doubt anyone did, or if they actually got useful advice if they did.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Textured Soy Protein 01/21/2020 at 19:55

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Almost certainly military, as other pointed out. The thing about it being worthwhile or not doesn’t always register to those folks. Their car, along with everything else they own, is getting shipped to where they are no matter what and free of charge to them. Some friends of mine shipped a 2000's Corolla and Ranger to Germany when the husband took an overseas PCS move  there, and then shipped them back home six years later.

benn454 > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 01/21/2020 at 21:36

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They don’t plan on launching any planes, and it makes for a cool picture.

Not like it’s their money...

Chariotoflove > ranwhenparked 01/21/2020 at 22:18

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Sounds like maybe the CO was at least trying to look out for his people. That’s cool. 

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Chariotoflove 01/22/2020 at 09:04

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They sort of have something like that already - there’s a whole organization called MilPers (Military Personnel Command) down in Tennessee, and they cut the orders to direct which personnel are going where.

Military jobs are billeted, meaning they pre-determine how many people and of what rank and specialty they need at each command. They generally try to avoid moving people across the country or across the world if they can help it, but sometimes they can’t. If they do have to move someone, they try to move someone from an adjacent region vs. across the worl d .

Thinking back to my days on the boat, a vast majority of the crew had spent their careers in Groton, CT . We did have one guy who had come from Hawaii, and one guy from San Diego, CA, but they were the only 2 west coasters I was aware of. We did have a few come from Norfolk, VA or Kings Bay, GA, but both of those are east coast bases and much easier/cheaper moves than Hawaii or California.

That said, there’s a bit of politicking involved - people often negotiate for orders and it’s very common for preferred orders to be tied to re-enlistement. At that point it’s what’s actually cheaper for the government - lose someone they’ve invested years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in and can’t easily replace or pay a few grand to move them so they can be miserable in some new location ?

Chariotoflove > Snuze: Needs another Swede 01/22/2020 at 12:28

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Thanks.  That all sounds very logical and efficient. Well, except of course when it results  in moving someone’s base rental Chevy across the ocean. 

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Chariotoflove 01/22/2020 at 12:44

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To be fair it’s probably not *that* expensive to move their car vs. helping them buy a new car, or something like that. I’d have been pissed if they had tried to make me ditch my car and bring a different car.

If you want to get into some real craziness, from time to time the Navy has to shift vessel’s home ports, which can result in moving hundreds or even thousands of sailors and their families across the country or across the world.  For example, in 2015 the USS Reagan moved from San Diego to Yokosuka, Japan.  They had to move over 3500 sailors and their families! I haven’t found a good picture yet, but often when they do this with big deck ships (carriers, amphibs) they load as many of the crews cars as they can on the ship to save cost.  So it’s possible at some point that little Sonic rode over on the deck of a gatorback or something!

T here’s also an upshot to all this - for every base rental Sonic that gets moved, you also get sailors stationed in far flung places like Japan or Italy bringing Skylines and Alfas home (seen both) when they rotate back stateside .

Chariotoflove > Snuze: Needs another Swede 01/22/2020 at 17:54

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Makes sense. If they’re using navy ships it’s not as expensive as normal commercial shipping. They were going there anyway.