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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Don't rent through Turo without the supplemental insurance. I cannot stress this point enough. Tell me more? It absolutely kills the deal, paying $160/day for a minivan out of pocket for a personal rental (my in-laws are coming into town and I need a giant people mover) feels real bad. Even National is cheaper.
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Oct 18, 2022 19:01
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Mandalay posted:Tell me more? It absolutely kills the deal, paying $160/day for a minivan out of pocket for a personal rental (my in-laws are coming into town and I need a giant people mover) feels real bad. Even National is cheaper. You can PM me
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Oct 18, 2022 19:18
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Gig economy rentals turn into he-said she-said bullshit real loving quick if there's any concern about the vehicle being brought back in perfect condition. I'd barely entertain a rental like this for something unique that I otherwise wouldn't get to drive; I'd never do it for just a minivan. If National is cheaper because it can be covered by your credit card's insurance, that seems like a no-brainer.
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Oct 18, 2022 19:25
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I rented a 2021 Chevrolet Malibu for a couple of days in Denver. The car was OK. It had wireless Android Auto which was pretty neat. I'm pretty sure the head unit could connect to an iPhone, but that may have required a cord. My "modern" car is a 2004 CR-V, so just anything brand-new is going to smooth and quiet by comparison (my CR-V drives just fine, but it has substantial tire and wind noise). I think the powertrain had every single modern technology for blunted (Colorado  ) throttle response. * Engine start-stop at stoplights * Turbo * CVT * Small displacement (1.5L to move around a midsize car when the turbo isn't spooled up) * Drive-by-wire * Electric power steering (not powertrain, but another source of numbness) The feeling of the powertrain was awful, but the turbo engine did provide adequate power on the highway, which is something naturally-aspirated economy cars have a tough time with at altitude (The Mile High City). The stop-start business was pretty jarring. If I bought a car with that feature I would be looking for a way to defeat it pretty much immediately. I noticed the car had an electric parking brake, but it didn't seem to engage it automatically. Is that normal for EPB cars? I would think the software would engage the EPB every time the car goes into park in order to prevent atrophy. The backup camera was MUCH better than the one on my wife's 2012 CR-V. The picture was big and it had little guide lines that would turn and twist depending on steering wheel angle.
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Oct 20, 2022 15:43
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Turbos perform better at altitude than NA engines. Stop/start has a disable button, but it's not a permanent setting.
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Oct 20, 2022 15:49
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Got a couple to add to the list. Two trips, three weeks, two rental agencies. First one was a 2020 Hyundai Kona, picked up from Dollar at MCO. I was a little skeptical about this one at first, as I'd reserved a compact and the only offerings were an Aveo and a beat-to poo poo Buick Encore with nearly 90K on the odo. The Kona had low(ish) miles and a turbocharged engine - but it also had bright Kermit-The-Frog green paint. At least I wouldn't be losing it in parking lots. I ended up liking it. A lot. Small cars which build power from low revs seemingly effortlessly is addictive. Spot a gap in traffic you need to exploit? Squeeze the throttle and whoosh! you're there. Fantastic. (The spec sheet claims that this particular model is governed to 130mph. This is a lie. I had it up to 142mph (per GPS) and backed off because of tire concerns - and it was still pulling.)
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Oct 20, 2022 17:50
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Second trip, second car. I flew into and out of FLL this time. As luck would have it Kyte had *just that week* started offering service to that area. I'd had a good experience with them the last time around and so decided to try them again. Getting to and from the car pickup location was different than their procedure for MIA. Kyte provides a voucher to cover the cost of an Uber ride both ways. Definitely nicer than any airport shuttle. First car was a new 2022 Nissan Sentra. Very new - less than a thousand miles on it. Base model, nothing special to speak of. I had 2 issues with this car, though - one minor, and one which later proved to be more critical. The minor one relates to the car's unusual round A/C vents in the center stack - I travel with a cellphone mount which clamps onto conventional A/C vents - it holds the phone securely and keeps it charged. The phone also benefits from the direct airflow and stays cool. Problem was that the holder simply didn't fit into any of the Sentra's vents. A quick run to the nearest Walmart's electronics section proved fruitless - I ended up jury-rigging a mount using my existing mount clamped onto a sturdy metal travel mug along with a handful of fishing weights to give the assembly some stability. Second issue was a bit more concerning. When I was on the way to the Walmart a yellow indicator started blinking in the cluster. I initially assumed it was a passenger airbag alert of some sort, as my fairly heavy backpack was sitting on the seat on that side. After dealing with the phone situation and moving the backpack the light was still blinking, at which point I realized that this was the alert light for the crash avoidance system. I was planning on a drive of just under 600 miles that night, and there was no way I was going to attempt that with a system failure of that type. (What if the system thought I was going to rearend a phantom truck and arbitrarily yanked on the brakes unexpectedly?) Contacted Kyte support to see about a replacement. Two problems. It was after their posted business hours so the only communication possible was through texting. This took about an hour of back-and-forth with lengthy pauses - sending pictures of the dash, details about the rental, etc. I finally got them to agree to replace the car but the exchange could not happen until the next day as they literally had no other cars available. (Did I mention that they'd starting service the FLL area that week?) The exchange the next morning went off smoothly. Car #2 was a 2022 Altima, again the base model. It was however the newest rental I've ever had with 130 miles on the clock. The guy handling the swap asserted that I was only the second person that had ever rented that particular car. Still had the new car smell, still had the factory plastic sheeting over the buttons and controls. Driving experience was meh. I have never been a fan of Nissan's CVT programming and this one was no different. The car was an appliance through-and through - no highs, no real lows.
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Oct 20, 2022 18:22
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PBCrunch posted:The stop-start business was pretty jarring. If I bought a car with that feature I would be looking for a way to defeat it pretty much immediately. I got my girlfriend a rental Malibu for a trip to Florida since she didn't want to take my 2007 Prius which she was driving at the time. She hated the stop start. The CX-30 we ended up getting for her not having it was a legitimate bonus for her. She also doesn't like how the Prius does its thing but she dislike the stop start in the Malibu way more.
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Oct 20, 2022 18:40
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Stop start is a bad joke, I don't think it saves much fuel turning off for a second at a 4 way stop. Kia SUV picked up at PHL: driving position was like a leg press machine, I was in pain for two weeks after driving this and my leg still doesn't feel right. 4 Runner picked up at JAN: was great but got big block suburban gas mileage, very useful when maps routed me through a field. The field was smoother than most of the paved roads in Mississippi. Only significant downside was it didn't make the best desk write code at. Nissan Titan picked up at DFW: I didn't know anyone offered manual mirrors anymore, surprised the hell outta me when I couldn't find the adjustment switch. It has an engine light on and off course Avis left it full of trash but it doesn't hurt to sit in it at least.
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Oct 21, 2022 04:08
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Start stop isn’t so much for fuel economy as it is for street level particulate pollutants in cities.
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Oct 21, 2022 11:19
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It's weird Mazda isn't doing i-stop in North America as it's one of the better systems and has been standard in most markets for almost a decade.
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Oct 21, 2022 19:07
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Finally drove the new Civic. TLDR it’s loving good. The civic is basically the same as it always was, only better, with some small nits that are eminently fixable if you bought one yourself. This was a Sport CVT. Good stuff: Nice progressive handling, understeers predictably and comes right back on line when you lift. Great front visibility and pretty airy feeling up front Huge side mirrors Nice interior, sensible controls, easy to reach and see everything Good materials on most touch surfaces and generally good appearance for most surfaces Feels light but has good noise isolation and soaked up highway miles well Hilarious gray striping down the middle of the seats that is reminiscent of the bride logo All the ACC-LKA stuff works well and is easy to figure out. Mediocre stuff: The engine delivers decent power but is ruined by the CVT. Fuel economy was not impressive. All highway, 32mpg. My 230 up awd golf wagon does better. Only annoying noise is around the giant side mirrors. Gets a little bit crashy over bumps Rear visibility is not great. Cheap materials on low touch surfaces like door cards. Most of the door looks nasty. Bad and annoying stuff: CVT is buzzy and sucks the life out of the thing. Buttons on the wheel are not usable with gloves iPad stuck on dash is still a bad interface Basically if you are in the market for a real car as a daily driver you should buy a Civic Si. The interior is slightly less nice than the Mazda3 but it’s a much more usable car with more space and if you get a manual you get rid of the only problem with the car.
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Nov 19, 2022 01:08
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some of us think FWD is an inherent issue that can't be fixed on the car
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Nov 19, 2022 14:35
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Just drive backwards!
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Nov 19, 2022 15:01
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KOTEX GOD OF BLOOD posted:some of us think FWD is an inherent issue that can't be fixed on the car lol if you think this about your grocery getter / commuter oh one other thing that sucks: the buttons on the remote are tiny, all identical, and impossible to press with gloves
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Nov 20, 2022 03:09
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:lol if you think this about your grocery getter / commuter FWD was a mistake, torque steer and harder to do a clutch on. Isn't the only benefit is it makes cars cheaper to build? I have two never rented this one before cars. New version Nissan frontier It works as a light truck but is a step back from the previous generation. From what I can tell it's pretty much the same but has less legroom and is slightly uglier. I did like having a bed to throw things in and a tailgate to use as a workbench. Chrysler Town and country? Minivan Pros Had room for my stuff, was available after waiting a hour starting at 1 AM at the PHL Avis. I liked the heated steering wheel and remote start. I disliked the knob shifter, the radio asking me to update it every time I started it (like I'd use my hotspot data for that), and my perpetual pet peeves of auto start stop/high beam headlights. The seat was comfortable enough though it should have been able to go back a few more inches and it had wireless Android Auto. That knob shifter... In addition to the delay of the transmission building line pressure they added the second it takes to shift after you selected a gear*. Then there's the location of two inches from the volume knob, it was already in park the only time I mixed them up but why would you put that there? *The delay got annoying when the spotter starts yelling at you to start moving already when doing a 6 point turn. The whole wanting to roll into the gate if you take your foot off the brake too soon after selecting park wasn't cool either.
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Nov 20, 2022 17:25
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The main benefit to FWD is packaging. The engine and transmission sit outside the passenger cabin and you can allocate a lot more space in more flexible ways to the passenger compartment for a given length of car. Complaining that the Honda Civic (which has been FWD since its inception in 1972) is FWD is extremely silly. And for the vast majority of consumers, they don't know or care and can't tell what wheels are being driven. There's basically no downside and if you are an enthusiast who cares, there are still options! edit: I have a gas-powered Toyota Avalon right now. It's uhh fine. Why you would buy it over a Camry is beyond me. The interior is nominally nicer, but there's quite a bit of wind noise and the suspension manages the simultaneous trick of being floaty and unresponsive but also transmitting a huge amount of bumps and noise. Everything about the highway cruising experience versus the Civic I just had is worse. It's not attractive. the center stack is an awful and dated looking interface which is hard to use. The heated seats take forever to activate. On power off, the steering wheel moves out of the way and the seat slides backwards to let your fat rear end out, but this is mainly annoying. The powertrain is actually pretty decent. The gauge cluster is good. Visibility is not bad for a big car. It has a heated steering wheel that fires up quickly (extremely weird in contrast to the heated seats). The seats are pretty comfortable and the seating position is good. KYOON GRIFFEY JR fucked around with this message at 17:41 on Nov 20, 2022 |
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Nov 20, 2022 17:36
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SpeedFreek posted:
Sounds like a Pacifica. I rented two different Pacificas last month, one was plug-in hybrid (cool) and one was a normal gas powered one (meh). They were big and did a good job of fitting 7+ pax. Wireless carplay good. I was pleasantly surprised by the adaptive cruise control, was good for automating some of the annoying parts of LA highway traffic.
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Nov 21, 2022 03:09
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The Pacifica is an underrated car.
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Nov 21, 2022 03:40
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The Avalon was just discontinued so I'm guessing it just wasn't getting the same amount of attention from Toyota as its siblings. Also I remember reading that the Avalon had the oldest average buyer of any car lol
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Nov 22, 2022 16:13
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All the old people I know who bought Avalon's switched to the Lexus last model refresh.
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Nov 22, 2022 19:41
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2022 Elantra, I have no idea what trim level. Reminds me a lot of a VW in that it gets worse the longer you drive it. Angular Gundam clone looks are pretty cool. It's divisive; half the folks I talked to loved it and the other half hated it. It seemed to skew along age lines, older people thought it was better than young folks. My toddler thought it was "white," an assessment which was objectively correct. Impressed from the start with the long wheelbase, big trunk and ample legroom in the back. Kid seat anchors are fairly accessible but there's no way to remove the rear seat headrest, so the top anchor belt rubs on the headrest fabric. Not my car, not my problem, but it would sure drive me nuts if it were my car. First drive cashed in 5.1L/100km because I was just on the highway heading to our destination, which is very good mileage indeed. Quiet except for tire noise, which was pretty loud. Fit and finish is okay but one of the rear doors had already abraded some of the paint away behind it, at 20,000km. Heated seats good. Cabin heat weak. Couldn't figure out how to disable the automatic engine shut-off at lights. A couple times it kicked in while the wipers were running and made the wipers go awful slow, which was annoying, especially when watching cross traffic to turn left in the rain. Steering wheel felt awful. Cheap plastic, too thick, made my hands cramp up after using it for awhile. Not sure why they would cheap out here. Real handbrake lever, decent pedals. Default gauge cluster setup has an animated pulsing effect that's supposed to mimic road speed behind the speedometer readout. It kept pulling my eyes away from the road. Outlaw this garbage. Luckily, I could change to another menu and just sat on the fuel economy menu (the speedometer has an analogue gauge right next to it.) The analogue speedometer and the digital speedometer somehow disagreed on what speed I was travelling. You'll look at the analogue gauge reading 85, push the cruise control button and be told that the cruise control is set to 80. Collision mitigation freaked out at one point when I was driving next to a few parked cars, but otherwise didn't have a lot of annoying crap. There's a button right on the steering wheel dedicated to turning off lane-following/lane-departure alerts, so Hyundai must get a lot of complaints. At one point I hit a puddle while climbing a parking garage ramp and turning right, and some part of the drivetrain made a screeching sound that made me think the power steering belt had slipped off the engine. Went back to normal right afterward, so I still have no idea what that was. Handling wasn't super great, it felt chocky and unwilling to turn in. I suspect this was an alignment issue, probably bad PDI from the dealer, because the thing also drifted violently to the left on road crown going straight. Rear suspension didn't seem like it wanted to do anything over bumps, dampers are tuned way too soft and I bet you'd get a lot of understeer if you were dumb enough to try and drive this fast. Headlights also mis-aimed, speaking to more bad PDI. Noooooooo power. Even at sea level with the pedal matted in "sport" mode, it felt like the car was always holding back. For reference, my daily driver is a 1995 Honda Odyssey with a transmission that won't always shift into third gear. At 3400ft elevation. Mirrors are tiny and lovely, and even when properly adjusted I didn't trust them. Backup camera is kind of nice in that it has the "projected swing" indicator, except it wasn't accurate. Overall, I went from "hey I'd buy this" to "I guess it's still a deal" to "holy poo poo, please get me out of this car" in the course of a week. Seat Safety Switch fucked around with this message at 05:17 on Dec 4, 2022 |
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Dec 4, 2022 05:08
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The worst rental car I've had since the Kangoo in the south of France in 2015 I'm actually not sure what model it is as I got off a long series of flights, and the Avis staff were loving around apparently unable to find me a car at Newark. Incredibly gutless CVT with terrible body roll.
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Dec 6, 2022 13:39
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U been Eclipse SportCross’d
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Dec 6, 2022 14:06
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That's an ASX - way worse than the Eclipse Cross
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Dec 6, 2022 18:18
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2022 Silverado - just shy of 40k miles Poverty spec, picked up at BUF last night Pros Column shift Cons Wicked camber Cords showing on front tires Drivers door all hosed up, lots of wind noise Mirror was busted on driver's side Smelled like the poo poo they use to cover the smell of cigarette smoke Teen driver mode - dings at you when driving over 40, won't turn up radio enough to hear over wind noise from hosed up for, limited to 85mph THE CORDS WHERE SHOWING ON THE INSIDE OF BOTH FRONT TIRES! Like most rentals it started with waiting in line at the Avis preferred booth for 45+minutes. It was dark, I was cold, I was an idiot for only looking for body damage and didn't notice the bad alignment or poo poo tires. Next time I'll insist they put it on a lift so I can give a full inspection like the state of NY failed to do. I get in and start noticing issues as I drive to the hotel, I said gently caress it because I didn't want to wait 2 hours in line again in the hopes I'd get to the hotel before Tuesday started. Today woke up and drove to work, I get there and after my coffee I noticed the tires but only because I left them at full lock after maneuvering in. These things were hosed! I showed the guys I was working with and they recommended going ape poo poo. Roadside assistance wanted me to drive it back 2 hours to BUF and I told them that ain't loving happening and they need to get me a new car. That's about the end of my time with this piece of poo poo rental other than the hour waiting for and two hours riding back in the tow truck to somewhere across the highway from BUF.
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Dec 14, 2022 03:52
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SpeedFreek posted:2022 Silverado - just shy of 40k miles Your problem is Avis. Rental pro tip: Have your rewards program through National, do National if work pays and for personal things when it makes sense. For cheap personal rentals, link your National rewards account to your Enterprise account and accumulate points doing Enterprise rentals. Every time I have strayed from National/Enterprise I have been annoyed, at best.
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Dec 15, 2022 03:09
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RIP Paul Walker posted:Your problem is Avis. They sent me a survey to fill out, I don't see myself giving them all 10s. I book my travel last minute mostly, a lot of the time Enterprise/national is out of airport cars and I'd need to go to an off-site location the next morning to get something. I've had the best luck with Hertz in the past but they're 2x the cost of everyone else.
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Dec 15, 2022 18:06
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I'll never do Hertz again after they billed me for a rental that I returned when agreed and they didn't bother to check in for three days after the fact, then billed me without making any real effort to contact me first (a single letter showed up after the charge had gone through), and made the refund process absolute hell. And compared to the people they've had arrested for similar poo poo, I got off easy! gently caress Hertz. Completely agreed with National/Enterprise, I particularly like the "go choose anything parked in this row" option as it gives you at least some semblance of control over what you're going to be stuck with.
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Dec 15, 2022 19:53
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IOwnCalculus posted:I'll never do Hertz again after they billed me for a rental that I returned when agreed and they didn't bother to check in for three days after the fact, then billed me without making any real effort to contact me first (a single letter showed up after the charge had gone through), and made the refund process absolute hell. And compared to the people they've had arrested for similar poo poo, I got off easy! Usually it is pretty good, but I have landed to a sea of Eclipse SportCrosses, old Corollas without CarPlay, and Dodge Caravans. Sometimes the pond is shallow.
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Dec 15, 2022 19:57
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I’m going to be renting in Nashville next week for a trip to northern Michigan (traverse city), fingers crossed there is something suitable. I haven’t decided on National vs Enterprise yet…
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Dec 16, 2022 16:46
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I'd pick National over Enterprise every single time. Enterprise always tries to put me in a class lower than what I reserved and tries to upsell me to what I reserved. That's when they actually have a vehicle.
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Dec 16, 2022 19:58
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Goober Peas posted:I'd pick National over Enterprise every single time. Enterprise always tries to put me in a class lower than what I reserved and tries to upsell me to what I reserved. That's when they actually have a vehicle. I usually rent a compact with enterprise and swap my way up to a Tahoe or something else nice, but it’s hard to pull off if you’re not the right combination of friendly and easygoing with the undertone of someone who isn’t always.
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Dec 16, 2022 20:06
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RIP Paul Walker posted:I usually rent a compact with enterprise and swap my way up to a Tahoe or something else nice, but it’s hard to pull off if you’re not the right combination of friendly and easygoing with the undertone of someone who isn’t always. This used to be the way. My work requires that I rent an ICAR. Pre-covid, I was renting well over 25 cars a year for several years and could count the number of ICARs I drove on one hand. They were all upgrades. The upgrades were better at my "home" location where I was on a first name basis with almost everyone, but airports tended to get me an FCAR at minimum. Generally no luxury cars, but everything else. I never got a lower class car, though a new employee once almost did, but I called it and she changed it. During covid, it was super hit and miss between getting ICARs or some insane upgrade. "After" covid, its almost entirely ICARs. Even at my local location where I'm on a first name basis with at least some people. My theory is that enterprise was able to buy a lot more of that class during the last few years than upgrades, as honestly, most locations almost never had an ICAR on the lot previously. I've only had a few upgrades. My local gave me an RT charger a while back because the only other cars they had were a minivan and something that had been smoked in. And then last week in palm springs, they were clearly slammed and almost out of cars. They gave me a rogue as an "upgrade" but an initial inspection found a completely bald tire. They gave me a Q3 as compensation, which was pretty nice. One thing I will note that if you're renting for personal use, the price difference between a CCAR and an FCAR are a few cents with enterprise. My impression is the FCAR makes you more likely to get a decent rental because there is less options if they're out of what you rented. If they don't have your car and try to downgrade you, be polite but firm unless it is truly obvious that there's no upgrades on the lot -- at this point most enterprise people at least recognize that a minivan is not an upgrade -- and in that case, they should make you pay far less than the cost for whatever car you're actually driving is.
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Dec 18, 2022 02:01
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I agree 100% except for minivans not being an upgrade. Gimme a Pacifica or Sienna over a Maxima any day of the week.
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Dec 18, 2022 19:11
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RIP Paul Walker posted:I agree 100% except for minivans not being an upgrade. Gimme a Pacifica or Sienna over a Maxima any day of the week. Also, its never a Sienna. It almost always a rental special grand caravan with 30k mi.
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Dec 20, 2022 01:26
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Whenever I flew into Detroit, National/Enterprise was always out of everything except Caravans so I got a free "upgrade". No it's not. Miserable. Made me despise minivans until I drove a Sienna and realized the problem was just Dodge.
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Dec 20, 2022 01:45
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The Grand Caravan is nasty but the Pacifica is nice.
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Dec 20, 2022 02:49
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IOwnCalculus posted:I'll never do Hertz again after they billed me for a rental that I returned when agreed and they didn't bother to check in for three days after the fact, then billed me without making any real effort to contact me first (a single letter showed up after the charge had gone through), and made the refund process absolute hell. And compared to the people they've had arrested for similar poo poo, I got off easy! https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusation-stealing-cars-settlement Count yourself lucky they didn’t have you arrested
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Dec 20, 2022 16:05
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The Pacifica hybrid has decent low end torque when charged.
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Dec 20, 2022 18:37
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