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The Camaro's climate controls are clever so naturally GM never tried to implement them on any other cars. Genderfluent posted:My last car was a Ford Fiesta, rented from Enterprise in Oxford UK. It was quite a nice car, although the RHD took a minute to get used to. Was it the NA triple? It actually sounds kind of cool and since it has like four hp you get to enjoy the sound all the time as you rev the thing to the god drat moon.
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Sep 19, 2019 02:01
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Alright, work is slow right now (knock on wood), so a few of the other shitpiles I can remember renting. A 2014 (might have been a 2015) Nissan Rogue that I rented to drive from El Paso to New Orleans. Interior space was ok, but good god did that think suck to drive. Boatloads of wind noise, it barely managed 16ish mpg (33mpg highway my rear end, I should have just driven my suburban) across the whole trip, the CVT felt like absolute poo poo and the thing sounded like it wanted to die every single time I gave it more than feather light throttle input. I despise Rogues because of this one and will never rent one again. 2015 Kia Sorento, this was the base 4 cylinder model. I loooooved how much room there was inside. It could have used more power, but wasn't bad overall, particularly once it got moving. In a purely hypothetical exercise, 140mph was easily achieved  Used this one to drive between El Paso and most of Colorado, averaged ~27mpg. I liked it enough I thought about buying one, my dad liked it enough he's looking for one actively.2017 Toyota Rav4. Felt cramped inside, I didn't like the seats, and it had a bad wheel bearing that caused a downright scary wobble in the front end. Returned the pile of junk after driving 30 minutes towards Nashville and were given a: 2017 Santa Fe. Nothing special about this one, didn't love it, didn't hate it, it just got the job done. Probably wouldn't complain if they gave me one again. 2014? Accent. Drove from El Paso to Chicago in this one, I thought it was a decent little car! Got alright mileage, went fast enough to keep me happy, and withstood a large amount of (unintentional abuse) before it died. Had a dumptruck kick a rock into the windshield in St. Louis, cracked it all the way across, I was worried it would shatter with all the freeze/thaw cycles (it was mid-winter when I made this trip), but it held up fine. Leaving Chicago to come back, encountered the worst fog I'd ever seen, and in the process of looking for a place to pull off for a bit, ran over something (I never found out what, couldn't see it at all) and ripped a tire off the rim. Guess what? The car didn't have a loving spare, just a pump in the trunk, which the rental agency helpfully suggested I use  Parked it outside a 24 hour tire shop (giant loving lie) and waited for the tow truck to come get me. Things I learned that day: chicken fried steak is a cure for diarrhea (according to the couple two booths away), sleeping in an Accent sucks, taking a 2 hour ride in a tow truck to the nearest city to get a new rental car is oddly relaxing. I must have scared the rental car company or something, they dinged me for the windshield only and ate the cost of the tire, the tow, and the body damage. After arriving at whatever airport they sent us to, we were given a 2015 Ford Focus. gently caress. This. Car. It got us home, but something was horribly wrong in the transmission. It basically wouldn't move until it got above 4k rpm, but it was ok once it got out of first. Fortunately my ex did most of the driving while I slept and the car was out of my life relatively quickly. I might remember more, but I've rented a lot of cars, and my memory is nonexistent, so who knows.
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Sep 19, 2019 02:29
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A Small Car posted:Alright, work is slow right now (knock on wood), so a few of the other shitpiles I can remember renting. The focus probably had that power shift dual clutch that is terrible, right? So glad I've never had to deal with one.
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Sep 19, 2019 16:07
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That's the one! My sister in law has one right now as a daily and I'm just waiting for it to give up on her, though hers seems to actually function, it just doesn't feel quite right compared to other automatics.
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Sep 21, 2019 01:21
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:The Camaro's climate controls are clever so naturally GM never tried to implement them on any other cars. Oh yeah. It's a great experience
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Sep 23, 2019 01:43
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I really wanted to post a thread like this years ago when I rented a few times a month. I have rented so many cars through hertz and later national. I was executive elite or whatever the top tier national is, and 5 star gold presidents circle in hertz. Im also 6’6” so the counter personnel would almost always try to get me something comfortable. I think my most memorable rental was a 2017 jeep wrangler unlimited sahara. I was driving from Rochester, NY back to Buffalo and the wind was stupid strong. It had to be at least a 50mph headwind, plus the 70-75mph I usually drive. That jeep really wasn’t designed for that. The hood continually lifted and slammed back down thanks to the little rubber straps that are supposed to keep it closed. At one point a strong gust came a long and it had to have opened up at least 3”. I kept waiting for it to just fail and blind me. The vehicle could not maintain speed without nearly redlining. The normally vague steering was made even worse with the wind. The drive left me really soured on the whole wrangler experience. The vehicle is supposed to be a rugged tank that can handle anything but felt like a completely gutless poorly built turd. One of the other ones that totally surprised me was a 2010ish dodge avenger v6. The seat went so far back and it had so much leg room that I was actually comfortable. It felt more comfortable to me than the chargers and 300s did. I really expected nothing of that car and was pleasantly surprised. The acceleration wasn’t bad either. I have driven every engine and transmission combo in the current F150. I really didn’t care for them until the 10 speed came along. That transmission really makes the truck shine, particularly the smaller ecoboost. Current generation rams aren’t bad either, although I haven’t had one with a hosed up air suspension. GM trucks I just don’t understand these days. The interior is 10 years behind the times, the 5.3 you normally get is boring, comparatively weaker and doesn’t get great mileage either. They don’t really do anything well anymore. The ATSs, CTSs, buicks, impalas, malibus, camaros and the lone chevy cruze have all been ok, but nothing I would even consider buying. Its like they just gave up on making anything exceptional.
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Sep 23, 2019 03:25
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I wish this thread existed at the beginning of the year! I was in and out of rental cars for like four months while I was looking for a car. For two of those months I was renting from a local rental place that gives me hilarious discounts. They also have a lot of oddly optioned out cars since they tend to get them from different sources for cheap, ride them hard, and then just ditch them. Anyway, the only notable and fun car that I actually got to drive from them was an '18 Fusion Sport. It was a loving great car to drive around for a week, but it also felt like missed opportunities left and right. It could move, but the gobs of the torque and the setup of the AWD system made it feel like any other FWD car when you really got onto it. Almost worse, if I'm being honest. Like, oh, here's the torque steer and... now it's gone? The AWD felt like an aggressive and weird traction control system more than anything else. The handling was okay-ish, but the car also felt loving heavy and between that and the pretty numb steering it was like the car didn't want you to have any fun with it. And that was a shame, because it mostly was a fun car to drive, it just kept getting in its own way. It was also frustrating that the front-bias on the AWD system made the car feel an awful lot like a heavy FWD car in normal driving, which sapped some fun out of the experience. I'm also going to bitch about the interior a bit, which had the same problem that I noticed with the Impala rental I had a few weeks later. Most of the surfaces you're staring at are reasonably high quality, but once you get below roughly elbow level it's just all cheap, hard plastic. It's like no one bothered to explain to Ford's designers that putting the good stuff where you can see it isn't as important as putting it where you can feel it. I'm done bitching, though. I actually liked the car, just wish you could get them with manual transmissions.
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Sep 23, 2019 04:40
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Last rental was a 2019 Ford Expedition Max Limited for making an Ikea run to a city 5 hours away. The good: -Stupidly comfortable interior, tons of storage space -Easily fits an end table, another small table, filing cabinet, book case, desk, area rug, shelving, and closet racks with the seats folded. -Amazing for highway driving. The engine and gearbox had no problem cruising at 80-85 on some decent grades, and the cabin is impressively quiet while doing so. -Surprisingly quick. It had zero trouble doing 0-80 for on ramps, and it accelerates way better than something weighing 6000lbs is supposed to. -With the proximity sensors, blind spot monitor and rear view camera, it's significantly easier to park than you'd expect for a full size SUV. -Nice stereo, and the Sync system was pretty easy to use. The bad: -The brake pedal is mushy, so it's tricky to figure out exactly how much brake you need to apply. -It's 19ft long, so parking it and dealing with city driving isn't exactly easy -21mpg on premium gets expensive. -Unloaded, the ride is noticeably jittery on some kinds of pavement. -The buttons for the cruise control are placed so that you need to move your right hand unnaturally low on the wheel to operate them. Overall, I was seriously impressed by the Expedition, and I completely see why people buy them (especially for hauling trailers or lots of people), but there's still no way I'd drop $67k on one.
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Sep 23, 2019 07:55
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rdb posted:Current generation rams aren’t bad either, although I haven’t had one with a hosed up air suspension. Work Trucks I Have Known and Loved (and Killed): Part II - Anthony the Ram Having killed Cheryl the F150 at the end of the previous summer field work season, we needed to rent a work truck for the 2017 summer. Renting a work truck for a months-long period is more complicated than a car for a week, but the hardest part is finding a company willing to rent to a group of early-20's university students with short driving histories, to use off-road. Because it was all through a university, and rental companies know that universities rent vehicles all the drat time, we were able to find a not-terrible price on a brand-spanking-new Dodge Ram, in whatever they call it when it's 4-door, 4WD, and all black with lots of chrome. Unlimited? I think? When we got it, the truck had something less than 200 km on the odometer, and blue plastic film covering most of the chrome bits. There were a lot of chrome bits. Door sills, window frames, all of the little bits that outline parts of the dashboard (climate controls, head unit, air vents, etc. etc.), plus a shiny shiny black paint job and a shiny shiny black leather interior. The field assistants that year were a trio of young women from southern Ontario who had never among them driven anything larger than a Hyundai Santa Fe. The leather interior had a tag still attached that said the leather was "saddle leather"; one of the FA's was quite knowledgeable about all things horse; she owned 3 back in Ontario (with her mother) and had competed in dressage and occasionally gave riding lessons to rich people's children. That "saddle leather" tag got a surprisingly loud snort of derision out of her very petite frame. Cars should have names. Rental cars are usually in possession for too short a time for a name to emerge, but we were planning on having this truck for four months. One of the FA's tried to get the music on her phone to play through the truck's entertainment system, with limited success. She was able to connect her phone but things went wrong when she tried her playlist. This happened a few days in a row - the daily commute was 45 minutes, so tunes would have been nice - until she tried skipping forward a few tracks, then it worked fine. The first song in her playlist was by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and at around the same time the three FA's bought tickets to see the RHCP show in Edmonton at the end of the month. These two events brought Anthony Kiedis to mind, so that became the truck's name. (Cheryl the F150's name had come from one of the 2015 FA's, who simply stated "Cheryl" when I asked if anyone had any ideas. Boom, done. That kind of decisiveness is valuable in a field assistant). I helped them get the field work project set up for the first week, then I had to drive to another group of grad students and field assistants 450 km away in my rented VW Beetle. That gets its own post. I came back a week later (my May that year was spent driving around Alberta (hundreds of km) between driving around Alberta (dozens of km) and digging into Alberta (a few cm)). When they came to get me at my hotel on the Monday morning, the truck had a distinct posture.  Anthony Attitude by Martin Brummell, on FlickrHead down, bum up! I've never understood why that combination would indicate anything about a racing animal, but I first heard it from one of the Top Gear Australia presenters. The stupid, stupid air suspension had hosed itself. The truck had four modes to the suspension, with 2 the normal height, 1 for highway driving (it automatically lowered at faster than 55 mph), and 3 and 4 for off-road (4 is supposed to be for big rocks or whatever). The system had broken on the muddy roads, with the front at 1 and the rear end at 4. This was particularly funny (to me) because two of the three FA's were quite short, around 5 feet tall, and could not physically reach an object anywhere in the bed from the back with the tailgate down; with the tailgate up the top edge of the tailgate was above their heads. They all got pretty good at climbing in and out by standing on a rear wheel. I got Anthony unstuck from some muddy ruts one day by rocking it back and forth (spinning the silly gear selector DIAL back and forth and listening to the transmission clunk its way between 1 and R) and spraying mud everywhere, a clumsy way of dealing with mud that was effective but also damaged the truck - part of the plastic bumper cover broke and was pushed down over one of the proximity sensors, so the truck would sound the alarm that an object was close under the front-left at every speed slower than 10 mph. So every stop sign was noisy until one of the FA's fixed it with some zip ties. Zip ties on a month-old vehicle with less than 1000 km on the odometer, we were doing something right. My calls to the rental company were mostly met with "meh" until my supervisor called and said the magic words: "safety issue". Within 48 hours of her call, they drove a brand-spanking-new F150 (also black on black with chrome) out and swapped us. I never drove that F150, my field season there was done the day after, but I heard from the FA's the Ford did just fine where Anthony had failed. I did notice it had less than 200 km on it as well, and I know it came from the Ford dealership in Spruce Grove, just west of Edmonton and about 90 km from our field site.
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Sep 24, 2019 05:31
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Last rental was a Kia Soul, an awful car. It had an unsurprisingly powerless engine combined with whatever sluggish coupling to the wheels, which is par for course for a low end rental. The truly horrible part of it is that the weight distribution on that car is so far forward, it feels like you’re driving an engine on two wheels and the rest of the car behind you doesn’t exist. It makes it creepy and uncomfortable to drive. I’ve driven plenty of cheap fwd shitboxes but never had that experience. On a moving freeway it feels uneasy but it works. In stop and go traffic it neither stops nor goes at a pace close to what one would expect from a car this light. A better experience was renting a Chevy Suburban to go to Yellowstone and shuttle around Wyoming. First I should mention that roughly half of all vehicles in Wyoming are based on the Suburban/Sierra platform, so I’m glad I had a giant monster vehicle. This car was a pleasure to drive, honestly. I did not see that coming. Easy and smooth and you hardly feel the size or weight, but the length will get you sometimes. It will take a while to spin up the engine when you step on it, but it cruises great. Six adults plus luggage in the car fit easily, and everyone was far enough away not to kill each other on a family trip. Working CarPlay integration was also a big bonus. After a few hours of driving I was surprised at how little the fuel gauge needle had moved. I was about to be impressed at the relative efficiency until I filled it up to discover how enormous the fuel tank was (30-some gallons). Of course there’s the GM interior, which is garbage as expected. Access to the third row seats is hampered by the fact that the middle row chairs basically don’t fold or get out of the way at all, an idiotic design that GM has been inexplicably unwilling to fix for well over a decade. If you are not child-sized, getting into the third row is a big effort. Overall much better suspension and steering than what I expected from a truck frame (although I’m quite possibly out of touch here). Would rent again.
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Sep 24, 2019 11:01
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I dropped the Golf off at the body shop yesterday after getting rear-ended on the highway a few weeks ago. The Golf, according to Allstate, is in the 'midsize shitbox' size class, and so that is indeed all that they authorized Enterprise to rent me. Enterprise gave me two options: a Corolla (at a body shop a mile or so away, but clean, but I'd need to go pick it up from there), or a Nissan Sentra (ready for pickup right then). I generally have a Nissan allergy, seeing as they are most often driven by drunk idiots doing 15 under in the left lane, and I didn't want to run the risk of that happening to me. Unfortunately, I also didn't want to deal with waiting, and I had to go to work, so I took what they had. The Sentra is a world-class shitbox. There are two important properties about the brakes: the pedal is 1) firm, and 2) useless. I am never convinced that it's actually going to bring the vehicle to a stop. The brake has an even more bizarre property that if you press it entirely to the floor, releasing it anything but fully results in a dramatically softer pedal -- the pedal feel changes after pressing it to the floor. You'd expect this to be a 'hill hold' system doing its job, but as it turns out, if you fully release the pedal, ... the car begins creeping away anyway! The infotainment is equally terrible. I went to pair my phone to it, and the process of deleting the previous six phones from it took forever: any time a modal box popped up (like "just deleted Fucknut's iPhone"), it takes five or six seconds for it to go away, and there's no way to cancel it by tapping anywhere. The rear view camera is absolutely miserable -- the frame rate is choppy, and both the display contrast ratio and the input camera contrast makes it almost useless. At least pairing my phone worked on the second attempt, if not the first, though. The thing that really gets me, though, is the CVT. It's not functionally bad, other than that it seems to have a launch clutch that makes it impossible to get from 0mph to 3mph smoothly. The horror of it is that it lies. At low throttle, or full throttle, it behaves like a CVT ought to -- it either whines its way away smoothly, slowly accelerating to 25mph in traffic while keeping the engine speed as low as it can, or it screams at the top of its lungs trying to get the gutless horror fast enough to get on the highway. The first hint of the lies are when you press the unlabeled button on the side of the shift lever: when you press it, no matter how fast you're going, the gear ratio (rubber band ratio?) drops, the revs increase, and an 'O/D OFF' light illuminates on the dash. That's nomenclature lying, but the thing that really gets me to full  is the way that at mid throttle, it starts emulating shifts. That's kind of stupid (but maybe par for the course for a CVT), but the truly dumbest thing is that the tach lies when it does: when it "upshifts", the needle on the tach comes slamming down, but the four banger's whine only slowly comes spinning down to the new speed! It takes up to a few seconds to complete a shift, all the while the tach is giving a totally bullshit claim that it is serenely at the new speed. I couldn't believe it when I first saw it happen and had to experiment with it a little, and amazingly, it's repeatable every single time.Anyway. Yesterday evening, a friend of mine was in town, and it turns out that she had rented a Corolla. I have no idea how it was to drive, but the interior felt very modern. The infotainment was bright and contrasty (not so much light leakage through the backlight that the whole display was distracting at night), the instrument cluster felt like someone was actually thinking about how to present the information, and the touch surfaces felt like they're from 2019, not from 2003. I guess I got it wrong.
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Sep 24, 2019 18:35
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Not my last rental, but one I can remember, mostly for its awfulness. A Peugeot 108 Not the actual car This is what you are most likely to get if you rent the entry level option in most of Europe. It shares everything except exterior styling with its two siblings, the Citroen C1 or Toyota Aygo. An n/a 1.0l engine gives a whooping 68hp. Funny thing is I've driven the previous generation Aygo, and I thought it was pretty fun to trash in a "slow car driven fast" way. This just wasn't fun. At all. Felt heavy despite being one of the lightest new cars you can buy at 1850lbs. Worst part was the overeager shift light that seemed to think there was a Cummins or something under the hood. No, I cant shift up at 1800rpm going uphill in a wheezy 1 litre. I dont think that stupid thing was ever happy with the gear I was in.
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Sep 24, 2019 21:36
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Usually I'd rent something sensible like a Camry Hybrid or a Mazda6 which are entirely unmemorable but one time I figured I'd try out a Commodore instead. Actual car  For the following these cars have over in this part of the world it's amazing how bad they are to drive. It's a big car that somehow managed to feel even bigger and heavier than it actually is, steering is vague and ride is somehow simultaneously harsh and uncontrolled feeling. The engine (V6 of course, this is a rental) was powerful enough but sounded laboured and returned awful fuel economy (I'm sure the dimwitted transmission wasn't helping at all). As for the interior I don't even know where to begin. The car had a large touchscreen which didn't server any useful function (no nav and certainly no Carplay), the seats had impressive looking bolsters but were so enormous my skinny arse just rolled around between them and the dash trim was a tacky mix of scratchy 'piano black' plastic along with various 'carbon fibre' plastics and vinyls Seriously who signed off on this?  Next time I'll be back in a good old Mazda or Toyota
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Sep 24, 2019 23:07
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Humbug posted:Not my last rental, but one I can remember, mostly for its awfulness. A Peugeot 108
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Sep 25, 2019 19:46
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My last rental was a 2018 Corolla. The Corolla shines at providing reliable, economical transportation. My dad's medium-sized wheelchair, a carry-on suitcase, and my duffle bag all fit in the trunk. The CVT is honestly fine in the Corolla, maximizing efficiency while trying to eke out whatever performance can be gotten from the Corolla's engine. I was able to get 40 MPG in mostly highway driving. The visibility was good enough that the backup camera was unnecessary, which is a rarity in a modern car. In addition to the good passive safety, Toyota gives you active safety features standard, including adaptive cruise control, in a $20K vehicle. The bad thing about the Corolla is how it is to actually drive. The motor is weak and thrashy. Being at 4000+ feet didn't help, but good god it needed another 30 HP. 0-60 was in the 10-second range. The steering was dead, lacking feel and responsiveness. Ride quality was a bit busy. Finally, to compare Entune's UI to Windows 95 is an insult to Windows 95. Before that, I kept getting the last of the W-body Impalas with the GM 3.6. It was a classic GM product: you were buying a powertrain, and the rest of the vehicle came for free. The Impala in this final edition had 300 HP in a car that's as heavy as a new CX-5. As a result, it was quick off the line, and there was always power to pass on the highway. The transmission was responsive and smooth-shifting, and I got 30 MPG on a 75 MPH highway cruise. It was a fairly quiet car, with only some wind noise coming through at speed. Ride and handling were boat-like.
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Sep 25, 2019 20:31
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this week: 2019 Rogue - seemed way bigger than the old one. Tons of tech and cameras and heated poo poo. 360 degree camera is kind of interesting and useful. Typically cheap Nissan interior. CVT was an OK match to the engine, power was generally available and it got out of its way. Trunk room was tiny and the load floor was extremely tall. Why would you buy this over a CX-5, CR-V, or RAV-4? 2019 Chrysler 300S - I really like the 300 as a big American boat car with a little bit of punch, but this is one of the worst versions. 20" wheels with low pro tires sacrifice the placid ride for negligible handling and a lot more noise. Still pretty comfortable. Uconnect is still good. White leather interior is a hilariously bad idea. Only other sporty concessions are paddle shifters which work indifferently. The ZF 8 speed works well without needing to massage it. They evidently don't sell as there was another twin to mine in my hotel parking lot.
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Sep 26, 2019 02:08
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It's travel day Upgrade: nada Chariot: This fine Corolla  How long till it smelled like cigarette smoke: Surprisingly made it to the refueling stop right before being returned. This appears to be a mid level trim, featuring such luxury upgrades as auto climate control, one touch up drivers window, adjustable steering wheel and 3 way adjustable driver seat. At almost 30000 miles the carpet has worn through where everyone rests their heel while futilely mashing the gas. The rest of the interior is holding up nicely in that "you bought a cheap car, but not the cheapest version of that car" kind of way. The engine is as gutless as you expect when you hear the term "rental Corolla", but given enough runway it was able to get up to freeway speeds. The cvt manages to be inoffensive and sport mode actually gives a bit more pep to acceleration without pointlessly spinning the engine at 4k+ all the time. The car is in every other way a totally forgettable appliance; it's an honest econobox so I guess I got what I paid for.
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Sep 26, 2019 03:59
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Rental reason: vacation in Hawaii Car: 2017 Mazda Miata RF Review: Is always the answer
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Oct 7, 2019 06:31
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I'm 25 and just landed my first real job. Employer flew me out to headquarters and asked that I rent a car. I heard that ford was going to cease production of their passenger cars in the US (still not sure if this is just a rumor or not) and decided to rent a feista. I was happy to see that it did not have a cvt auto and actually had a sport mode on the gear shift where the low gear would normally be. I experienced unsersteer at pretty much every speed, the seats were uncomfortable, and the interior seemed like it was designed by a cgi animator for the Michael Bay transformers movies. Also the headlights were really dim. I hated pretty much everything about the car but the info-tainment system was very nice and the stereo was surprisingly robust (for an economy car). I am no longer surprised that these cars have a reputation for being universally unpopular in North America.
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Oct 7, 2019 20:02
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I rented a Jeep Patriot back in 2014 for a last-minute overnight 12 hour drive and it was entirely mediocre, middling in comfort, disappointing in performance and absolutely forgettable overall.
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Oct 8, 2019 02:21
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Recently had a Hyundai i30 which was surprisingly ok. The seats were supportive and had a good range of motion so that my 6'5 frame could find a comfortable position, though the foam was a little hard. The control layout was good, everything was easy to find and use and the stereo / touchscreen seemed well laid out. The engine wasn't too underpowered and there was some feel through the steering. Honestly if I was in the market for a little hatchback I'd definitely have a good look at one. In comparison about a year ago we had a Mitsubishi ASX 2WD which had the strangest driving position. Seats felt more that you sat on them rather than in them, steering was vague and unresponsive, engine was lethargic to dead most of the time and it had a horrible automatic that added to the feelings of woe and despair. Can't imagine why anyone would buy one. Also had a Fuso Canter 515 (3 Tonne Truck) for work a couple of weeks back. It was surprisingly agile when unladen, had good turning radius, handled driving in and about the city well & the stereo was ok, can't really ask for too much more in a small truck.
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Oct 8, 2019 04:29
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This is an interesting thread. My daily driver is a BRZ for reference. So not a lot of bells and whistles interior wise, and it is just stupid fun to drive. Not all that fast, but it handles like a go-kart. BMW 5 Series. - Rented in Ireland. I had more trouble figuring out all the little quirks of the car than I did with driving on the other side of the road. A large part of that was probably because I'm not used to having to use my left hand and looking left to access controls. So mainly I would just ask my wife to turn on the air or use the nav system. The car drove great. Very nice throttle response even with 4 adults and luggage in the car, and a very smooth ride. There was this awesome switchback road in a small town (I don't remember where) that I briefly considered kicking everyone else out of the car and doing a hill climb. Dodge Charger V6. Rented last year while my BRZ was getting some minor cosmetic damage fixed (a guy at work backed a forklift into the front of it). Honestly I hated it on anything other than a nice sunny day. The visibility sucked rear end, and unfortunately we had a decent snow storm while I was driving it, and it behaved like a big fat rear end in a top hat. Despite being way loving lighter, my BRZ is so much better in lovely weather it's not even funny. It's also absurdly large. I parked it next to my wife's minivan and they were the same length. It does look cool though, and I liked the interior. Kia Soul. Rented a couple of years ago when my BRZ got rear-ended on the highway. I drove this for a couple weeks. I absolutely hated the looks of the car, but other than that I honestly had no complaints. I wasn't expecting performance out of it, which was good because there wasn't any. By the end of the rental period I had pretty much made up my mind that when my kids start driving, a used one of these would probably make a great first car. It was just a small dopey rear end car that had no power or handling to speak of, but it did it's job. Nissan Maxima. They gave me this for the first 3 days of the above rental (it was the next class up of car. they didn't have one in the class that the guys' insurance would cover, so they gave me the upgrade with the understanding that I would bring it back in when they got the soul). I didn't get to drive this all that much, but it was a nice car with a very nice interior and from what I remember it was a pleasurable drive. AFewBricksShy fucked around with this message at 13:11 on Oct 10, 2019 |
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Oct 10, 2019 13:05
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2019 chevrolet malibu pros: 30+ mpg in mixed driving, good carplay implementation and decent infotainment unit, fun weird cloth dashpad, good driving position and comfortable seat for a cheap car cons: interior is showing its age, bad CVT, lousy rearward visibility, they have made it look worse on the outside with every refresh why would anyone buy this over like... any other car being made that isn't a Nissan?
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Oct 10, 2019 14:36
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2017ish Ford Mustang V6 So I visited the US for the first time a few years back for a wedding, and I thought I'd rent a Mustang for that extra American experience. It wasn't much more expensive than the entry level Corolla or whatever. Since I was driving from NYC to NC and back, that seemed worth it to me. I thought it was a pretty excellent car, especially after hearing all the doom and gloom about how horrible they are from forums and other enthusiasts. It ate up those miles beautifully, even returning 30 mpg highway which I wasn't expecting. Infotainment was good with solid Bluetooth audio and handsfree. I especially liked the function where it read out messages, even if it was pretty funny to hear it decipher Norwegian. Interior quality wasn't fantastic, but its not like i run my hands all over the dashboard constantly while driving. Wheel, pedals buttons and shifter where fine. Seats weren't as good as in my Volvo, but then no seats are. Definitely better than some BMWs I've driven though. While it didn't fell 300hp fast, it definitely was quicker than most cars I've driven. The big wide roads in the US makes any car seem slower I suppose. There's always the higher spec models for those who want more poke. It's a sporty car made to look good, so I won't knock it much for having little luggage space. It did look drat good though, especially for not being some expensive exotic. While it would have been a big car back home, it never seemed to matter in the US, even around NYC. Everything was made for large vehicles. In sum. A good car well suited to its environment. Actual car pictured. I'm missing a cheeseburger from the photo for the full American stereotype trifecta 
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Oct 10, 2019 16:49
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ExecuDork posted:VW Beetle. That gets its own post.  Youngs Point PP 9 by Martin Brummell, on FlickrOn my way south from Peace River I stopped in at a Provincial Park. The Beetle did surprisingly well on soft gravel / dirt roads. Would rent "New Beetle" again, and would drive endlessly around Alberta again, too.
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Oct 15, 2019 05:14
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Honda S660 For reference, I daily an ND Miata. I rented this in Japan for a small road trip from Tokyo to Hakone. This turned out to not be the greatest idea because there is almost zero cargo space. There is a tiny frunk that was designed to store the targa top and that's it. It did not even fit my backpack. My buddy had to keep all our stuff on his lap. The Miata is downright practical in comparison. Interior space is not bad. There's good leg and head room (though we are not that tall) and there's even a glovebox. The seats are decent but not that comfy for long trips. There's tons of hard plastic and it feels cheap, but I don't expect much for a $15k toy. Visibility is fine forward and poo poo backwards. The shifter feels great but not quite as good as the Miata's. It has a nice solid rifle-bolt action, but lacks the direct mechanical feeling of the Miata. Power was surprisingly adequate. You have to wring it out a little but it has no trouble getting out of its own way. I attribute this mostly to the super short gearing and the weight. I would maybe call it NA Miata fast while being a little more torquey. It helps that the speed limits are so low in Japan. I think many people agree because I followed a group of non-sports cars for a while doing almost triple the speed limit on the expressway. I actually hit up against the S660's limiter which I learned is 136 kph. The engine doesn't sound particularly good, but there's a rear window you can roll down and you can hear the turbo loud and clear when you do, which was good fun. The handling was the highlight. I've never driven a mid-engined car before and now I want one. The front is so light and eager to turn. It doesn't hurt that the car is so light overall in the first place. Steering feel is direct and responsive. Suspension was firm but not harsh. The tail came out accidentally a couple times and correcting was easy and drama-free. The Miata is quite violent while oversteering due to its soft springs so this was a pleasant surprise for me. Hakone's roads are a perfect fit for this car, so it's not surprising that I spotted three others in the short time I was there. For a $15k toy, I would buy one if I could. I think it even would be possible to daily one as long as you don't need cargo space. I got about 42mpg beating on it; I think it's rated at closer to 50mpg. I love this car and I wish I could have one.
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Nov 3, 2019 05:11
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2019 Challenger R/T - 372hp and 400 torks in a rental car? Pros: girl that works at Wendy’s was really into it, somewhat fast Cons: guy on a sportbike followed me into a gas station and wanted to race, difficult to not drive like a dong, terrible ride quality, embarrassingly bad sound system, poor ergonomics and visibility, and it’s absolutely massive. Oh, and for how easy it is to break traffic laws, it’s not exciting. I’ve got 12 hours of driving ahead of me, I think I’m going to try and see if I can’t get something else. It was entertaining for a bit but now I’m just tired of it. I’d probably keep it if you could fully disable the stability control on a whim, but you can’t... it requires a button dance prior to startup. Dodge will let you do a burnout with stability on, but not even a hint of drifting is allowed. Fuckers. Conclusion: I dream of a Fusion Titanium or a Tahoe.
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Nov 3, 2019 15:37
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2009 Pontiac G5 - Needs to go die in a fire. What a loving testament to how GM is dying and deserves to die. This car is so trash it's just... It's... gently caress, I can't do it. Everything about this thing is total garbage. 2014 Chevy Cruze - See above. This was supposed to save a plant or something. lol, 2015 Dodge Avenger - Drivetrain isn't bad. Too bad the rest of it is. 2018 Ford Flex - Ford has no idea what the gently caress this thing is supposed to be. The doors have giant leg wounding body molding. The blind spot monitoring system is deeply flawed. The 3.6L Ecoboost engine handles mountain passes easily.
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Nov 4, 2019 04:48
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Fabulousity posted:2015 Dodge Avenger - Drivetrain isn't bad. Too bad the rest of it is. I don't know...the Chrysler 2.4 four banger is the most unhappy sounding engine I've ever heard.
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Nov 4, 2019 05:05
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Previa_fun posted:I don't know...the Chrysler 2.4 four banger is the most unhappy sounding engine I've ever heard. you could get the Pentastar V6 for like 21 grand or something, it was actually a good deal as long as you were willing to put up with the rest of the car I had some kind of AWD fusion the other day. pretty competent, still a perfectly good midsize sedan. don't know who's asking for AWD.
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Nov 4, 2019 15:59
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2019 Hyundai Tuscon SE 2.0 AWD Comfy, soaks up the terrible Michigan highways. Mediocre fuel economy, slow as gently caress. CarPlay and a somewhat passable stereo. Totally fine.
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Nov 5, 2019 03:33
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I guess this counts. I've borrowed my dad's 2019 BMW 340i for the week since it's been sitting and the gas in it is about two months old. I'm just burning through this tank, filling it up and returning it. It has about 900 miles on it now so it's basically brand new. I used to be a big BMW fanboy, having had an R53 MINI Cooper, an E36 and an E39. I miss them, too, and have often thought I'd end up going back to BMW at some point. The pros: It handles and feels like a BMW. It looks great inside and out. Modern features like a wireless phone charger and a fully digital cluster setup The cons: It's an automatic and I swear it shifts gears a thousand times getting up to thirty I'd like to eliminate every last goddamn autonomous driving feature. I've played around with most of them - and determined that they are garbage and I don't want them in my life. The first time the car inputted steering for me (forcing me back in the lane as I went around debris in the middle of an empty highway) I turned that poo poo off ASAP. On the plus side most of it looks like it can easily be fully turned off. It's a 50k car and doesn't have seat coolers I actually don't like the digital cluster very much. It's too bright at night even on the dimmest setting and between that and the bright touchscreen in the center, I miss old BMWs and their all-reddish orange interior colors. Much easier on the eyes. All in all, I've preferred the F30s I've rented over this car. It's like they took a really good car and ruined it with a bunch of stupid marketing decisions aimed at stealing Tesla buyers. CornHolio fucked around with this message at 13:29 on Nov 5, 2019 |
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Nov 5, 2019 13:19
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Hikaki posted:Honda S660 oh, you had the full "kei car on the highway" experience, congratulations. since I live in Tokyo, I don't own my own car (because the parking at my apartment building would be $400/month alone, and owning a car on top of that is much more expensive than in the U.S.). However, I use a 'car sharing' service run by one of the major parking companies -- if there's a parking lot at a train station or shopping mall, there's likely 3-4 spots set aside for the sharing service. What that means is in the last couple years I've had decent experience with most of the Japanese subcompacts. I'll share some thoughts later.
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Nov 5, 2019 23:46
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CornHolio posted:I guess this counts. I've borrowed So yeah, tell us about your cousin's poorly-modified "race car", the neighbour who left you the keys to their LuxoBarge while they went away for a holiday, and the Ranger with the slight misalignment you can take from your former roommate whenever you need to move stuff, like the poo poo he borrowed from you and still hasn't returned.
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Nov 6, 2019 06:34
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Hikaki posted:Honda S660 Cool, I'm always looking at the kei cars whenever my Miata feels too big. Where did you rent it and how much was it, if you don't mind? I'm considering going to Japan this spring but on first glance renting even the cheapest econobox is pretty pricey over there.
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Nov 7, 2019 00:02
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mobby_6kl posted:Cool, I'm always looking at the kei cars whenever my Miata feels too big. Not cheap, but I had a weird case. I rented mine at Omoshiroi Rent-a-Car in Noda from 10am opening to 7pm closing the next day so they counted it as a full 2 day rental. It was about $250 USD for everything including damage waiver. I also incurred at least $100 in tolls for that period. No wonder no one owns a car in Japan, the tolls are the silent killer. Literally every expressway has a toll and my highest one was like $25. I took the wrong exit off the Tokyo Expressway and that mistake cost me $10 to get back on. Hikaki fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Nov 7, 2019 |
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Nov 7, 2019 02:22
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Upgrade:  Slab: Impala  How long till it smelled like cigarette smoke: Shockingly, it never did. Hurray winter weather. The Impala name doesn't mean much to my generation, especially as compared to my parents' or grandparents' and this example is unlikely to win over any hearts or minds. If I had actually paid the rate for a premium category I'd be pissed. While in no way premium, it is a large(ish) American sedan for large Americans. This is the first car in I don't know how long where I didn't need to drop the seat as low as it will go to have decent headroom. The seats are ample and mounted noticeably inboard of where they would be in any other similar sized car. I had to stretch a bit to rest my elbow on the door armrest while driving. It'll accommodate a 400-pounder, no problem. On the move, it lacks any and all pretense of sportiness. Ain't no S on the PRNDL. No drive modes of any kind. No way to turn off auto stop-start. There's a 'TC off' button, but I suspect the only thing it does is illuminate a dash light. It steers like a boat and the transmission is totally indifferent to throttle position. The Google says it makes nearly 200 hp, but I'm struggling to believe that. There will be no cut and thrust in traffic in this thing. You will get stuck behind a bus on a busy freeway and you will like it. E: vvvv It actually has a backup camera now! I'm certain only because FMVSS 111 said they had to by MY18. SlapActionJackson fucked around with this message at 05:41 on Nov 7, 2019 |
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Nov 7, 2019 04:05
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I'm driving a Kia Sportage with AWD, and it's been surprisingly nice to have while in Manitoba. The highlights are the infotainment system and heated steering wheel/seats. It's made being here in the frozen True North™ way more bearable. edit:^^^^ The Impala is one of the biggest pieces of poo poo being made today. I can't believe they make any car without a backup camera, especially something with such terrible blind spots.
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Nov 7, 2019 05:14
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the V6 is perfectly decent and it's had a backup camera for quite some time
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Nov 8, 2019 00:59
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I rented a 2019 VW Jetta this week. Nice interior, plenty of room, the trunk is definitely large enough to fit several dead ladies (or men!) of the night. The automated driving features (blind spot monitoring/warning and automated emergency braking) are obnoxious and don't appear to have any way to turn them off. The transmission is jerkier than some good chicken, but the acceleration was decent. The worst bit, though, the absolute deal breaker, is the suspension. I've driven Cadillacs from the 80s which felt more connected to the road, in the early 2000s, with original suspension components. Calling it a boat would be an insult to the quality handling characteristics of boats.
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Nov 8, 2019 01:21
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