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VW's object detection sensors or whatever the gently caress can also eat out my rear end in a top hat. Why yes, I would like the car to start beeping loudly and without a way of permanently deactivating it literally any time it snows! What a useful fuckin' system that is! It handles great in the snow but it's aggravating trying to actually get anywhere, because every time you slow down, BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! EDIT: Admittedly not a rental review, but relevant to bitching about VW's horrible driver aids.
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Nov 8, 2019 04:28
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Krakkles posted: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. If it's anything like my Golf, turning off the ADAS stuff is by pressing the button at the end of the left stalk, which pops up the menu on the instrument cluster that you can then navigate to disable. (Note that disabling AEB -- "Front Assist" in their parlance -- results in an angry yellow /!\ lit up on the dash until you turn it back on!) Though your observations I found to be quite interesting: on my Golf, the ADAS stuff is the least intrusive system that I've experienced yet, with the false positive rate dramatically better than a Volvo I rented a few years ago, and it being responsible for at least a save or two. It's basically the only ADAS system that I'm willing to leave turned on, since it's generally pretty good about getting out of your way. (Now, for all the good I can say about the driver-assist stuff, the auto high beam is complete trash designed by lunatics, but that's a different story...)
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Nov 8, 2019 06:00
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Are there lower trim models of these makes you can buy without having to beta test their poorly implemented "aids"?
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Nov 8, 2019 15:07
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BloodBag posted:Are there lower trim models of these makes you can buy without having to beta test their poorly implemented "aids"? If there are they won’t be available for long - it’s quite a large part of the NCAP ratings these days.
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Nov 9, 2019 22:16
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BloodBag posted:Are there lower trim models of these makes you can buy without having to beta test their poorly implemented "aids"? i got a Golf S which is the lowest trim. it's mostly passive safety, which is fine, works pretty well, and is mostly useful. forward collision monitoring / prebrake - i like this and think it's a good feature; it uses distance to give you a bit more brake boost and move the pads closer to the disc, and it will brake for you if you it senses an obstacle in front of you at low speeds blind spot monitoring - little lights. its fine, blind spot monitoring is pretty proven tech although not super useful rear cross traffic - will beep if it sees a car coming and you're in reverse
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Nov 11, 2019 01:42
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:rear cross traffic - will beep if it sees a car coming and you're in reverse But the crazy man who yelled at me in the parking lot the other week insisted that the other person's car should beep, so they know to stop for the person reversing! 
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Nov 11, 2019 15:33
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Oh yeah, one of the features my Kia had that was really nice was lowering the volume on the radio while I was in reverse. Very smart, and useful in parking lots with lots of pedestrians.
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Nov 11, 2019 16:08
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RIP Paul Walker posted:2019 Challenger R/T - 372hp and 400 torks in a rental car? The blind spot detection beep being intrusive enough for me to jump in my seat every time it went off, despite being well aware a vehicle was present, was annoying as designed. The warning triangle in the side view mirrors to indicate something was in the blind spots was virtually impossible to see at sunrise or sunset. It's the first modern rental I've had where Carplay stuttered. The factory wheels rubbed on the wheel well liners before you reached full lock going left or right. A lack of physical airflow controls was irritating, as was not being able to slave both climate control zone controls together to adjust temperature at the same rate. The first rental I had for this trip was a 2019 Camaro SS with 13 miles on it, so I babied it. At 103 miles, the engine turned off on I-70. The oil on the dipstick looked like a portal into a package of glitter, and I eventually ended up with the Challenger above. Before that happened, the car had a surging issue at steady speed on level ground that made me think of previous GM vehicles with torque converter problems. The HVAC controls looked cool, but didn't do a good job at directing airflow to places that would keep me warm. The handling was good, but that was all that I liked about it. It's not a mystery why the cars aren't selling well.
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Nov 11, 2019 16:51
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In Chicago a couple of weeks go. Rented a Nissan Sentra. 38 miles to the gallon, everything was sort of ok inside the car. Automatic is numb numb numb, it does make the teeny engine feel slightly peppy. Weather already stripping pulling off rear doors, car had 12K miles on it lol. Ride was nice very for a tiny car, but the steering was numb numb numb. Steering wheel very nice feel and bumps in the right places. They left some giant “Do Not Remove except by consumer” on the windshield, like 5” x 7”, blocking a substantial portion of the windshield. Took about ten minutes for me to ssssllllloooooly pull it off. WTF Avis.
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Nov 11, 2019 16:59
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Huh. The Sentra CVT I had from Enterprise was deeply unpleasant, I'd found. The tachometer lies on the Sentra: when it fakes a shift, the rev counter falls rapidly, but the engine doesn't stop making noise until a second later. I felt very  about that when I noticed it.
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Nov 11, 2019 17:54
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The Linux Fairy posted:Huh. The Sentra CVT I had from Enterprise was deeply unpleasant, I'd found. The tachometer lies on the Sentra: when it fakes a shift, the rev counter falls rapidly, but the engine doesn't stop making noise until a second later. I felt very Yes, me too, also from Enterprise. Is it possible that Nissan is producing an especially lovely version for Enterprise?
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Nov 11, 2019 18:20
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PT6A posted:Yes, me too, also from Enterprise. Is it possible that Nissan is producing an especially lovely version for Enterprise? No, I’d more bet on everyone getting the lovely version of the Sentra.
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Nov 11, 2019 18:37
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Cocoa Crispies posted:No, I’d more bet on everyone getting the lovely version of the Sentra. See, ordinarily I would, but apparently someone in this thread rented one without hating literally every awful loving aspect of it, and that suggests to me that either they've only driven Ladas before that, or there's an especially poor version around. I had to return it, it was so bad and unsafe feeling.
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Nov 11, 2019 18:43
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the sentra isn't a good car by any stretch of the imagination but it is fairly spacious for a small cheap car and the ride is decent on the highway. the CVT is a CVT, you should be used to them by now. it was a lot better than i thought it was going to be, evidently none of you mother fuckers ever rented the prior gen Sentra or the Versa.
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Nov 11, 2019 19:40
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The last Sentra I drove was a 1984 model, in 1994. so generally speaking this thing was an immense upgrade from that. (Except the 1984 had a five speed, that was fun) I mean the current model was also just absolutely the cheapest cheapest pos ever made and gave no thrill/pleasure at all. But it did what it was supposed to do for a carppliance. I think my biggest disappointment was I could not dim the instrument panel sufficiently.
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Nov 11, 2019 20:08
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:the sentra isn't a good car by any stretch of the imagination but it is fairly spacious for a small cheap car and the ride is decent on the highway. the CVT is a CVT, you should be used to them by now. it was a lot better than i thought it was going to be, evidently none of you mother fuckers ever rented the prior gen Sentra or the Versa. Yeah Nissan is trash, but the new sentra is much better than the last one, that's for sure. Would never buy a Nissan product though
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Nov 12, 2019 03:04
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I don't know, I've been in a Tsuru which, for all its numerous awful faults, still allows you to wring its pitiful engine through a dreadfully constructed manual transmission that allows you full control over its overwhelming disappointment. That'd be a plus for me. It'd been so long since I'd driven any automatic that it's possible I just found the CVT especially aggravating. The violent shaking any time you tried to put your foot into it was particularly worrying, mind you I'd not have tried that with a proper transmission because I'd already be in an acceptable gear before attempting to accelerate.
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Nov 12, 2019 03:44
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Borrowed a Toyota CH-R from the car share parking lot near me the other night. Took it out the highway to the deep suburbs of Tokyo and back, and it was actually better than expected. Looking at the thing I was real worried about rear visibility, but it wasn’t a big issue. I was also a bit worried about the engine being a bit underpowered, but it was the hybrid model with the 1.8 liter, so it was fine. (This is also where I remember that the Prius Aqua/c had a decent motor and hybrid but was a godawful bucket to drive). It actually handled highway work better than expected, and everything inside was laid out pretty well too. Not sure I’d look into one for a personal car, but it was better than I’d feared.
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Nov 12, 2019 05:56
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PT6A posted:I don't know, I've been in a Tsuru which, for all its numerous awful faults, still allows you to wring its pitiful engine through a dreadfully constructed manual transmission that allows you full control over its overwhelming disappointment. That'd be a plus for me. It'd been so long since I'd driven any automatic that it's possible I just found the CVT especially aggravating. The violent shaking any time you tried to put your foot into it was particularly worrying, mind you I'd not have tried that with a proper transmission because I'd already be in an acceptable gear before attempting to accelerate. there was definitely something broken about your specific sentra, it's not a good car but it's not plagued by violent shaking
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Nov 12, 2019 12:58
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:there was definitely something broken about your specific sentra, it's not a good car but it's not plagued by violent shaking Yeah. My mom (unfortunately) owns a Sentra because she makes bad purchasing decisions. It's... absolutely miserable to drive, but also kind of nice? Hers is kitted out with so much poo poo that doesn't belong in a car like a Sentra at all, but it's ultimately a pretty smooth, quiet ride with a seating position that's so high that you're usually eye level with compact and mid-size CUVs. Awful to drive, but an alright car. Had a rental Sentra from Enterprise at the beginning of the year and it drove just like hers, just without the gadgets and "leather" and poo poo. Still reasonably quiet and smooth, still a really bad driving experience.
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Nov 13, 2019 17:01
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Okay, it was the first and only CVT I've ever driven, so what I'm hearing is when you go to full throttle, the car is not supposed to shudder back and forth for two seconds before you actually feel acceleration? Odd, it was practically brand new. 200km I think.
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Nov 13, 2019 18:19
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All the Nissan CVTs that I’ve driven just drive like the worst automatics ever. I probably couldn’t identify them vs a lovely automatic in a blind test except for them seeming exceptionally bad. Never experienced shuddering or anything weird though.
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Nov 13, 2019 19:17
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PT6A posted:Okay, it was the first and only CVT I've ever driven, so what I'm hearing is when you go to full throttle, the car is not supposed to shudder back and forth for two seconds before you actually feel acceleration? no generally what happens is that you get a sudden REEEEE as the car goes to max power band and the transmission adjusts, and then you kind of weirdly scoot forward while the engine stays at the same rpm
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Nov 13, 2019 20:12
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Paradoxish posted:All the Nissan CVTs that I’ve driven just drive like the worst automatics ever. I probably couldn’t identify them vs a lovely automatic in a blind test except for them seeming exceptionally bad. Never experienced shuddering or anything weird though. Get a load of this guy. He's never driven a ford with a DPS6.
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Nov 14, 2019 01:09
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A Small Car posted: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. Tell her to drive the poo poo out of it. Heavy gas from every stop. The problem is when you ease on the throttle from a stop they slip the gently caress out of the clutch packs.
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Nov 14, 2019 01:28
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Don Lapre posted:Tell her to drive the poo poo out of it. Heavy gas from every stop. The problem is when you ease on the throttle from a stop they slip the gently caress out of the clutch packs. That's what my brother's for  He drives it at least twice a week and thoroughly enjoys his time in it. My sister in law is also starting to drive it that way though, probably why it's been so problem free.
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Nov 14, 2019 02:08
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I reserved a Fusion at Enterprise for a weeklong road trip to FL. I got a 12k mile Altima with bumper damage. We rented from one of the city lots with not a lot of selection(The other option being a Tahoe) I'm tempted to call customer service and see if i can swap it out at the Airport station since they have a deeper car selection there and might actually have something without a CVT.
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Nov 23, 2019 18:22
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Got that turbo Mustang convertible this week, it's fine, automatic's an automatic, dog poo poo visibility with the top up, great visibility with the top down, CarPlay is predictably good. Only issue was one of the back half-windows wouldn't go up all the way without coaxing if both the top and front window were up.
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Nov 23, 2019 19:23
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Rented a Focus ST Diesel in Ireland for New Year's. It was very sporty, despite being a diesel, and the 6 speed rowboat shifted smoothly and it had a lot of low end power. After I got over the terrifying fact that I was driving on the wrong side of the road, it was a fantastic car to rent. Worked well in the city, was able to sip fuel on the highways.
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Jan 3, 2020 11:22
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I rented a Peugeot 208 (1.2L 3-cylinder, 82hp, 5-speed) from Enterprise in Germany, over Christmas. First impressions was good build quality and materials for a very affordable car. The doors sound a little cheap when you close them, but the moon roof with accent lighting is cool, and the cabin layout is straight-forward and logical. I dislike the "touchscreen for basically everything", but the navigation is good and at least the HVAC controls are proper physical buttons (which they aren't on the new second-gen version, sadly). Driving-wise, it's a hoot. It feels really eager to corner, and the fat little steering wheel with the instruments above it feels completely natural. Obviously it's electrically-assisted, so not a whole bunch of feedback, but it is nicely weighted. The gas pedal is not 100% linear, but it certainly feels a lot less front-loaded than on most modern cars. The engine is obviously not the most powerful thing in the world, but that just means you can run it to redline in every gear, especially coming onto the autobahn or trying to hustle uphill. If you do that, you're rewarded with a cute little burble on each upshift, which along with the nice thrum from the 3-cylinder engine on full throttle (I love 3-cylinder engines) makes it worth it to wring its neck as often as possible. If you're OK with a small car that isn't particularly fast, but fun to drive, hell yeah. KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 12:53 on Jan 3, 2020 |
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Jan 3, 2020 12:51
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The more I drive cars with CVTs, the more I appreciate my xB with an ancient 4 speed auto. Yeah it gets pretty poo poo mileage for a 4cyl because of it, but it shifts loving perfect, is quick off the line, and is always in the right gear, never hunting around not knowing what to do. When I step on it there's no hesitation, it downshifts and just goes. I really don't like automatics to begin with, but looking towards the future with every car manufacturer going with CVTs especially in economy cars, you can pry my 4 speed auto from my cold dead hands. My next car purchase is probably going to be either an EV or an ICE car with a manual transmission.
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Jan 3, 2020 16:55
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I agree with wanting to jump straight from manual to EV. It's worth the tradeoff, normal autos and cvts just aren't.
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Jan 3, 2020 23:43
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I really want a Chevy Bolt, but they are just more than I want to spend right now.....When they get around 15k I'm getting one.
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Jan 4, 2020 01:19
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wilfredmerriweathr posted:I agree with wanting to jump straight from manual to EV. It's worth the tradeoff, normal autos and cvts just aren't. Yeah, I mean if the car is always instantaneously in its powerband and provides good engine braking (or regenerative braking, as it would be) then there's no need for a manual transmission. I dislike normal automatic transmissions because there's always lag, and the corresponding feeling of not being fully in control, but once you get that sorted by having an electric engine, there's no reason to fiddle about with a third pedal. Provided, and this is important, you can turn off "the car creeps along when you come off the brake, before you touch the gas." That poo poo is weird and it leaves to bad driving behaviour like creeping forward at stoplights for NO EARTHLY loving REASON.
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Jan 4, 2020 03:59
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I just rented a 2020 Ford Ecosport 2.0L Titanium 4WD in Salt Lake City, UT so I could drive up into the mountains to go skiing and across the Wasatch range to go snowmobiling. First impression: I can't believe Ford wants $30k USD for this thing. It's quite small, about the size of a Fiesta, and the materials and build quality are very cheap, like visibly cheap. I wouldn't mind it so much if it was from 1998, but seeing as this is a brand new car, I was not impressed. The most egregious example was the center armrest. It was a cheap rubber top and when you'd pull it up to open, it would catch the little tray inside and flip it out. The seating position was upright and felt pretty tall considering this thing is so tiny. The seats are narrow and firm. I felt like the huge fatty I am because I felt my rear end hang over both sides of the seats, something that doesn't happen to me in NA miata seats. Steering wheel and switchgear are lifted straight out of the focus. The whole car feels like a parts bin special, which I guess keeps costs down. The second impression: its slow, really slow. The speed limit in SLC is 70 on most freeways through the city, and probably due to altitude, this car struggled to get up to 70, even though the throttle is mapped to be very jumpy off the line. I'm used to the more linear throttles of a 95 miata or F150 v8. It seemed to corner fairly well for something that looks tall and narrow. The engine I believe is the 2.0L duratec that is also in the focus. The nice part about it was that I could set the cruise control at a speed and it would keep it at that speed going down the mountain hills, which was necessary due to the fact that Ford didn't remove the shipping covers from the brakes upon delivery to the rental company. It was a brand new car with 120 miles on it. I had to control the transmission manually in the mountains because the stupid thing kept trying to shift up and then shift right back down because the engine didn't have enough torque to keep the car going up an incline in that gear. It handled snow very well and surprised me. There was a big snow storm that blew through the city overnight and I got on the roads before they had been plowed. I stayed in the ruts created by other cars and things worked out fine. If I was going to lose control, it would let me know progressively, but not abruptly. I didn't push my luck and I think it's little shopping cart tires may have helped to push down through the snow instead of riding on top of it. The extra ride height was useful due being able to go over those big snow chunks that fall off of other cars without hitting something underneath. The electronics were very nice. The center screen was a tablet stuck on the dash, but that put it very close within reach and it was a capacitive touch screen with good response and physical knobs for tuning and volume, always a welcome thing. Sync 3 works well and you can do a lot of in-car functions with it like climate, but that also has physical buttons and worked well. The nice thing was the turn-by-turn instructions would pop up in the little screen between the gauges. The gauge cluster is very unattractive and also looked cheap. Simple, and cheap. You can configure a couple of the screens in there so that was nice. A minor annoyance; car play navigation prompts do not show up in the gauge screen. On that note, car play was really nicely done in this vehicle, much better than the last time I'd seen it. It doesn't pick up where you left off if you shut off the car and get back in, another thing I didn't like, whereas sync 3 would. Heated seats and steering wheel were much appreciated since it was about 19F. The automatic wipers don't seem to know how to deal with snow, they weren't very good. Also the rear wiper doesn't go full time when you're reversing and your front wipers are on, the Focus hatch does that and I always found it thoughtful and useful. Cargo space is a joke in this thing, as well as rear seat legroom. I honestly don't know who buys compact SUVs, because they have no space behind the driver unless you're a member of the lollipop guild. I had to tetris one rolling bag and my laptop bag sideways behind the rear seat. A second suitcase would have required the rear seats to be folded down. The focus was way bigger in this regard. Ride quality was pretty lackluster. It is a short wheelbase, narrow, and tall, so some roads with close expansion joints would have the car hobby-horsing down the road and it just felt kinda cheap and choppy. Tire noise was pretty loud, but engine noise on flat ground was subdued, that changed with inclines quite dramatically. Overall, I kinda liked it for how well it handled the cold weather and snow on unplowed roads. The interior was functional and just okay, the electronics were pretty good, and the sound system was really nice (B&O). The power was pretty lackluster, and overall I really wonder why this costs $10k more than a fiesta, because they feel like they cost the same to make. And that's really my feeling about most small SUVs.
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Jan 4, 2020 12:04
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But that's what everyone else wants right now so you have to pay the CUV tax. You could get a brand new or barely used fiesta for half the price, lift it a few inches and put snow tires on it and it would perform just as good if not better.
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Jan 4, 2020 16:37
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2019 Dodge Caravan This van was a hateful piece of poo poo and the only good thing about it was that it could hold my luggage, my gas chromatograph, and a full-size bottle of argon with no problem. 2019 Dodge Journey Slightly less hateful, no less of a piece of poo poo. 2019 GMC Terrain Drove very well, kind of anemic, all of the surfaces you touched felt pretty nice. Interior was a big step up from all of the Chrysler horse poo poo. 2019 Ram 1500 Bighorn 4x4 Ended up with this when they sold out of Journeys at the enterprise counter. Wow. The interior was light years ahead of the other Chrysler turds. Absolutely hauled rear end, gobs of power, dealt with light snow and ice just fine. I be ver even knew I needed a steering wheel heater, which was a godsend in Ohio last month, but would be a little superfluous at home in Florida. Very nice truck.
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Jan 4, 2020 16:39
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yeah the new Ram 1500 is really really nice
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Jan 4, 2020 17:10
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BloodBag posted:I just rented a 2020 Ford Ecosport 2.0L Titanium 4WD Just before Christmas, I was driving on the highway to go see my folks and pulled out to pass a slower motorist. The EcoSport behind me pulled out as well and started to tailgate me during my pass, which I thought was a little rude, so I hurried up to complete the pass. As soon as he fell out of the clean air behind my car, it was like he hit the brakes. I've never seen anything like that on a new car. There were pretty strong headwinds, admittedly. It took him a few more seconds to get back up to his old road speed and complete the pass on me, and it was definitely full throttle when he did so. We're at altitude but a turbocharger shouldn't be bothered that much.
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Jan 4, 2020 18:27
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Seat Safety Switch posted:We're at altitude but a turbocharger shouldn't be bothered that much. Was there any badging to indicate which engine it had? It might’ve been the 2L NA engine instead of the 1L turbo. quote:Early [US] models include the 1.0 Ecoboost three cylinder turbo gasoline engine for FWD models and the 2.0 four cylinder petrol naturally aspirated engine for 4WD models.
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Jan 5, 2020 01:27
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