Rental Car Roulette

[CrzRsn]

Another winner

 

[CraigB]

Fucking yellow delivery spliter protector things...

 

[93Flareside]

2019 Chevrolet Impala (truthfully, this is about a week old review at this point)

Reasons why you don't tilt the screen back...

Door unlock button facing away and out of reach for T-Rex arm people like myself.

Has door lock/unlock on the handle but no hand sensing for unlock, you have to press the button.

This had wireless phone charging that was a perfect fit for an iPhone 8. Anything bigger won't work. What I liked was that little notch is a vent thats attached to the car HVAC. Whenever that is on, cool air is blown at the phone to prevent overheating from charging.

This had less than 1,000 miles on it, it drove smoothly, carried my luggage just fine, had an ok sounding stereo and allowed me to drive from Seattle to Oak Harbor and back on a single tank which is a mere 210mi round trip. This is factoring the heavy traffic with stop and go for 20 miles around Seattle. Seats were ok but were the typical "oh this is comfy" at first and after an hour, I had tailbone discomfort. Ride is almost boat like, similar to the American VW Passat but with more torque steer at full throttle. While it had built in navigation, there was also carplay/android auto. Built in Nav had no traffic info but I did get the speed limit signs on the center screen in the gauge cluster.

The Impala is a really good car, the problem is theres nothing exciting, its nice but theres something missing from it. Rides nice, has decent power, good radio, back seats had decent space and I could sit behind myself with room to spare. Trunk space is substantial. This is something more people should buy as it ticks a lot of boxes for most people.

What is it that I'm missing? Oh yeah, the steering wheel!

What is that?

 

[Vipergts662]

2019 Expedition XLT
While on vacation in Jersey visiting my sister and her husband we got a call my uncle has passed away. Thankfully the drive is only 10 hours so we called Avis and booked an Explorer sized vehicle for four adults and two kids.

When we pull up at 7 am I notice a black Expedition in the lot with someone waiting to drop it off, he does and I proceed to complete my paper work and ask what they have me in the clerk responds with a Highlander and I immediately ask how much more the Expedition is the clerk responds $30/day I said I will take it.

We get everyone loaded up it wasn't a max so the cargo room with the third row up was tight but we made it work. This XLT was pretty much loaded for that trim level I think it had everything except the co-pilot 360 safety stuff. The kids liked the panoramic sun roof, android auto is always nice as were the heated and cooled seats. What really stood out to me was the gas mileage from such a large vehicle we were driving to NE Indiana which meant driving through the "mountains" and over the course of the 1,400 mile round trip the average was 22 mpg, on the highway we could easily get 26 instantaneous. Kudos to Ford on this vehicle it was the perfect barn sized vehicle for this trip I had no fatigue driving it was almost to numb even in sport mode with the heavier steering and stiffer suspension. CrzRsn if you know any of the people that worked on the design tell them they did a hell of a job.

2019 Subaru Outback
With the unplanned trip out of the way we now had to make our way from Jersey to Boston for our flight back to Houston and the Expedition was overkill for two people so back to Avis we went and picked up the Outback which was almost the top trim level. Size of the vehicle was decent engine sucked had no power but it did have their vision safety system and the auto cruise control leaving Jersey and passing through NYC at 8:30 in the morning was fantastic the sensitivity needs to be worked on not exactly a smooth braking experience and the lane "assist" was basically the car bouncing from line to line. The seats were meh I liked the ones in my 07 STi better and far worse than the ones in the Expedition.

What was nice about the extended Expedition test drive was getting to know the vehicle we have been talking about getting rid of our 2010 Edge with 160k miles on the clock. We do not need anything bigger than the Explorer/Aviator but those XLTs are a pretty damn good bargain for what you get compared to a similarly equipped Explorer the Aviator is still first on our list unless we find a good deal on an Expedition.

For the people in NYC and Jersey how in the hell do you not break you cars every other day on those horrible roads? The roads in Houston are complete crap but you guys take the cake.

 

[CrzRsn]

CrzRsn if you know any of the people that worked on the design tell them they did a hell of a job.

Nice review!

 

[93Flareside]

2019 Expedition XLT
While on vacation in Jersey visiting my sister and her husband we got a call my uncle has passed away. Thankfully the drive is only 10 hours so we called Avis and booked an Explorer sized vehicle for four adults and two kids.

When we pull up at 7 am I notice a black Expedition in the lot with someone waiting to drop it off, he does and I proceed to complete my paper work and ask what they have me in the clerk responds with a Highlander and I immediately ask how much more the Expedition is the clerk responds $30/day I said I will take it.

We get everyone loaded up it wasn't a max so the cargo room with the third row up was tight but we made it work. This XLT was pretty much loaded for that trim level I think it had everything except the co-pilot 360 safety stuff. The kids liked the panoramic sun roof, android auto is always nice as were the heated and cooled seats. What really stood out to me was the gas mileage from such a large vehicle we were driving to NE Indiana which meant driving through the "mountains" and over the course of the 1,400 mile round trip the average was 22 mpg, on the highway we could easily get 26 instantaneous. Kudos to Ford on this vehicle it was the perfect barn sized vehicle for this trip I had no fatigue driving it was almost to numb even in sport mode with the heavier steering and stiffer suspension. CrzRsn if you know any of the people that worked on the design tell them they did a hell of a job.

2019 Subaru Outback
With the unplanned trip out of the way we now had to make our way from Jersey to Boston for our flight back to Houston and the Expedition was overkill for two people so back to Avis we went and picked up the Outback which was almost the top trim level. Size of the vehicle was decent engine sucked had no power but it did have their vision safety system and the auto cruise control leaving Jersey and passing through NYC at 8:30 in the morning was fantastic the sensitivity needs to be worked on not exactly a smooth braking experience and the lane "assist" was basically the car bouncing from line to line. The seats were meh I liked the ones in my 07 STi better and far worse than the ones in the Expedition.

What was nice about the extended Expedition test drive was getting to know the vehicle we have been talking about getting rid of our 2010 Edge with 160k miles on the clock. We do not need anything bigger than the Explorer/Aviator but those XLTs are a pretty damn good bargain for what you get compared to a similarly equipped Explorer the Aviator is still first on our list unless we find a good deal on an Expedition.

For the people in NYC and Jersey how in the hell do you not break you cars every other day on those horrible roads? The roads in Houston are complete crap but you guys take the cake.

My guess would be you had the 2.5L outback. Having rented one a month after mom test drove a 3.6L, don't get the 2.5, it's trash for that vehicle.

 

[LeVeL]

For the people in NYC and Jersey how in the hell do you not break you cars every other day on those horrible roads? The roads in Houston are complete crap but you guys take the cake.

I wonder the same thing every time I leave Boston to go to NYC.

 

[Andeh]

I've never bothered writing for this thread before because my hire cars are usually quite forgettable, however this one has annoyed me enough to warrant a slating... er, review.

Fiat 500S 1.2. I was expecting a new Fiesta, which definitely didn't help, as I was looking forward to trying one. Unfortunately I was given the keys to this grey misery bubble, with grey wheels to highlight the grey experience driving this car provides.

First up, put my bags in the boot and go to shut the hatch. No interior handle. I know most people don't use them, but I don't like getting my hands dirty or messing up the paint when I shut the boot. Instead it had a crappy three inch piece of fabric to pull on. Luckily the bootlid was made of paper, as I couldn't have moved much more weight with it.

Heads up to Enterprise Penrith for forgetting to put any fuel in, and cleaning the interior with a blindfold. The entire dash was mottled with a sticky spotty substance, which made me think they sprayed some interior goo over everything (steering wheel, touch screen, climate controls) and forget to wipe it off. Plus the cupholders full of water for the full interior pressure wash feeling. Still, with the door cards feeling as rock hard and crappy as my 1986 Fiesta, I don't blame the cleaner for not wanting to get tactile with the interior.

Seat has three adjustments. Forward and back, seat back and tilt on the base. Unfortunately you sit on the ceiling, somewhere between the height of Range Rover driver and the moon, and there's no way to properly lower the comically high seating position. Which was unfortunate, as when on the brakes my knee touched the steering wheel. Which only had height adjustment. (My 1935 Standard 12 had a telescopic wheel for christ's sake). Oh and the aforementioned seat base adjuster is a handle right next to the handbrake, which meant 50% of hand brake applications actually saw my seat move even bloody higher.

It starts. It runs. It's absolutely rubbish.

It's slow. On paper most of my cars are slower, much slower in fact, but somehow this feels utterly abysmal. It has no power delivery; from 1k-6k revs, it's all flat and useless. Accelerating from 50-70 on the motorway is an exercise in down changing twice to not be out dragged by an HGV.

The gearbox is nice enough, although I've never liked the van style gear lever position sit up and beg cars like this necessitate.

The steering is okay, it gets upset easily by potholes, and thrown about in crosswinds. I like the zippy-round-town wheels-on-the-corner handling, but dislike the lack of any real feel. I fail to see who finds the feather light steering so heavy that they require the use of the button which completely disconnects any steering feel at all and gives you the impression you're turning Maggie's Fisher Price toy wheel from the Simpsons' family car.

The ride is honestly a bit shit. It somehow makes cats eyes feel like 6 inch potholes.

Positives:
Round town handling
Strong aircon
Comfy doorcard armrest
Lovely to park, and walk away from, if you're not spotted
Negatives:
Everything else.

This car is 14k, and I don't get it. Just buy something second hand and good.

 

[93Flareside]

2019 Ford S-Max

My rental for the duration of Swisstaly and Ringmeet, 2 weeks 3 days, 4,640kms driven. Fuel cost? I don't even want to know....


I was hoping for another wagon as that was the class I booked way back in January 2019 for this trip however, I was bumped up to a Ford S-Max, the "Sporty" version of the Galaxy van. This was specc'd much higher than the Focus wagon of last year where the rear seats had wind down windows. This model had the coveted 1.5L Ecoboost (one more cylinder than last year!), power windows, auto tailgate, power folding 2nd and 3rd row seats, auto headlights, auto climate control, radar cruise control, lane departure, forward collision warning, parking sensors, backup camera, power folding mirrors, keyless start + entry with finger sensing door handles, and a 6 speed manual transmission.

Low end torque is almost non-existent, 1st gear is a bit short while 2nd is quite long and not smooth to get into when driving "spirited." I always found myself giving too much throttle taking off from a dead stop, you breathe on the pedal and you're zinging the engine up to 2500RPM. Me taking off sounded like an old lady who couldn't feel the pedals. In the mountains, I was quite surprised that I was able to keep up with the rest of the group for the most part. Any long straight away I was of course trailing. It took quite a bit of work to keep up and was a bit of a squeeze in Italian villages but not impossible. There was maybe 1 or 2 times near summits where I needed to fold the mirrors in. Brakes were mostly ok and the tires were "meh" due to being the awful Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons which are very noisy especially for an all season tire. Definitely a cheap tire to appease the rental sector. To be fair, I never felt like I didn't have enough enough grip until the end of road trip, they just made a lot of noise due to their weird tread pattern. Toward the end of Swisstaly, I had to take it a little easy due to the tires starting to lose grip earlier than usual.

During the trip, it became the pack mule due to the incredible space, this vehicle had a 3rd row but was mostly folded down, only a few nights for runs to dinner was the 3rd row used. As far as I'm concerned, its for kids only and should remain folded down otherwise so that trunk space could be utilized. This had no extra space over something like a Focus wagon or Golf Sportwagen. As far as depth goes, they're identical the only thing you're gaining is roof height. I know this because I had a night I needed to sleep in it which I had test fitted an inflatable mattress at home in my work car which is a VW Alltrack (lifted sportwagen for those unaware). I still needed to slide the front seats as far forward as possible and lean the seat backs as far as I could forward with luggage stuffed up front.

I only had a few times where I got to experience night driving in it which was quite a treat. Not only did this have automatic headlights but it also had the lights move with steering as well as auto high beam with the automatic shutter that closed a bit off to prevent from blinding other drivers on the road. It was quite a cool thing to see at work because you maintain high beams when outside of towns while behind somebody, it just closed off the car in front of you and to your left, you could see down the road. I really enjoyed it and hope to see this type of thing make it to the US. I have doubts but one can dream.

Clutch was sort of heavy but not terrible. It only got annoying when stuck in traffic which thankfully was rare. Driver seat was ok, my GTI's plaid seat is much nicer, while the Ford had lumbar support like my Golf's, I could never get it in the right spot to the point where I never got bum ache.

This also had automatic wipers which I have in my Golf and Alltrack. Normally I'd like it because the programming in VW's is a little too urgent which is fine. The Ford's was slow to respond in drizzle, would sometimes turn off completely with road spray and randomly do a single swipe in dry weather. In this case, I wouldn't want it.

Infotainment worked but it was incredibly slow. I don't normally deal with it that much in the states because having built in Nav on a rental is a huge no no for rental agencies because that just means they can't charge you for a seperate GPS unit. Typing stuff in and navigating the GPS system was like telling my parents how to type something in. It was slow to respond, made you accidently double press items which would land you in the wrong areas because it would read that input separately. Cancelling a route for example took half a second to react which you'd sometimes think it didn't read your finger press so you touch the screen again which sent you to some other menu. I tried android auto which worked but was even slower than the ford's built in system, at least you could type in an address and Google Maps or Waze knew what you meant. So many times, the Ford GPS didn't have a clue. It could be me though as I had @ninjacoco co-piloting for a lot of the roadtrip and she always got it right. The speakers were nothing special but lacked mid-low and low end. Music had a little bit of a horn-y sound to things which made music unpleasant to listen to and was not a frequency I could tune out with the 3 band EQ. Podcasts were acceptable. My GTI with its basic radio and speakers is worlds better than what was in this and the Golf's is nothing special, it just has all the annoying harmonics tuned out.

I enjoyed having a manual transmission in a rental which is all I really wanted besides some trunk space. I could not see myself owning a recent Ford product because of that dreadful Tri-tone that is used for warning sounds. I heard it every time I pressed the trunk close button. @IceBone would sing "Mind Your Head" over and over in the tone of the warning sound out of pure annoyance.

Fuel mileage was never less than 10L/100km and the highest I saw was 10.8. I was of course not driving this like an owner of one would but, I thought I'd share what I was getting.

I can't see myself owning one at this stage in life actually, not at all if I live in a country that sold it. Wagons exist in those places and I'd much rather have one of those. It was An Car that got me around and nothing more.

 

[Perc]

Adaptive headlights are awesome. My car sadly doesn't have all the features - the light output is excellent, the beam turns with the steering and there's an auto dip/full beam sensor that works fairly well, but I really REALLY wish it had that thing where you can drive with the highbeams on all the time and it just puts up a black box in the beam to stop it from dazzling other drivers. It's a really useful feature in Finland with our long dark winters and unlit roads. Many people in rural areas bolt extra lights to the front of their cars, but that doesn't help on your commute into town in the morning (and back home at night) because there's almost always other traffic. If I ever get to order a brand new car, that's one of the options I will tick for sure.

As for your Chevrolet rental review, I enjoyed spotting the GM partsbin stuff. Door handles, stalks (different version) and probably the infotainment too. The display in the gauge cluster looked very familiar. As did the mirror controls.

 

[93Flareside]

It's been a while! This month I've had Ford Fiesta, Kia Optima, and Kia Forte. None of which I could be bothered to write about.

Instead, you'll get this week's rental which is the coveted 2019 Jep Cherokee.

This has the lame 2.4L I4 N/A motor which is a slightly modified 2.4L that came in Patriots for so many years. Only difference is an intake that gained a very small amount of power and a new name, TigerShark.

On the plus side, this was in Limited trim which gave me upgraded headlights with cornering fogs that come on with the turn signal, blind spot monitoring, auto climate control, and power seats with adjustable height lumbar. This has CarPlay which these days in a rental is all I want when renting. Pretty much everything is else I could leave except maybe lumbar support.

Ride was actually decent if a bit controlled. I did not notice any major body roll or boat-like feel. Road noise was incredibly well controlled and engine power was enough for all driving I did, highway speeds, in town, and the "oh shit go go go!" left turns on to 6 lane state highways. That said, the 9-speed auto is still joke. They've fixed the programming a bit though it shifts really slow when doing full throttle driving. I last drove a Cherokee in 2013 although they substituted the gear selector with this giant nugget of a thing. I'm not sure why as the 2013 Cherokee had a smaller less cumbersome feel of a handle. It felt out of place like the one that is used in the Fiesta.

The engine noise was very intrusive and overpowered road noise most of the time.

Audio? The stereo was ok, this has the opposite problem of the VW Jetta GLI I had a week ago in that bass was over bearing. This has a sub in the trunk and it's not anything special like Beats or Alpine. It's boomy with some punch but I needed to reduce bass on the EQ settings to balance things out a bit, thats a first. Highs were there but not crisp though not annoying.

It's ok but it's not inspiring or exciting, ground clearance being a crossover is terrible. It's no better than a car and I may have scraped the front valance when pulling out of a strip mall.

 

[93Flareside]

This week I am/was in the Raleigh, NC area and I just hit Hertz Presidential status so I got to choose whatever in the fancy businessman's section. Oh they probably have sensible mercedes, bmw, or something right?

Ha, nope! What we've got here is a 2019 Ram 2500 Heavy Duty. It had 140mi on it when I picked it up.

For potato photo levels of perspective, my hand is about where my waist is. Standing from the ground that's how high the seat is. I nearly fell trying to get in because I thought that pulling myself in with my non dominant hand while the other had stuff in it was a good idea.

This has a 6.4L hemi V8 with select-able 4WD and 8-speed automatic. Did Dodge touch this inappropriately? You bet they did, it has cylinder deactivation. It drove ok however this being so large and having such inferior side mirrors, it made navigating in town worrying. This is not lacking power in any respect however braking was weird. It stopped fine, never felt like you were needing more, but the pedal had little to no feel. Almost video game-esque for most of the travel. It wasn't until you really mashed it that you felt resistance. The biggest annoyance was the gear selector. A few times I mistook the radio volume knob for gear selection but immediately felt the size difference.

Ride quality is decent for a heavy duty truck, it was fun to just crash over speed bumps without slowing down. Of course you feel that but it's not like a leaf spring truck where it downright hurts.

What does this have in way of features? Well, it has FCA's lovely infotainment that has carplay with the ability to switch off auto play when your phone connects, you have 9 USB counting 4 USB-A and 4 USB-C's. the USB-C's are stacked in the center console for both front and rear passengers with the radio being able to have 3 simultaneous USB devices connected. The 9th USB jack is in the flip up center console lid to I guess put a phone or ipod out of the way like we used to do with USB in glove boxes I guess. You have 2 phone mounts allowing for them to be plugged in on the center console in front of the cup holders that slide (!) forward and back as needed.

This being the model it is has built in trailer brake control, front and rear parking sensors with a backup camera. Parking sensors were awesome, I do wish we had this more in this country. Blind Spot is also on this model. Something I found interesting is, not only did you have the usual Tow/Haul trans switch but a Gear Limit switch to I guess help aide in hill tow driving to avoid going up a gear and bogging the engine.

I don't think cylinder deactivation is going to help.

What a joke this thing is, I cannot see this being useful except for working. Just driving this around is so cumbersome in any built up area is annoying. Parking I was constantly having to rearrange myself when parking that I imagine would get better over time but unlike smaller trucks, wasn't any easy slide right in, in one go. I had to do so many thousand point turns just to get out of parking lots because of course the turning radius in this vehicle wouldn't be good. It was an interesting experience that's for sure.


One last thing, I don't know if it's because of how this was purchased as a rental but they key was odd. It of course has push button start but no door handle buttons or open door sensor on the door handle. It seemed weird to have to take the key out of my pocket to unlock and then put it back in again so as to avoid forgetting to take it out of a cubby hole in the car. Seemed like a weird place to cheap out.

 

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Why are we not discussing the CONSOLE FULL OF MATH

 

[CraigB]

Do the side mirrors not flip up, Cornholio style?

Yes, I too want to know what's with the constellation map on the console lid?

 

[ScarFace88]

I'm guessing those are approach/departure angles and what the truck can safely handle. @Blind_Io, does this sound right?

 

[Blind_Io]

Doesn't look like it. Nothing there is expressed the way you draw clearances. There are some conversion charts from Metric to Stupid, and a few mathematical formulas (one is the Pythagorean theorem), and the formulas for SIN, COS, and TAN.

 

[DanRoM]

This is absolutely ridiculous. I love it.

 

[93Flareside]

Why are we not discussing the CONSOLE FULL OF MATH

Ha, it surprised me too!

 

[93Flareside]

Do the side mirrors not flip up, Cornholio style?

Yes, I too want to know what's with the constellation map on the console lid?

Not quite.

 

[CraigB]

Ha, it surprised me too!

3/8" is not equivalent to 10mm and I'll fight anyone to the death that would say such garbage.

Not quite.

They wouldn't flip up like these?