Rental Car Roulette

[73GMCSprint]

This is usually "time to sell it off" mileage. Rarely do I see an over 40,000mi rental car from the big names. Makes sense the tires were dead, shitty though. I had a Nissan Versa Note like that a few years back while in the NYC suburbs during a particularly slushy snow storm that closed the Palisades Parkway for the night.

That would be normally true but with the Great Chip Shortage and COVID and whatever else, rental companies have had to keep vehicles much longer than usual because of the shortage of new cars. Some companies have even been buying used cars to add to their fleets.

 

[CraigB]

This is usually "time to sell it off" mileage. Rarely do I see an over 40,000mi rental car from the big names. Makes sense the tires were dead, shitty though. I had a Nissan Versa Note like that a few years back while in the NYC suburbs during a particularly slushy snow storm that closed the Palisades Parkway for the night.

I noticed that on the receipt I got after I wrote the review that it was a 2018. I also noted that it had a dealer sticker on the tailgate from a dealer in Wisconsin (hence the front plate bracket). Further, when we returned it, I noticed a piece of paper tacked to the back wall that stated something along the lines if you took a local car on one-way trip you would be charged an additional $1,000.

All of this sort of makes me think that this is a non-corporate owned Hertz. If such a thing exists.

That would be normally true but with the Great Chip Shortage and COVID and whatever else, rental companies have had to keep vehicles much longer than usual because of the shortage of new cars. Some companies have even been buying used cars to add to their fleets.

I'm thinking this Jepp was that sort of thing. For above listed reasons.

 

[Quiky]

The 5.7 hemi version does move a bit faster, both in the straight line and sideways under power. Horsepowers.

My own rental roulette since August has been this:
Chrysler Voyager
Chrysler Voyager
Chrysler Voyager
Chrysler Pacifica
Toyota Sienna
Toyota Sienna
Toyota Sienna
Nissan Pathfinder
Chrysler Pacifica
Kia Sedona

 

[93Flareside]

The 5.7 hemi version does move a bit faster, both in the straight line and sideways under power. Horsepowers.

My own rental roulette since August has been this:
Chrysler Voyager
Chrysler Voyager
Chrysler Voyager
Chrysler Pacifica
Toyota Sienna
Toyota Sienna
Toyota Sienna
Nissan Pathfinder
Chrysler Pacifica
Kia Sedona

Is there any difference between voyager and Pacifica pertaining to the driver?

 

[Quiky]

Is there any difference between voyager and Pacifica pertaining to the driver?

Pacifica usually has adaptive cruise, blind-spot monitoring, rear parking sensors, auto climate control, larger infotainment screen, heated wheel&seats.

Voyager/Rental Spec eliminates the power liftgate and foot-swipe side door entry.

 

[93Flareside]

Airport I flew into lost my booking, so I uber-ed to my hotel and picked up this beauty at the in-town Hertz.

2018 Nissan Sentra, had around 20,000mi on it.

This model had Bose audio, seat heaters, auto climate control, auto headlights but no DRL's. 1.8L and CVT.

It was An Car. Worst thing was the radio, GPS couldn't find simple things, there was no carplay due to its age. The performance of the infotainment was so slow, sometimes for a solid minute after start up you just had to listen to whatever song it chose from your phone. Volume didn't work, the power/audio off button didn't work... Other than that, it had a decent trunk, it carried my stuff. 2 gripes are the lighting for the temperature setting for auto climate was one brightness. Adjusting dash lights did not affect the HVAC temp number brightness at all. And it's white in color... The other was the trunk release button on the hatch. There's no real indent or a large button either, if you're not careful, you could be pressing on the license plate lights and not the release button....

 

[rickhamilton620]

Nissan was criminally late to the CarPlay game - and to make things worse, when they did start implementing CarPlay on the previous gen Versa and Sentra - they gave every trim the same head unit but disabled CarPlay in software on the base models.

 

[93Flareside]

Kia Sorento!

Unsure of the spec, but it has carplay and isn't a crossover the size of an Ecosport, for some reason the airport rental location I was at only that.

This does not have AWD and the throttle response is delayed, so you push more and then it does a burn out. I guess that's why the front tires are different from the rear, or might also the noisy wheel bearing. at 48,000mi, I'm surprised it has a bad wheel bearing.

I wanted to try this because mom has a fully kitted out version. This I assume is a FWD only model and it feels honestly really cheap. When you get nicer touch surfaces and auto climate control with digital dash, it really raises the feel of a car.

This thing rides very smooth on the road, and the v6 engine has good power. Transmission is slow to respond but otherwise has decent shift points. I don't think I could get one of these in such a low-spec version but this is completly functional especially with the 3rd row folded down.

 

[93Flareside]

2022? Opel Corsa!

Enter week 3 in Sketchy New Life Plan and I don't have a car. So I rented from the nearby Hertz for that sweet reward points and discounts...

This "lovely" thing has done 30,xxx kms is the coveted 3 cylinder 1.2L 5 speed manual variant. Has heated seats, auto climate control, heated steering wheel, collsion warning, park distance, and a backup camera. Besides being a little slow and the sun visor making a horrible metallic echo when you closed it and flapped against the roof. It was a good a little car. This being supposedly a french platform and no longer a GM platformed car, it still had the typical Chevrolet/GM turn signal noise, which I found odd. Though nothing else felt GM which was good for my tastes. I drove it through the southwestern German wine fields which are basically vineyards on mountains... Drove nice through there, braked well, handled the autobahn just fine. I liked it save for the weak power and lack of a highway gear. This engine had little low end torque so where I'm used to letting the clutch in RPM-wise was too little and I did stall it once, but made it jutter otherwise until I got used to it. Definitely and option if the higher spec engine is any good as you can get a 6 speed manual for these with the bigger engine. Starting price is around 15,000 euro monies which my American calibrated brain says is fine, but a certain friend of ours said it was too much.

Good car, this still feels more upscale to me over a base Hyundai, or Kia or Nissan in the US.

 

[Perc]

It seems like Opel has kept some GM stuff to make old customers feel at home I guess. I’ve looked inside a handful of PSA era Opels and some stuff feels fairly familiar to a GM Opel driver. Things like switchgear.

 

[narf]

4.5 weeks with this so far, me likey.

 

[narf]

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