Rental Car Roulette

Rental Car Roulette

Had a Dodge Challenger RT for a few days this week. I can?t believe I had a charger RT last week and the 2 door sibling a week later.

Things I like with the challenger: seats were good, I found that there?s lumbar support and you can move it up and down. It made my chicago to Indianapolis trip much more comfortable. I don?t recall if the charger had that but, I?m sure it does. Somehow it felt more comfortable on the road, especially after I lowered tire pressure. Since the stretch of I65 I was in has a lot of potholes, I didn?t want to blow a tire off. Cylinder deactivation is still annoying but, for some reason in the challenger, the hum was less of an annoyance. Much lower rumble frequency that I could tune out. It felt faster but, I think that hearing was slightly taller. 75mph in the charger had the engine at 1600-1700rpm while the challenger was closer to 2000. No electronic gas door. Just like my mustang, when the pump clicks off, you?re full. Don?t try and round up to the next dollar. Trunk had better access to the back. What I found interesting is, in the rain the rear window doesn?t really get wet. It seems like the airflow doesn?t carry rain and there?s no road spray that reaches it. There?s something about the challenger that makes me feel like I?m sitting deep in a tall couch and I love that.

Things I like about the charger. Alpine radio sounded so much better. I recall the trunk opening on its own when you press the button. Better visibility.

I wish I could like the smaller more basic radio that I had in the challenger. What I can?t stand is the fact that it?s like they?re not using high resolution text. everything?s slightly blurry. The larger screened radio has much better text quality.

The 8-speed Auto is so good. You?re always in power band and it shifts smooth in normal mode and sport mode makes it sound even better, I absolutely love the loud bark you get. It?s magically. While leaving work yesterday, I heard the bark echo off the office buildings.
 
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I LOVE that bark you're taking about. I also love hearing it around our office park. :D Perhaps my favorite thing about my Charger is that 8spd transmission. It's just fucking awesome.

Also the Challenger seats are a bit better with support. I wonder if they swap in the Charger... haha
 
This week I had the questionable pleasure of driving a Meriva for a few hours of mostly Autobahn... despite being the top of the line petrol, it was quite slushy to get going and terribly floaty once moving beyond 140ish.
I don't recall many distinctive things beyond the stereo always returning to AM/FM instead of sticking to BT, and the steering wheel not being in front of you but rather off to the right and slightly angled :confused: only adding to the weird seating position... the gearbox was a jerk too. The heated steering wheel is a nice touch though.

The rental gods made up for it with a 252hp A4... Sixt 1, Europcar 0.
 
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narf said:
I don't recall many distinctive things beyond the stereo always returning to AM/FM instead of sticking to BT
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Seems like Opel/Vauxhall have very picky Stereo devices. I rented an (Vauxhall) Astra last week and had the very same issue. The phone connected for a minute and played my music before disconnecting and switching back to radio. Also, I had the impression that the headlamps were pretty weak but I might also be used to the much brighter beam of Xenonlights meanwhile.

Apart from that I was satisfied with the Astra over all. The engine was the 125hp petrol version (I guess), torque and power were sufficient for cruising along, driving position and seats were comfortable.
 
Adunaphel said:
Did your Opels have the OnStar system? Because that was flawless in both the Mokka X and the Insignia I drove earlier this year.
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Did they rename the IntelliLink system? Because from what I've seen of the new Insignia infotainment it looks like an updated version of my Intellilink 900.

The other day I wiped fingerprints from the (resistive) display using a dry paper towel. That made the gauge cluster display change screen and the HVAC settings popped up briefly. None of this is possible to do via the touchscreen. :lol:
 
Last I recall, it?s called ?MyLink.? Unless you guys use what?s in our Chevy sparks
 
Perc said:
Did they rename the IntelliLink system? Because from what I've seen of the new Insignia infotainment it looks like an updated version of my Intellilink 900.

The other day I wiped fingerprints from the (resistive) display using a dry paper towel. That made the gauge cluster display change screen and the HVAC settings popped up briefly. None of this is possible to do via the touchscreen. :lol:
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The Astra had a system called IntelliLink. As it appears, it's not so Intelli at all, because the only way to connect my Android phone was via the selection for an iphone device, it didn't recognize my phone at all when I was trying to connect it via the Android option.
 
Returned the 2018 Chevrolet Equinox a couple hours ago. Waiting on my plane now, so here goes...

Just like the Hyundai Santa Fe Sport I had a few months back, I understand why families but these. Lots of room front and rear, returns 30ish mpg and hold quite a bit of cargo. This was a brand new car when we picked up, only had 4 miles on the odometer. It drives, nice, but not as spry as the Hyundai. I spent most of my time with the car on I-95 in heavy traffic. Kick down seemed slow, but it would get up to speed quickly.

The start-stop feature was a bit annoying. You'd come to a stop, the engine would die, then you'd put in park and then it would restart. This is my first go with start-stop and I can't say I liked it.

Overall it seems like a nice vehicle, again, just not for me.

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What was the 1/4 mile time?
 
CraigB

The start-stop feature was a bit annoying. You'd come to a stop, the engine would die, then you'd put in park and then it would restart. This is my first go with start-stop and I can't say I liked it.
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Wait... what??


I thought you only had to release the brake pedal for start stop to work?
 
93Flareside said:
What was the 1/4 mile time?
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It was an 1/8 mile facility and I didn't run it. I was only there to fix a problem with the tree. Dropped the tree sober 400 times, couldn't reproduce the problem, so I threw parts at it...


GRtak said:
Wait... what??


I thought you only had to release the brake pedal for start stop to work?
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Yeah, it does that. I just found it annoying that it came back on when you put it in park.
 
CraigB said:
It was an 1/8 mile facility and I didn't run it. I was only there to fix a problem with the tree. Dropped the tree sober 400 times, couldn't reproduce the problem, so I threw parts at it...




Yeah, it does that. I just found it annoying that it came back on when you put it in park.
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It probably comes back on as a safety feature to remind the driver that the vehicle is on.

If it didn?t, I could see owners pulling into their garages, throwing it in park then ignoring various chimes and going about their business only for the engine to restart sometime later.

It?s hard to ignore a unexpectedly running engine once you step outside the vehicle, especially in a household garage.

I can?t see them bothering with two separately programmed versions of stop-start for cars with push button start and cars without (where this safety feature wouldn?t make sense since you?d pull the key out when done parking).
 
Stop/start only really works when you have a manual transmission, since you need to put it in neutral and release the clutch before it kicks in. When you see the upcoming gap in traffic, just push the clutch and the engine will start.

In an automatic it's bloody annoying because it kicks in whenever it feels like as long as car is stationary and your foot is on the brake. Usually it happens a third of a second before you need to get on it and go.
 
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Had a donor Cruze RS premium hatch with stop-start and it didn't really bother me. It was quick enough to restart that the car was never caught out. It also fit the baby seat far better than a Focus for some reason. We averaged close to 40mpg in mixed driving. Utterly gutless though and the seats were hard and lumpy, or oddly convex. Or maybe I'm just bitter because we borrowed it to replace my totaled Fiesta ST. Other than that, the stereo was easy to use, and heated seats felt good on the sore back.

Had a base spec Sentra (Rentra?) for the drive from DFW to Austin for F1. 7800 miles. Surprising amount of space inside. Old fashioned stereo, but easy to use, decent trunk room. My only gripe was the CVT, it was decent around town, but once out of slow stop-and-go traffic it was lost. I'm not sure why they feel the need to have imaginary preset ratios. Just be a CVT. Although when it was just being a CVT all it did was make the engine feel lazy to react. Great mileage though, mid 40s. The previous Nissan I rented was a Versa hatch and that thing struggled to get mid-20s from Rapid City to Mitchell, SD, so my low expectations were definitely exceeded.
 
I?ve had couple Malibu?s with it and I end up fidgeting with the brake when pulling up to a light or throwing it into neutral (5mph or below) until I get to a complete stop and then put in drive and stop start doesn?t come on.
 
Man I hate stop/start. If that ever becomes mandatory I'll either pull the fuse or buy a tuner and turn that shit off. The neutral thing is an idea too.
 
Stop/start works pretty well in the two-pedal Beetle, you just have to use it correctly. For example, if you know you will set off again almost immediately after stopping, don't actually stop - brake a bit harder and release to skip that second while going slow. I've been doing that before stop/start anyway.
 
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