Rental Car Roulette

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.
 
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.
 
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
 
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?
 
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.
 
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.
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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....
 
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.
 
Kia Sorento!

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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.
 
2022? Opel Corsa!

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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.
 
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.
 
Took Dad to Brisbane for a few days to relive old times (he used to live there). It was cheaper to fly in to an airport on the QLD and NSW border, then drive the hour to Brisbane.
We stayed with an old friend of his, who was willing to drive us around while we were there, but I didn't really want to be dependent on her 24/7.

So, using a 20% discount through my roadside service, I booked a rental car; hoping to have enough room for Dad, his wheelchair, walking frame, the friend, and our two bags.

Ended up with an MG ZS.
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Ride height was good for Dad, and no side steps (which is what he hates about the X5). Seats were firm and supportive. Side bolsters were snug, though lacked adjustable lumbar support for longer trips.

Boot space was a let down, as the back seat had to be split-folded to allow the chair to fit. No cargo cover, leaving the chair and anything in the boot exposed while parked.
Bags had to be loaded in the back seat, while the frame was folded up on top of the chair. Overall, it felt like the cheap 2008 Toyota Corolla hatchback we have at home, actually had more cargo space.

18,530km on the car when I collected it, and I put a whisker under 300km on it in the three days I had it.
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Things I liked:
CarPlay was quick - once I figured out the cable I was using was damaged, which made it keep disconnecting. It left me completely without a paddle in the middle of Brisbane CBD at one point, and Dad had to fumble with it more than once to get it reconnected. A different cable sorted out the issue.

The road noise was almost completely blocked out. Very quiet ride.

It's not a bad looking car. A little bland, sure. Could be anything, doesn't stand out in the current crop of Mazdas, Toyotas, etc. It was parked next to a CX3 each night, and they’re exactly the same size.

Things I disliked:
The console buttons. Much like the Mustang switches. There were about 8 for different things. Figuring out which was which while on the move wasn't that easy, even with illuminated icons above.
No back button onscreen, so at certain points to get out of menus you have to go back to "home" via the button and start again.

Ride was quite stiff. Potholes and speed bumps were mildly uncomfortable even at very low speeds.

The auto gearbox. Absolutely, hideously, awful. Changes from a standing start were savage, and very clunky, even while trying to smoothly apply throttle. Trying different approaches with throttle didn't help. It was determined to get to at least 5th gear, ASAP, even when it was never asked to do so. Might have been solved by using "sports mode", and changing gears manually, but I couldn't be bothered.
At one point, I tried using it to assist with a long downhill run, but not being a diesel, there wasn't enough compression to make much of a difference, so that was quickly given up on as well.

The entertainment screen. It was set to "auto dim", as the lights came on, but even that was way too bright at night. Especially when out on rural roads with no street lighting, and when CarPlay had disconnected it was worse, as the screen defaulted to "Home", which had three brightly coloured backgrounds for each available menu.
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It got us where we needed to be, AC was lovely, even if everything over fan speed 3 was deafening, and it looked decent doing it's thing.
Do I want one? Nope. Not a chance. Not even if it was a gift.
I'll keep my X cars, thanks.
 
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Not a rental as such but not thorough enough for the reviews thread, my Mazda went in for its 10 year service (I used the dealer this once) and they offered a courtesy car for a fiver, I couldn't say no and this was what I got for the day:




It's a Mazda Yaris. No, wait that's not right. A Toyota 2! No, that's not right either.

It's a hybrid, which means the engine has a mind of its own. I've never driven a hybrid before, so it was a bit disconcerting to just hear the engine revving up with no change in speed. On hills, for example. It isn't a nice sound either, it's a 1.5 3-banger (which seems massive for a city car) and sounded a lot harsher than the 3-pot I had in my Smart. It seemed louder too, despite being under the bonnet and not right behind my head.

I summed up some minor annoyances in this video:


View: https://youtu.be/8T5cof50Je0
Something I don't mention in the video but you can see it, the HVAC control screen is rather large but is massively under-utilised. The temp just hangs out at the side and the centre never gets used, I'm not even sure it's a full-width screen or just a shiny plane of wasted space.
 
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Reactions: lip
From deep in the archives:
Back in 2020 when I sold the BRZ to CraigB on the way to California, I needed to continue on the trip to pick up the WRX in California.

There's an airport literally minutes from the exchange point, so a normal person would just get on a plane.

So I went to the airport and rented a car.
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What on earth is this thing?
Uh, a Ford EcoSport, duh!



What on earth is a Ford EcoSport?
To this day I have no idea but it looks like a lifted Fiesta with a swing door where the hatch should go?
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That bottom lift strut looks awfully vulnerable.

Anyway, I loaded my crap up and hopped in for a the brief 1600 mile one-way trip.
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Uh, yeah. Sure. I'll get right on that.

It was An Car, with all the usual modern An Car stuff like a snoozomatic gearbox, four cylinders arranged in the conventional manner, pointless tiny triangles of glass in the giganormous A-pillars and a shitty tablet duct taped to the dashboard where the HVAC vents belong.
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Rental contract said no dirt roads. I had to go to the bathroom. It was the first covid summer. I did what was necessary. In west of the Missisippi, most roads are dirt roads*, so it's clearly an unreasonable requirement. An Car did the thing.

I slept in it. It was okay.

Got to California. Turned it in to an absolutely bewildered attendant who couldn't get over the fact that somebody would drive a rental car halfway across the country one way... And how dirty it got on paved roads.
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In summary: An Car.

So An Car I completely forgot about posting a review for two whole-assed years.
 
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Now that I’ve cooled off, I should get around to my debacle in august where I rented An Car from Sixt and my experience was bad enough to keep me away from Sixt for quite some time now. I know those on the Telegram at the time saw my issues in real time, but I think a synopsis is in order. Once im back home I can write up the glorious tales.
 
What on earth is this thing?
Uh, a Ford EcoSport, duh!
Wow, I had no idea they tried to sell the EcoShart in the US, that's a failure waiting to happen. It's exactly what you saw, a jacked up Fiesta and (I thought) it was intended as a replacement for the European Fusion, a Fiesta for people with luggage and tall hats. Turns out it's a Brazilian car that Ford thought would be globally popular for some reason.

My grandad had one in his final years (hard not to automatically type finalgears there) after replacing his second Fusion with it, at the time it like a mini Kuga and was kind of cool like a Panda 4x4 but it hasn't aged well. I did always wonder how much off road abuse one could take, maybe I'll buy a cheap one at some point and turn it into an off-roader.

NGL, I had no idea that the rear door was side-hinged.
 
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