Car Hire Lottery

[mik]

I’ve had a Captur before and thought it OK.

Lane assist is even more annoying in hire cars as you rarely have time to do the escape room task to disable the fuckwr.

[Gavster]

Bagged a massive bargain, I booked a hire car for four days to whizz around and used Hertz via RenralCars.com for an absolute lowball price of £88 for a mid sized SUV.

Been given a 2024 Skoda Karoq with a really decent spec. Got the sports seats, heated steering wheel, all that kind of jazz. It’s a bit fluffy to drive but overall a great deal for £22 a day.

[nuttinnew]

[Jobbo]

That’s an excellent deal. I’d have paid that much for an upgrade to a Karoq from our i10 in Malta. Though that cost just £8 for a week as an upgrade from the transfer bus from the airport

[John]

We had a new Suzuki Swift today as a courtesy car and it was my first experience of the speed limit nannying, irritating.

[Mito Man]

2024 BMW 2 Series Grand Prix Coupe in Euro Special 216D spec which I don’t believe is offered in the UK.
Terrible car all round, incredibly gutless, can’t manage even a fraction of wheel spin from a standing start. Had all the current safety systems - a bit of sticker from my baggage over the windscreen camera made it revert to GPS speeds rather than turn it off. And it also displayed an orange car logo on the dash. Same thing happened whenever it was blinded by the sun. It got the speed limit wrong far too often to be trusted anyway.
Has a pretty quick rack to give a vaguely sporting feel and that’s where it ends. Also surprised the rear has a massive transmission tunnel for a FWD car.
A car purely for badge snobs.
For the price I rate it as the worst car I’ve ever driven.
It also looks like complete shit. You can’t get used to it.

[John]

I've just remembered the Ford Kuga ST Line I was loaned last week, it felt very dull and ponderous compared to my wife's Vitara which is a similar kind of vehicle. Would not recommend.

[Simon]

Merc goes in for its yearly service/MOT in early Jan. I'm due to pick up a courtesy car, which over the years have been A, C Coupe, EQA, EQB, in that order.

However, as I am currently a man of leisure, do I opt to just change it to a 'whilst you wait' appointment? Or pick up a car and come home anyway?

[Mito Man]

Just remembered something ridiculous from the BMW. One night I was using the high beams quite a bit, repeatedly on and off. The iDrive display popped up with a message along the lines of "High beam assist can be purchased from the BMW Connected Drive store"
The fucking cheek!
Now wondering if it had heated seats hidden too which could be "purchased"

[IanF]

Booked a Polestar 2 for a week from Hertz, however when I showed up the bay number was hidden behind three nose-to-tail rows of parked new vehicles.. so I had to go into the office to ask for assistance. They said, ah yes, we’ve allocated another car but then couldn’t find that one! Guy literally ran in to his bosses office, came out with a new ticket and said okay this is your car - a Merc GLE 400d! Not bad for £90 for the whole week!!

[V8Granite]

Flew into Santander and got a 320D hire car.

Ok, the new I drive is hateful, the button to set the drive assist modes to individual is very nice though.

Visibility is rubbish, engine great but oddly the gearbox keeps putting the engine to idle so it feels very busy driving round a tight Spanish town.

Connecting my phone took a few attempts but the screen is quite wide so handy.

Interior space sucks, my left shoulder is touching the b pillar, the headrest won’t go back far enough so I can’t wear a hoodie.

Doors don’t close with a Germanic this but it may be just the fact it’s a hire car with a few battle scars.

Would have rather had a Focus.

Dave!

[IanF]

This weeks car is a 530e Touring… not sure I understand the point of the hybrid system as it only does about 20 miles, but can be charged by plug or engine. Adds a weird second lip to the boot aswell.

Nice to drive and very comfortable, it’s on small wheels, but used half a tank yesterday popping up to Great Tew with a dog in the back so was driving conservatively. Certain classiness/discretion to driving a big black estate and I like the tan interior plus I’d forgotten how useful HUD is, but the wrong engine for me. 7/10

Oh, and it has the auto-dip main beam option; or at least I thought it did as it has the button on the stalk. However, when I pressed it, I was taken to the BMW App Store where I could purchase that option!

[IanF]

Last week I had a DS9 - apparently it’s what Macron gets driven around in - and it’s definitely a French car; which means it eschews a hard ride, has buttons in the centre to operate the windows and generally worked in a non-Germanic manner.. nice car, rode superbly, lots of space for rear passengers and boot, but felt a bit rough around the edges, no clever box or “shrinking” of size to help hustle it along.. it was okay, but different.. and showed how different the priorities are for us and the Germans, whether we want it or not

[IanF]

This week is a Alfa-Romeo Stelvio - it’s a Q4 2.0T - so 4WD, 280hp 4-cylinder petrol car.. good size generally, with an excellent small and narrow steering wheel plus lots and lots of charging options.. a significant amount of turbo lag (less than last week’s DS9) but goes okay above 3500rpm.. not sure who owns A-R these days, but it’s quite designed, and not necessarily in a good way.. for example; it has clear, physical controls set well apart, but they are all different sizes , and one of the biggest knobs selects the driving mode (DNA or AND - unsure which one is correct) and I’m unsure why it needs to be that big, or even necessary.. however, it does had a physical switch that turns of lane assist, so should be applauded for that… I’m in love with Italy generally currently, so I’m loving this.. it’s non-Germanic logic, although inferior, is truly enjoyable and exciting - which, when all said and done, is what we actually want from a car

[DeskJockey]

Booked a "Mégane estate or similar" for a week away later in the year. Let's see what we get!

[IanF]

24 plate Merc C200.. ordered an S-Class, arrived, “err car not ready, sorry”, heavy discount and accepted C class.. actually quite nice, I always put Merc in the old person category (probably cos my parents have them). Press and hold for 1-2 sec the mute button on the steering wheel (at the start of every journey! ) to mute speed warnings etc. Decent acceleration (ah, mild hybrid so additional torque for in gear acceleration) and rides well, plus cabin wasn’t too bad. Seamless Apple CarPlay. 368 miles in a smidge over half a tank was impressive. Boot was a decent size. Can’t really fault it tbh.. need to try a new 3 series or A4/5/n (Audi has changed numbering method for ICE/elec twice in last two years! So good look getting right one there!)

[DeskJockey]

Booked a "Mégane estate or similar" for a week away later in the year. Let's see what we get!

With the check-in confirmation it became a "Hyundai i30 or similar", which became an Astra Sportstourer when I went to collect it, so we're now driving a Fiat Tipo diesel.

It is white, befitting its white goods nature. It does nothing badly, but equally nothing well. The engine is gutless and the equipment sparse. But it is quiet and the digital nannies are easily switched off, and not very intrusive to begin with.

[DeskJockey]

Have driven the tumble dryer further. When I floor it, rather than some zesty Italian spirit, it delivers a decidedly Gallic shrug of "what do you want me to do?".

Luckily that shrug extends to the nanny features. Two quick taps of the left-hand stalk and the lane departure turns off, and the speed warning flashes apologetically three or so times in a muted fashion and then just gives up, should you dare to go above the limit.

It has Android Auto which is nice, and two small buttons on the back of the wheel, left changes the audio source, right mutes the sound.

It has no parking, rain or light sensors, and no alloy wheels either. I'm guessing it is the most bum basic spec. It is surprisingly roomy which a substantial underfloor space in the boot where the spare wheel should have been.

[GG.]

Had a recent model (not easy to tell what year from a Portuguese plate) 330e Touring whilst on holiday recently.



Nice looking thing though had done over 100k kilometres and was scratched dinged or scuffed on every panel

I was very impressed with the drivetrain - it felt punchier than the sub-200bhp 2.0 on account of all the electrickery, however, that was very much dependent on having it in sport rather than Hybrid/eco. Handling was also pretty sharp for what it was and the ride was excellent!

One thing that did really impress me was that the electric only range was a true 30kms or so. Did the full 15km back to the airport on electric after filling up and if anything it was underestimating the EV only range.

Sound was a bit anodyne and there was fake noise being piped in but that seems par for the course these days. Ultimately I'd rather have the 3.0 petrol with a hybrid system rather than the false economy of downsizing. Performance with all the batteries is still 6.3 to 62 so 0.2 slower than my 330i e90 of 18 years ago - progress comrades!

Anyway, it is leaps and bounds more interesting than the c/e220d I had in Portugal and Italy last year.

[IanF]

Had a brand new Prius two weeks ago.. triple black, drove better than I expected , was apparently giving 70mpg in hybrid mode during hybrid driving, had 12 freaking safety systems that all had to be turned off individually (eventually just turned off speed warning and accepted the rest) - was called uber dad by kids

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Next, I asked for a manual Clio, as I wanted to give my 15yo daughter some experience (before booking a day at MB Brooklands). Unfortunately, they only had an auto when I showed up .. anyway, again it was brand new (first driver) and over 417miles, including driving to Bath and back, it averaged 51.7mpg! Hybrid tech again ftmfw! Also, there’s a physical button to the right of the steering wheel that turns the safety settings to personal mode, ie off, which was helpful. You have to do it every time you start the car though .. Overall, the Clio impressed me - felt sturdy, safe, not too big, wireless Apple CarPlay etc, and I may get one for my daughter as her first car.