Car Hire Lottery
Re: Car Hire Lottery
The GTS is almost Barry, but actually cool as fuck.
Re: Car Hire Lottery
[/Fb Marketplace]
Was the GTS the one with water injection?
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integrale_evo
- Posts: 5530
- Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2018 5:58 pm
Re: Car Hire Lottery
lol. Etto. I thought it was epic.integrale_evo wrote: Mon Nov 03, 2025 7:29 pm As the most ‘ max power’ person on here, I think it looks awful
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Ascender
- Posts: 4338
- Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2018 12:07 pm
- Location: Proper Up North
- Currently Driving: Polaris ATV, Hilux, Navara, Dakar, M3 Touring
Re: Car Hire Lottery
The Hilux had to go in for a dreaded sensor replacement so I had to hire something to get me round Edinburgh for a few days. Enterprise gave me a Volvo XC40.
All black, obviously, including the alloys. Please, just stop with the all black, it's beyond tiring.
Fast enough, but they've done their best to ruin the ride with god knows what combination of rubber and wheel size.
The lane assist is nowhere near as strong as in my BMW, but fvck me the speed warnings were interminable. One mph over any speed limit and they start, 4 or 5 in a row until you ignore them. Drop back down to 70mph, but as soon as you go to 71, there they go again.
Its funny, because on the 3 times I had passengers in the car, they had no idea about this sort of thing existing, let alone being mandatory on new cars.
They've put physical buttons on the steering wheel for things like the entertainment - but right where your palm rests, so I was forever changing track without meaning-to.
What physical controls they had on the centre console were clearly designed for looks rather than functionality. The days are long gone where you can just hop in any car and know at a glance what controls are for what functions. And tiny, fiddly, touch-target areas to select controls and then adjust settings.
The infotainment/driving controls setup. Abominable. This is coming from someone who has worked in technology for 30 years. I have no idea how anyone is supposed to safely alter simple settings on the move.
Its also really weird that this car and a few others I saw this week have a small-ish screen for this stuff, in the centre, not in your eye-line, which is key to so many of the things you need and may want to use when driving. The high seating position doesn't help either. In the m3 and to a lesser extent the 911, everything is sort of at your eye level and crucially, the screens are horizontal. So your eyes naturally pan across them when looking for info and menus.
So I guess the car was nice enough but utterly ruined by the tech in it which I suspect is going to be a very common experience going forward.
Its definitely enforced my view that the ultra wide, immersive BMW approach is the way to go, although I think the mix of screens and physical controls on the first-gen M3 Touring may take some beating. They've removed even more buttons on the latest revisions to it.
All black, obviously, including the alloys. Please, just stop with the all black, it's beyond tiring.
Fast enough, but they've done their best to ruin the ride with god knows what combination of rubber and wheel size.
The lane assist is nowhere near as strong as in my BMW, but fvck me the speed warnings were interminable. One mph over any speed limit and they start, 4 or 5 in a row until you ignore them. Drop back down to 70mph, but as soon as you go to 71, there they go again.
Its funny, because on the 3 times I had passengers in the car, they had no idea about this sort of thing existing, let alone being mandatory on new cars.
They've put physical buttons on the steering wheel for things like the entertainment - but right where your palm rests, so I was forever changing track without meaning-to.
What physical controls they had on the centre console were clearly designed for looks rather than functionality. The days are long gone where you can just hop in any car and know at a glance what controls are for what functions. And tiny, fiddly, touch-target areas to select controls and then adjust settings.
The infotainment/driving controls setup. Abominable. This is coming from someone who has worked in technology for 30 years. I have no idea how anyone is supposed to safely alter simple settings on the move.
Its also really weird that this car and a few others I saw this week have a small-ish screen for this stuff, in the centre, not in your eye-line, which is key to so many of the things you need and may want to use when driving. The high seating position doesn't help either. In the m3 and to a lesser extent the 911, everything is sort of at your eye level and crucially, the screens are horizontal. So your eyes naturally pan across them when looking for info and menus.
So I guess the car was nice enough but utterly ruined by the tech in it which I suspect is going to be a very common experience going forward.
Its definitely enforced my view that the ultra wide, immersive BMW approach is the way to go, although I think the mix of screens and physical controls on the first-gen M3 Touring may take some beating. They've removed even more buttons on the latest revisions to it.
Cheers,
Mike.
Mike.
Re: Car Hire Lottery
I had a Volvo EX40 loan car and the ride was jarring to the point I was worried the car (or my back) would break. This was a brand new car and the suspension banged and thumped like something that had done 100k miles, probably not helped by the weight of the batteries.
On my V60 you can use voice control for the heaters and music so you don't have to jab at the screen hoping you are roughly in the right area. Still prefer buttons though.
On my V60 you can use voice control for the heaters and music so you don't have to jab at the screen hoping you are roughly in the right area. Still prefer buttons though.
Re: Car Hire Lottery
If it was brand new I wonder if they'd left the transport blocks in the suspension?John wrote: Fri Dec 12, 2025 5:15 pm I had a Volvo EX40 loan car and the ride was jarring to the point I was worried the car (or my back) would break. This was a brand new car and the suspension banged and thumped like something that had done 100k miles, probably not helped by the weight of the batteries.
On my V60 you can use voice control for the heaters and music so you don't have to jab at the screen hoping you are roughly in the right area. Still prefer buttons though.
The artist formerly known as _Who_
Re: Car Hire Lottery
Not doubting you but would the car even be drivable in that condition?
Re: Car Hire Lottery
Plenty of stories/pics around of dealers missing the e transit blocks during the PDI. And the result is usually as you describe.
Re: Car Hire Lottery
Now you mention it I do recall seeing something about this before.
It really is something that a car's ride could be mistaken for leaving the suspension pretty much locked (if that was the case)
It really is something that a car's ride could be mistaken for leaving the suspension pretty much locked (if that was the case)
Re: Car Hire Lottery
When I was in the trade it used to happen in two different ways -mik wrote: Fri Dec 12, 2025 7:04 pm Plenty of stories/pics around of dealers missing the e transit blocks during the PDI. And the result is usually as you describe.
1. When the sales team would 'un-wrap' a stock car and get it cleaned for the showroom, without first putting it through a PDI. It would sit in the showroom for a couple of months, perhaps move to another dealership. Car gets sold, no brake disk covers on so it's assumed that a PDi has happened at some point nad it leaves the dealership with blocks in.
2. When the service manger is a bit short of his target for the quarter and assigns a pdi charge to some stock cars to get their numbers up, normally with the intention of getting around to them when they have downtime in the workshop, but some will get missed/forgotten. Sales team sell the car, see on the sytem that it's been for PDi and send it to the valeters for a re-clean. Valeters pull the wrap and brake disk covers off thinking that they're helping. Pirchaser gets a rock hard car.