Car Hire Lottery

[MikeHunt]

The GTS is almost Barry, but actually cool as fuck.

[nuttinnew]

No bangs or knocks.

[/Fb Marketplace]


Was the GTS the one with water injection?

[integrale_evo]

As the most ‘ max power’ person on here, I think it looks awful

[scotta]

No bangs or knocks.

[/Fb Marketplace]


Was the GTS the one with water injection?

Yea

[scotta]

As the most ‘ max power’ person on here, I think it looks awful

lol. Etto. I thought it was epic.

[Ascender]

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.

[John]

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.

[Simon]

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.

If it was brand new I wonder if they'd left the transport blocks in the suspension?

[John]

Not doubting you but would the car even be drivable in that condition?

[mik]

Plenty of stories/pics around of dealers missing the e transit blocks during the PDI. And the result is usually as you describe.

[John]

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)

[Jimexpl]

Plenty of stories/pics around of dealers missing the e transit blocks during the PDI. And the result is usually as you describe.

When I was in the trade it used to happen in two different ways -
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.

[GG.]

Here's the hire car I mentioned on the cost of holidays thread - an X5 xDrive 50e. Amusingly I asked for an XC90 and got this and my mate who asked for an X5 got an XC90 T8.



3.0 turbo mit plug in hybrid system. 483hp and 0-60 in 4.8 seconds. Stupidly rapid and with instantaneous pick up. I liked the engine / drivetrain a lot ... however, edging above 100mph on the autobahn south of Munich I backed off as it does not inspire confidence at speed and noticeably feels the effect of air washing off the front of trucks you pass. It will supposedly do 155 but I'd never try it - well not in the dark when its -6 and freezing fog at least!

I was going to say that that renders it pointless and you may as well have a diesel but after a week of driving it around I really enjoyed it. There was I think some fake engine noise but it sounded believable and with the window down there were genuine turbo whistles which was great It also was incredibly car like down a road and genuinely pleasurable to drive at up to NSL limits. The winter tyres on it were also phenomenal - it just simply did nots slide around even on ice snow and down to -10 degrees - deeply impressive.

Takes a whole load of ski gear reasonably comfortably... but no ski hatch plus no hard parcel shelf so rubbish compared to the range rover as you just have to pile cabin bags on top of suitcases...



Hybrids are also exceptionally useful as hire cars as you can fill them to full at a petrol station close to the airport and then ensure you use electric for the rest of the way to avoid being stung for a less than full tank.

I think if I had to have only one car I'd be tempted by this over a Range Rover... but of course I don't and therefore I wouldn't

What I would say is that there is NO comparison between this and the pathetic 2.0 in the T8. Unless you absolutely had to have 7 seats the bee emm vay would win every single time.

[Simon]

Hybrids are also exceptionally useful as hire cars as you can fill them to full at a petrol station close to the airport and then ensure you use electric for the rest of the way to avoid being stung for a less than full tank.

This is absolutely what we did when returning the Renegade hybrid in Lanzarote in Summer.

[integrale_evo]

I didn’t realise they’d kept the split tailgate on modern X5s. I know they still have opening rear glass on tourings, just assumed the SUVs had gone to a single huge opening hatch.

[GG.]

Yes it has a split tailgate but very basic feeling - the interior plastic I guess is designed to be resistant to scratching but it feels very budget. Was still useful for sitting a 9 year old on whilst putting his ski boots on.

Stupid nanny state rules also mean that the tailgate doesn't close from a single press on the fob but you have to press and hold. It will only go down in one go if you press the button on the tailgate. It will of course fully open on a single press of the key which makes no sense at all.

Also should say it has buttons in the boot to lower the air ride for ease of loading but not buttons to lower the rear seats which have to be done by hand.