Car Hire Lottery

[Shlergen]

Hyundai Tucson 1.6 hybrid

Will start with the positives:
45-46mpg over 600 miles at above average motorway speeds
Interior not bad, nice infotainment, apple car play etc
Pointy, little roll
Looks ok

Not so good:
Pulsing sensation on cruise, linked to regen I imagine
Jittery ride, far too hard
No adaptive cruise ok a circa 27k car
27k on a Hyundai
Void of any steering feel
Seats uncomfortable after an hour
Worst bit by far was the wind noise - wtf. Quite a few reports from my brief Google. Seems to be a design flaw
Piano black around console already marked/scratched at 4k miles from I presume a dirty cloth

In summary I won't be buying one

[Jimexpl]

VW T-Cross 1.0 ?hp

Weird spec like a lot of new cars - all the safety features like Lane assist, blind spot, collision warning, traffic when reversing, but no parking sensors!
Parked next to a T-roc and they are almost identical to the casual observer - why do vw produce the same car on two platforms?

Positives -
Inoffensive drive
41 mpg despite being driven flat out 80% of the time
Quiet
Spacious for what is a polo size car
Comfortable ride

Negatives -
Zero driving enjoyment
Van like rear visibility in a small car makes reversing a leap of faith

Summary -
Fine for 10 days on Tenerife, but completely anonymous in the small crossover segment.

[DeskJockey]

70-plate Hotpoint Prius

Is white too, so proper white gooods motoring. Everything worked, there were no weird stains and it got me there and back (224 miles).

Good things
+ HUD
+ Did 61MPG
+ CVT awfulness was much quieter and thus less noticeable than in other similarly equipped cars I've tried
+ Seat was quite comfortable
+ Lane keeping assist very easily switched off and stayed off even after turning the car off and on again

Bad things
- In a car with a button for everything why a foot operated parking brake? Especially one that when depressed is nearly invisible!
- No Android Auto
- Daft satnav wanted me to drive straight through London in morning traffic
- Sign recognition really poor. Joined the M25 with a 60 limit on the overhead signs. Despite that changing several times during the journey it only managed to read a change by the time I was nine junctions further round
- Radar cruise really dimwitted. Slowed the car down too much and was then too slow to accelerate when I pulled out to overtake, necessitating having to push the accelerator hard to safely slot into traffic
- Interior hard/semi-hard plastics felt cheap

Overall I am sure it is a fine car for those that don't care about cars. One annoyance, which is no fault of the car, is that it was delivered with the battery flat, so no electric range at all. Seems silly not charge it as part of the prep to allow the customers the benefit of having a hybrid in the first place.

[Mito Man]

Was it a self charging hybrid or a plug in?

[DeskJockey]

Plug-in.

[DeskJockey]

Vauxhall Crossland

Is exactly as you'd expect. No control weights, overly long throw on the gear stick, feels like I have to lean forward for first and third. Five speed box means 3.5k RPM at 70 MPH, so quite noisy. Seats have no side support at all.

Not a fan. Also came with only half a tank of fuel, but that's not the car's fault.

4/10 noncommittal shrugs.

[scotta]

X5 is booked for a service in two weeks. They are lending me a 4 series. Will report back.

[Explosive Newt]

2015 Jaguar F-Type 3.0 V6 s/c

Courtesy of Porsche hire Scotland, for a trip from Perth to Aberdeen and back down to Edinburgh

I was a little nervous of its’ width and the cautionary tales from the owner about taking things easy in the wet to start with but as the rain abated and sun came out for the run through the Cairngorms my confidence grew and the car came into its own.
The front end still felt a tiny bit skittish but you can really put the power down and it’s a perfect mix of GT car and sports car for a journey like this. The roads are still a bit greasy for me to really throw it into corners with abandon but from what I have done the lack of roll inspires confidence.
Mrs Newt was happy in the passenger seat, only occasionally asking if the V6 growl was “the sound of the planet dying.”

Also: it’s seriously bloody good looking.

[IanF]

Booked an auto 116i in Lisbon for the drive to Porto and back (640kms total)… showed up and was given a complimentary upgrade to this ..

Well, sadly not the second pic .. 320d Touring. Did it in one tank at an average of 130kph.. chef’s kiss

[jamcg]

My work van has gone in to have some repairs done to it, and the courtesy vehicle I have been given to replace my lwb Vauxhall vivaro is………………


A Skoda fabia.

IMG_1348.jpeg (142.07 KiB) Viewed 345 times

It’s a bit full. That’s before I realised I needed a load more stuff and added goods for jobs

Quick review- my old 2015 Fabia’s interior felt much higher quality than this one. I find some elements of the interior design look tacky, especially the instrument binnacle with ‘fabia’ embossed either side into look-at-it-and-it’s-scratched piano black inserts. Library pic:



It doesn’t help that it’s a 1.0 non turbo. It’s one of those cars where if you put your foot down in it, it doesn’t get any faster, it just gets slightly louder

So despite it definitely being a more modern and up to date design, to me it feels like a bit of a step back compared to the older nj generation. Maybe a top end model with more toys and a better engine would improve things but I’m not so sure

[Jobbo]

I didn't even realise they offered a non-turbo now.

Your experience reminded me of this:

[Carlos]

They still do a non turbo triple (MPI) and my son has one in his Ibiza. 80bhp as opposed to 95bhp and up for the TSI.

They sound fast

[nuttinnew]

Don't knock it, there was a 55bhp version of the 1.2 3 pot

[mik]

Merc EQA supplied by Audi to cover us until they have fixed Mrs mik’s etron.

That’ll do nicely.

Have only taken it up the road and back, but initial thoughts (which will make me look like an ungrateful moany git) : whilst the interior is far from unpleasant, the big vents in the centre are a bit chintzy. The central touch screen is too far away and not angled towards the driver , so it’s hard to reach whilst being accurate. I missed the “button” several times when removing stored phones on the move - eventually having to rest my pinky and ring finger on the small ledge above the chintzy vents to improve my index finger prodding accuracy.

The above undoubtedly partly due to the ride, which is pretty firm and a bit jiggly.

Right hand stalk is dedicated to drive selection, leaving the left stalk to do indicators, front & rear wipers, and presumably manual dim/dip of the lights too. This is possibly “standard merc” but it seems a bit stoopid initially - I am sure it’ll feel natural with time.

It’s currently set on 1-pedal mode which applies significant regen when you are a lifter. Weirdly though it then also has creep built into forward and reverse for low speed manoeuvring - which feels a bit counterintuitive…. Lift off to slow when driving, lift off to go when manouvering?

None of this means I’m not happy to have it though. It’s massively better than not having a car.

[Jobbo]

I drove past an EQA yesterday which had a Q plate. Wonder what caused that? It looked fairly new.

[mik]

Merc EQA supplied by Audi... right hand stalk is dedicated to drive selection, leaving the left stalk to do indicators, front & rear wipers, and presumably manual dim/dip of the lights too. This is possibly “standard merc” but it seems a bit stoopid initially.

Mrs mik called me from her commute this morning. She'd had to negotiate a parked car just before a junction on a narrow road. When she then went to exit the junction - no drive. Confusion. Cars behind. Mild panic. EV so no audible cues as to what was going on. Switched the car off and on again, selected drive and off she went. Realised a few seconds later that she must have accidentally caught the stalk as she was spinning the steering wheel to complete the maneuver above, and popped it into neutral. Felt a bit stoopid, but.... it is a stoopid design.

[MikeHunt]

The 'luxury' range from enterprise is a bottom of the range 530d

Its probably worse jumping from the same car in the range as its impossible not to do a direct comparison.

[Jobbo]

That doesn't sound too bad - I had a Mondeo from Enterprise once when my 545i was in for a service.

[PaulJ]

I got offered only PDK Porsches when I had my car serviced at the suppling dealers and I said I didn't do autos on religious grounds. They were a little surprised and apologetically asked if a Cooper S would be acceptable for the day. It was fine.

[IanF]

I got offered only PDK Porsches when I had my car serviced at the suppling dealers and I said I didn't do non GT cars on religious grounds. They were a little surprised and apologetically asked if a Cooper S would be acceptable for the day. It was fine.

Opportunity missed there!