Rental car adventures

[Undertoad]

Well thanks to Enterprise I have had a few experiences with cars I normally would not have touched in a thousand years.

The 2012 Dodge Charger



Lets continue to sully the brands of classic American muscle cars by... oh this is actually OK. It looks mean, drives like your classic Chrysler boat, but is comfy and quiet and the slushbox transmission seems more hit than miss these days. One could do worse.

The nice thing about the Charger was how quiet it was on the highway, which made the Pennsylvania Turnpike a joy. The drive I have to make is about 2 hours, and usually I find that to be just beyond annoyance territory. Like hey isn't this trip over already. A new Dodge can manage to make that less annoying with its quiet and soft ride. Let's just not pretend it's a muscle car just because it has a tachometer and an override to its comfy automatic transmission.


The 2013 Ford Flex



WTF IS THIS THING HOLY SHIT

They upgraded me. The office was busy. Somebody didn't care enough to say that this was twice the weekly price and I had booked it for 10 days. Well here I am, driving around in this big-ass MEGAVAN which Ford has the audacity to say is a "crossover". Meant to carry 7 passengers, or, one figures, 2 passengers, 4 children and up to 25 soccer balls. This thing will be carting around 1 driver for 1000 miles. But the good thing is that it came to me with 500 miles on the odometer, and its dumb Sync system is willing to pair up with my phone in Bluetooth mode.

But the coolest thing is the rear camera backing-up system. When you put this thing in reverse, its 7" display shows the rear camera with a 1982 video game display:



Now you match your parking goal with the lines, get close as you can to the red "goal" and you're parked perfectly. An audio prompt sounds when you're going to hit something directly behind you. And the car detects traffic on both sides that is going to be in your way, and sounds the alarm if it seems dangerous.

That is very cool. And damn if the thing doesn't drive approximately as well as the Dodge. That is to say, both of these cars are boats, but the Ford deserves credit for driving about as well as the Dodge while being the ridiculous vehicle that it is. A box. A modern Mini, Tripled.

As for the transmission, well I am a long-time manual driver, a serious driver, and I always enjoy complete control of a vehicle. But you know -- and it is a terrible admission -- giving that up for a while has not been a bad experience. I mean good god damn, if I'm going to be eating dinner and talking with the old lady on the phone while changing lanes and giving somebody the finger, the last thing I need to consider is whether to downshift to fourth. Especially in a megavan, that's some advanced driving right there.

[monster]

Srsly? I'm a vet Ford driver. I test drove the Flex and it sucks compared to my Windstar, And it's uglier -and who thought that would be possible?

[Undertoad]

Well I didn't say it was a good experience. It's more like a ridiculous experience, which was not as bad as I thought it would be.

[richlevy]

The Dodge Charger was the car I got from Dollar, who beat out the competition on my last few trips. I got a matte finish black Dodge Charger, probably a 2010. There were some round touched up areas on the hood that looked a tiny bit like repaired bullet holes.

That and the fact that the car looked a lot like the black/blue car from Spy Hunter had me humming the Peter Gunn theme as I left the garage.



BTW, my most surreal rental experience was when a co-worker and I had to travel to the L.A. area a few years back. For two trips in a row, Hertz put us in mustang convertibles. My first thought when I saw one was 'Holy S---t, do they assign one of these to everyone who comes to L.A.?'

[glatt]

On our recent trip to Britain, I got to drive this BMW diesel hatchback for three days.


I was very conflicted about it. At times I absolutely loved it, and at times I hated it like I've hated no other car.

The good:
Lots of power, very sporty, fantastic fuel economy (Averaged 37 MPG) I loved this car.

The bad:
The turn signal thought it was too smart for me and would turn off when I didn't want it to yet, and would be too willing to turn on when I didn't want it too. Plus it was right next to the cruise control lever, so in stressful driving conditions, I found myself tying to signal with the cruise control lever. There are no conditions in Britain where you would want a cruise control. It's not Nevada.

It also had the proximity sensors that would beep at you when you got too close to things. This is Britain, where everything is very close. Every time I parked the car, I was greeted with a blaring cacophony of alarms. For example, it thought I was far too close to that wall above. Very annoying. Especially when you are threading the needle and you are aware of the hedge on one side and the car on the other, but don't know if the car is warning you that there is some other unseen obstruction.

There was no position I could find adjusting the steering wheel where I was able to see the speedometer without tilting my head sideways. The speed limit fluctuates dramatically on the M25, and they have speed cameras, so knowing your speed is extremely important. I got tired of constantly cocking my head to the side, and since I was in a zippy sports car, I kept going faster than it felt like I was going.

But still, it was a fun to drive car with ample power for maneuvering through traffic and getting me out of sticky situations on roundabouts, etc.

Oh, and shifting with my left hand was a trip. And until I was used to the play of the clutch compared to my car at home, I stalled it half a dozen times. But the push button start started it up immediately.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by glatt

On our recent trip to Britain, I got to drive this BMW diesel hatchback for three days.
Attachment 38505

--snip

Mazdaspeed 3. Not twins, but they're from the same village, same classroom. Cousins maybe.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by BigV

Mazdaspeed 3. Not twins, but they're from the same village, same classroom. Cousins maybe.

BMW 118d.

According to this, it can get 52 MPG, but I only experienced 37 MPG overall.

[ZenGum]

The right hand steering, left hand gear change feature is a big plus of driving on the left.

[infinite monkey]

When my car was in the shop I got a chevy cruze. It was all modern with the bells and whistles. But I hate that kind of touchy steering, and couldn't wait to get my bug back. A week or so later I met up with my friend who works at another university and she had a new car, a chevy cruze. She really likes it but she has always favored bigger and up to date cars. She drove a fancy boat before that but gets better mileage for her (ccomparable to mine) commute.

I used to help drive on trips in my former dad-in-law's car, a lincoln town car. I always said it was like driving a giant air hockey puck. That touchy floaty steering.

[BigV]

your bmw looks like a mazda. or is that just me?

[glatt]

It looked like no BMW I had ever seen. If it weren't for all the quirky stuff on it, I would love this car. Small, but big enough inside. Powerful, sporty, but great fuel economy. I bet it will never be offered in the USA.

If I owned it here though, I would probably have lots of speeding tickets.

[Undertoad]

The above is the center dash of the 2013 Ford Flex, with my labels in red. Can anyone see what my main beef with it is?

[glatt]

Fail. Are you supposed to pull over every time you need to adjust something? You can't do much of anything by sense of touch on that flush screen, and the controls are laid out poorly, so you have to look for a while to find anything.

[glatt]

Call me old school, but this is what a dash should look like. This is a 2009, so it's a couple years old, and might not have the same bells and whistles, but you get the idea.

[BigV]

no dials all touchy touchy

plus, you should put that dollar in the tip mug.