Car Hire Review
Since I seem to be spending a lot of my life driving up and down the M6 and A1 in hire cars at the moment, I thought to provide me with some level of amusment I would write reviews on the assortment of cars that I’ve done it in. My company very kindly lay on a hire car for each journey so it’s always a bit exciting waiting for it to be delivered to see what it’s like. So far the hire company have given me a different car each time but this will no doubt change as time goes on.
Note that I don’t get to choose the car, merely the class of car, this being engine size which invariably means a better car for some reason.
Vauxhall Insignia
This was the first car given to me and what a great introduction. Really comfortable, lots of toys, quite powerful, cruise control which is always nice in a car being used for motortway miles. Really could not fault this car, quite sad to give it back.
Peugeot Estate 308 SW
Concious that they had given me the best car they had last week, the rental compaby quickly made sure they delivered the worst they had in the garage this week. Read all about it below.
On delivery bits that didn’t work were…
Windscreen washer pump.
Passenger elecric window.
The gearbox. (I say it was broken on delivery, it actually changed gear but there was a significant delay between moving the stick to the appropriate position, and the gearbox actually feeling like it had got there – so it must have been broke in some way)
The engine. I dunno, maybe three cylinders weren’t firing, it’s the only explanation I can find for such a weak piece of shit.
Things that broke while it was being driven….
The MPG readout would vary from 15 to 999 with 17 other numbers inbetween in a 5 second period and then jam on 47mpg. This would not change unless I cycled through the options upon it would do the same and then stop on 47mpg again. NO MATTER HOW HARD I WAS PUSHING THE ACCELERATOR.
The radio. It was shit to start with but after about ten minutes it forgot how to find radio stations and no matter what I did, would only flick it’s way through the entire radio spectrum before stopping on 95.4 church radio leaving me with approximately 10 more hours sat in a car with no music.
The fuel gauge.
And something kept making a weesh sound near the back of the car.
Things that were just crap anyway……
Switch gear. Made out of soft cheese.
Turning circle. Fair enough, it’s an estate but really, I’m sure you should be able to manouver it into a space at ASDA a bit easier than with an 11 point turn. I drove a transit van today for a few hours and that was more manouverable.
Things that were good about it…
errm…
um……
Aah! You could see a lot of stuff out of the windows.
I got to give it back to the hire company when I got home.
Volkswagon Passat
Not bad at all. Seriously well put together. Everything felt really solid and tight Extremely comfortable to drive a long way in. After 4 hours driving I still felt fine. Considering the engine is the same as in my wife’s Audi (2.0Tdi), it felt fairly weak. It also came with an automatic parking brake which took a fiar bit of getting used to. I stalled it a few times until I figured out you have to change your driving style. Don’t gradually roll up to a halt and then try moving away just as you’re stopping. Roll up, stop precisely until you feel the auto brake come on, then you can prepare to move off. Also the cruise control only worked in 5mph steps, a bit odd. Boot was humungous too, you could easily get a couple of bodies in that one.
Vauxhall Vectra
The handbrake is so close to the central arm rest that I can’t take it off without sticking my elbow up in the air like a funky chicken. The cruise control control is so tiny I couldn’t find it for a while. It took me ages to figure out how to open the boot (press the open button twice on the fob) but the biggest problem is those stupid, stupid electronic stalks. The windscreen wipers and the indicators go on for no reason that I can fathom and the conditions upon which they go off is presumably tied into the ‘which pop star is cool’ public opinion charts. This wouldn’t be a major issue if I could see the indicator lights, or indeed hear the gnats fart clicking that they make.
Engine was great though, plenty of grunt.
admin | 
February 7, 2010 10:31 pm
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