Mike K's revolving car rental thread

[Mike K]

Here is where I will exclaim with great enthusiasm how awesome my current rental car is or tell you what a pile of shit it is.

This month's edition: 2012 Chrysler 300

Last month I had the new 300C which is a great car. This month my "premium" rental only got me the standard 300 which again... still awesome for what it is.

Build quality is spectacular for a Chrysler but still surprisingly cheap on the outside. There's no plastic shroud below the windshield so you see a lot of bare metal. The tail lights don't line up with the body evenly, the trunk shuts really cheaply and overall it just feels a bit cheap if you're outside of the interior.

But the interior... For a Chrysler it's awesome. Materials are nice, soft to the touch, fit well and look nice. The seats are cloth and still as comfortable as the leather that the 300c had. No cooling/ heating here though.

The stereo is adequate. The 8" Utouch screen is still standard fare here and it's awesome as far as user interface goes... probably the best available system from the big three. The stereo itself is ok but it maxes out quite low. So if you like loud music this isn't for you. The Alpine I had in the 300C was nice though and there's a Beats Audio system available too.

Power is odd... The engine has almost nothing in the way of highway power and almost nothing off the line but if you punch it and you let it wind itself out it has enough mid-range power to get you to 60mph surprisingly quickly. For daily driving the power is just fine. I don't miss the Hemi nearly as much as I thought I would. Gas mileage is a lot better too.

Other than that, it's overall a really nice car. Loads better than the Taurus I had and I'm not going to bother to compare it to the 2012 Impala because... Impala, come on.

Click to read more...

 

[SaturdaysGS]

Is the 2012 the ones with the 8 speed ZF, or still have the 5 speed Mercedes sourced unit? If it is the ZF, thoughts?

 

[Mike K]

8 speed... The 300c I had had the 5 speed. It's nice. It's smooth but it doesn't do anything exceptional which is probably a good thing. I really thought I'd notice the car going through 8 gears but you really don't.

 

[willizm]

I had a challenger one week a few months back. Rental cars kinda get lame after a while because they are usually the least optioned cars you get. So glad I got out to the rental car deal and just got a vegas car with a proper manual

 

[Mike K]

I've been tempted to take the Audi out here but at the end of the day it's just not worth it for me unless I could find somewhere very close to the airport to store it. If I stored it where we stay I'd incur a couple hundred dollars in cab fees per trip on top of the cost of the car and I pay ever so slightly more than that for a rental car that I don't have to do any maintenance on. Plus I get a bit of variety.

I'd love to have the 550 on the roads out here though.

 

[willizm]

^I hear you. I only do it because I can expense it. I have a condo a couple miles from the airport on south las vegas blvd. I either park it there and cab to and from the airport or just park at the airport if I'm flying back into town in a couple days. It's nice to land, walk out to the garage, get in my car and go. No more waiting for rental car bus and all that crap. My travel schedule is usually sun-thur and can be back to back weeks depending. I've done rentals for years and usually got mustangs, camaro's, chargers and the like. I like having my 135i out there more though.

 

[Mike K]

Rental car review v.2012 Volvo S80

This car sucks. Holy shit, what a 4000lb brick of failure. There are a few cars you get into and you're expecting to be driving an appliance. Camrys and Accords come to mind. They elicit little in the way of excitement and generally aren't built poorly but aren't built with the highest quality materials either. There's nothing wrong with these cars. They're the cars for people that don't care about cars, the people that want a decent daily driver or something reliable.

This is what the Volvo S80 is except it's not supposed to be a commuter for the average person. It's Volvo's flagship. It's Volvo's flag being waved to the world saying "this is the best we have to offer" and it fucking sucks.

Seriously, this car is miserable. There are some cars that make no compromises... Conversely, all this car makes is compromises. It has the soft suspension of an 80's Cadillac yet it still manages to toss you around over any kind of bump or harshness in the road. It's piss slow (8.6 sec 0-60) yet still doesn't manage to get reasonable gas mileage in real life conditions. It's 4000 lbs yet small everywhere. The transmission shifts so slowly that it feels like it's slipping. This is just a bad car. How bad? I took it back to the airport to get a Chrysler 300 after less than a day. I just couldn't bare to drive it.

All this begs the question: what happened to Volvo? Is safety their only game now? The 2013 XC 90 is identical to my wife's 2004 with the exception of larger wheels, HID headlights and LED tail lights. For about $2000 I could turn our 8 year old Volvo into a 2013 and nobody would know the difference. The interior is even the same, not even a refresh. For a 2004 I love our XC90 but if that was a 2012 it just doesn't cut the mustard when you compare it to other SUVs. Who's buying these cars? With a product lineup like this Volvo can't be far behind Saab.

 

[chry*bmb]

It's a Volvo. Period. I had a couple Volvo's. I had a XC70, that wagon, but that car was ok until the rear main seal started to leak all the time. Then I got the new XC60. My fault for not waiting a few years, but with the XC70 leaking, it was time. Problem was, new XC60 was a total piece of crap too. Worse then the wagon!! Always in for recalls and I couldn't WAIT to get rid of it!! Very unhappy with the engine and quantity of recall work, but Volvo ALWAYS stood behind their work. I just needed and wanted something safe.

 

[chry*bmb]

Oh, yeah, I got rid of it. Sorry, I didn't finish that. A lot of manufacturers out there are exceeding safety standards too, not just Volvo. 2004 is when Ford bought Volvo I think? Not positive. Nothing against them, but look at what's happening to cars in general out there...

 

[Mike K]

What didn't you like about the XC60? I actually like that SUV.

Oh, and check out this advanced navigation system... I usually hold out for cars with NAV but with my wife's XC90 it wasn't necessary.

 

[slowchevy]

Rental car review v.2012 Volvo S80

This car sucks. Holy shit, what a 4000lb brick of failure. There are a few cars you get into and you're expecting to be driving an appliance. Camrys and Accords come to mind. They elicit little in the way of excitement and generally aren't built poorly but aren't built with the highest quality materials either. There's nothing wrong with these cars. They're the cars for people that don't care about cars, the people that want a decent daily driver or something reliable.

This is what the Volvo S80 is except it's not supposed to be a commuter for the average person. It's Volvo's flagship. It's Volvo's flag being waved to the world saying "this is the best we have to offer" and it fucking sucks.

Seriously, this car is miserable. There are some cars that make no compromises... Conversely, all this car makes is compromises. It has the soft suspension of an 80's Cadillac yet it still manages to toss you around over any kind of bump or harshness in the road. It's piss slow (8.6 sec 0-60) yet still doesn't manage to get reasonable gas mileage in real life conditions. It's 4000 lbs yet small everywhere. The transmission shifts so slowly that it feels like it's slipping. This is just a bad car. How bad? I took it back to the airport to get a Chrysler 300 after less than a day. I just couldn't bare to drive it.

All this begs the question: what happened to Volvo? Is safety their only game now? The 2013 XC 90 is identical to my wife's 2004 with the exception of larger wheels, HID headlights and LED tail lights. For about $2000 I could turn our 8 year old Volvo into a 2013 and nobody would know the difference. The interior is even the same, not even a refresh. For a 2004 I love our XC90 but if that was a 2012 it just doesn't cut the mustard when you compare it to other SUVs. Who's buying these cars? With a product lineup like this Volvo can't be far behind Saab.

Was this the 4.4 or turbo six or base model?

 

[chry*bmb]

Oh, please don't get me wrong. I went from daily driving a Camaro for 9 years to that, so I kinda moved up ,)

I believe the XC60 was the T6? IIRC. It had all the bells and whistles too, so I felt very hoity toity as udluuz calls me, lol. Very comfortable ride for a SUV and I even went to their SUV "try to tip this thing over" (or whatever it was called) driver day over by Arlington. That was a blast. I scared the crap out of the people in my group. They wanted me to try? So I tried. Lol.

What made me lose faith in that SUV is the amount of times I had to keep bringing it in for service and recalls. Hard when your working full-time and trying to adjust around that constantly. I just chalk it up to either it was a lemon or bad year for car. Wasn't reliable at all.

 

[Mike K]

Car Review v.Ford Flex SEL

American Express gets me this neat thing with National Car Rental where we pay for a mid-size car and then get to pick from a couple aisles of cars. In those aisles is everything... SUVs, luxury cars, Mustangs, Camaros, 300's, Volvos, a few BMW, etc. It's awesome. If you rent cars a lot sign up for National Emerald Club and then see if you qualify for the Executive level. That gets you the special cars.

With that out of the way... Tonight we spotted a Flex in the aisle. My wife was stoked because she likes these and it wasn't a base model so I was down with it too. No Eco-Boost but it was an SEL so it had the instrument cluster with the 2 LCD screens, XM Radio, Bluetooth, etc. As with most rental cars, they leave out odd options like leather seats, moonroof, etc. I'm mixed on the car...

The good:

It's comfortable. - The floor pan dips down so rear passenger'd knees aren't up in their faces. Rear seats have a natural sitting position.

It's not slow - It's not fast but it has enough power to get the job done.

It's Quiet - The vehicle itself is quiet inside. The engine is not and the noise it makes isn't pleasant.

The Bad:

Build Quality/ Choice of Materials - We haven't come very far from the Ford of early 2000's here. Lots of hard plastics, lots of rattling for a vehicle with 16,000 miles on it... just an overall sense of cheap which is weird because the design itself is nice.

4 Speed Transmission - Seriously? Is it 1998? There's no excuse for this. And it shifts hard too.

World's worst Navigation - No really. I've never seen a nav system this bad. So here's how it works... Before you can do ANYTHING you need to sign into a website, register the vehicle and register your phone number. Once you've done that you're ready to navigate! Wait, no you're not.

To set your navigation destination you access a menu which then dials a phone number through your cell phone at which point you run through a series of voice menus and verbally dictate your destination at which point the navigation system then downloads the route information to your car which often just doesn't work. They also have an app which is supposed to streamline this but it really only adds a step. You can search for your address on the app and send it to the car but then once you get in the car you need to dial the number and download the directions to the car again.

Now once your directions are downloaded you get voice commands, that's it. No map, no visual cues, nothing. What happens if you deviate from your route? The navigation system asks you if you want to re-route and when you say yes it calls through your phone and downloads a new set of directions... If you're already on the phone then you better not deviate because you're fawked. This is literally the worst, most backwards ass system I've ever had the displeasure of using. I don't know how something like this gets through testing. Think of the most intuitive thing you've used... maybe an iPhone or something like that. This is the opposite. It's as if they stopped mid-way through the design process and said "Wait, no, we need to add more steps and also make the navigation system randomly dial the phone every 6 seconds". It's wretched.

So then... My radio tuner didn't work so I went back to get another car tonight. I spotted another Flex in the aisle, this one was a Limited. It added HIDs, LED tail lights, backup camera, keyless start, power hatch, leather and some other goodies. So I grabbed it and was pleasantly surprised to find a traditional navigation system and a 6 speed transmission.

So I'm not sure if the differences I had were from model year changes or from trim level differences but this is a vehicle I would consider in anything other than top trim.

Overall drivability is very good. It drives like a car and handled Mulholland Drive like a champ. Electric steering is odd at parking lot speeds. The steering wheel always feels light with no change in resistance. It's not bad, just different.

I give the Flex SEL a 5 out of 10 and the Limited a 7 out of 10. With the optional Ecoboost engine and better build quality this would be a top notch SUV if you dig the looks.

 

[Burtonrider10022]

A 5 out of 10, minus 16 for it's looks, and it's a solid -11 right alongside the scion xB.

 

[Fish]

For a starting price of 28ish. Its cool, but not that cool.

 

[Primalzer]

Yeah would never get a Flex without the Ecoboost, but I give it +10 for looks

 

[Yaj Yak]

MYFORDTOUCH sucks donkey dick.

in other news the engine that isn't the ecoboost is definitely do-able.it goes alright.

i love flex's so much room and so nice for what they are- did yours have a pano roof mike? heated/cooled seats?

 

[Yaj Yak]

I wouldn't even consider it an suv though- the thing has the ground clearance of my saturn and you sit about the same height.

it was a replacement for their mini vans...

 

[Primalzer]

Fully loaded Ecoboost tops out at $51k.....fuuuuuuuuck

 

[Mike K]

MYFORDTOUCH sucks donkey dick.

in other news the engine that isn't the ecoboost is definitely do-able.it goes alright.

i love flex's so much room and so nice for what they are- did yours have a pano roof mike? heated/cooled seats?

No pano roof. Rental cars seem to get weird options. Even the top spec'd 300c's don't have moon roofs. I don't know why. I do have heated seats, not sure about cooled.

MyFordTouch isn't terrible on the replacement Flex I got and it wasn't bad on the first one I had. It was just the navigation function on the first one that blew. Apparently both of them have the second generation of MFT though so perhaps that's it. It seems just as intuitive as the Chrysler system though, so not bad.

And yeah, I guess it's not an SUV. It's like a large wagon.

Fully loaded Ecoboost tops out at $51k.....fuuuuuuuuck

Never... Not for a Ford, not for any Ford. I don't know who's buying them at that price especially when Ford's have the same depreciation as BMWs (a lot). You can pick up 2010 SHO's for low 20's now... a car that had a starting price of just under 40k 3 years ago.

 

[Yaj Yak]

well it depends where you are at - who do you rent from?


The enterprise I worked for would get some cars so fucking loaded it was ridiculous. the 300c that i did a review of had a shit ton of options- including a sunroof.

 

[Mike K]

well it depends where you are at - who do you rent from?


The enterprise I worked for would get some cars so fucking loaded it was ridiculous. the 300c that i did a review of had a shit ton of options- including a sunroof.

Maybe it's a National thing. They have the weirdest optioned cars. Never have I seen so many fully loaded cars without moon roofs.

They had a new Durango with a SRTish badge on it. I'm sure it was just an appearance package. I like those and wouldn't have minded checking it out but some yokel grabbed it.

 

[Yaj Yak]

yeah national is owned by enterprise so it almost just depends on where you are- typically the airport cars are going to be worked a lil harder than the "home location" type stores... additionally the home location stores are going to have cars with better options.

we had minivans with built in dvd players in the back... but also we had weird shit as well- ever seen a new body style suburban with a split bench seat in the front?

 

[Primalzer]

Never... Not for a Ford, not for any Ford. I don't know who's buying them at that price especially when Ford's have the same depreciation as BMWs (a lot). You can pick up 2010 SHO's for low 20's now... a car that had a starting price of just under 40k 3 years ago.

My thoughts exactly...but I would totally rock a few year old Ecoboost

 

[Mike K]

I have to bump my rating on this... It was actually a pleasure to have once I got the limited model. It is noticeably quieter than my BMW, even if I take into account that my BMW rides on noisy run flats. That's quite a feat for a vehicle that's essentially shaped like a brick.

I stand by my statement that I'd never pay 50k for one but you can lease them pretty cheaply and they're really cheap on the second hand market. A couple year old SEL or Limited can be had for low 20's and that's not bad. I'd let my wife rock that.