Rental car adventures

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.

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?

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.

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.

[youtube]KnPwB-KGXQY[/youtube]

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.?'

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

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

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.

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

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.

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?

no dials all touchy touchy

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

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.

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.
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That's true, but worse than that... here let me hit the "climate" button...

Merkin engineering: ignoring engineering psychology since 19__.

glatt;809241 wrote:

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

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

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Also reminds me of my Saturn Astra (Opel in Germany.)

May she R.I.P.

And since I got orphaned:

Merkin engineering: ignoring engineering psychology since 19__.

That dashboard would be reason enough for me to not buy a car. You need a passenger to work it for you.

I thought Ford was supposed to be getting better?

BigV;809704 wrote:

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.

My goofball friend just brought home a 2012 Charger. I gotta say, the accelerator and brakes are a tad touchy. The controls are better to use but do NOT mess with the touchscreen controls while in motion. The radio sounds good but the interface sux. The CD player looks more like an afterthought. There are mysterious storage spots that are mostly useless. I'm guessing they are filler for something that is an option not chosen. All in all, it's better than the old worn-out Mustang convertible he was driving but he really needs to develop a soft touch. Or I am going to start wearing a neck brace.

You should get into any rental car at night. In the dark, find the headlights, ignition key hole, turn signals, brake pedal, the radio volume and frequency selector knob, seat adjustment, door handle, and the door unlock button ... in the dark. You should not have to search for these at the expense of watching the road. Otherwise, the car has serious design problems.

One Pontiac Sunbird would lock its doors when put into drive. I hate that. A button to unlock doors was forward in a narrow gap between the door and dashboard. It could not be seen except when that door was open. These are not accidents. These happen when cost controls a design.

Mushy handling is often due to no speed sensitive steering. Which every car even 15 years ago could and should have. One reason for not installing speed sensitive steering is a suspension so barbaric as to require extra strong power steering.

True measure of a car is to drive your ten year old car out of the airport. I cannot say how often my better driving and ten year old Accord felt after a week with that crap, new rental car designed in the accounting department.

tw;809911 wrote:

You should get into any rental car at night.

And a new record level of impractical advice is reached :cheerldr:

monster;809916 wrote:

And a new record level of impractical advice is reached

The airplane gets to its destination that night. A rental car is first driven that night. Why should anyone spend a full minute searching to tune and adjust volume on its radio? Because the auto was designed by a GM bean counter; not an Apple or Hyundai engineer. Only the most naive, a lover of scammed consumers, or one who then learns the wrath of Steven Jobs would find that impractical.

Every essential function is easily found by touch - even in the dark. But only in better designed rental cars.

But if the airplane lands at 8am? Or 9am? or 10am?.........

I loved my Mini.
The controls were so basic I never had to worry about anything other than driving.
I didn't pass my test while I had it though, and by the time I did I was grateful for the little extras in my Nissan Micra.

It would look like Fred Flintstone's car compared to the dashboards in cars today though.

[aside] I remember a colleague coming into work and moaning that she could not park in the work carpark this week, as she was driving her son's car and it did not have power steering. She couldn't manage the tight spaces and had to park across town instead. My friend and I looked sideways at eachother. Neither of us had ever owned a car with power steering.

This was about 10 years ago, although due to finances I still haven't.

Tonight the 2013 Ford Flex Fail entered a new dimension of user interface horror, as the dashboard dimmer switch wound up switching on the passenger map lights (not the dome light, but the lights at the top of the windshield).

WE COULD NOT TURN OFF THOSE LIGHTS WITH THEIR ON/OFF SWITCH

I can't express how shitty this design is. Now look. I've always had an interest in user interfaces, and now I suppose one could say I'm a professional at it as I make user interface decisions with the websites I build.

THERE WAS NO WAY TO PREDICT THAT THE DASH DIMMING SWITCH COULD PROFOUNDLY AFFECT THE INTERIOR LIGHTING

Any UI designer of any quality would look at this image and shit him or herself immediately. Consider, a dash dimmer switch next to a rear hatch opening switch, flush with their surfaces, next to each other, invisible to the driver:





You, the UI layperson. One switch will open the rear hatch, exposing the interior and possibly dropping any rear cargo onto the road. The other controls how bright the dash lights are at night. The switches are identical and invisible to the driver. What's wrong with this design?

But that wasn't the problem tonight. The problem tonight is that, somehow, operating the dash light dimmer switch turned on the passenger lights, and they couldn't be turned off with their own switches. It's sort of shocking that this wound up in a released product. It actually angers me, that this is the modern product from the only American car company that seems to be able to get out of its own way.

I get to test drive another Ford or two tomorrow. I'm thinking Explorer and Mustang (raises $ for the school and kills an hour between Polo games)

The only thing I don't like about my Impala is that the driver information controls (oil level, mpg, etc.) are on the dash next to the speedometer. In my Cobalt, they were on the steering wheel. I believe on the higher-end Impala models, the steering wheel controls contain cruise control (which I have) along with bluetooth and radio controls (which I don't).