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+--- Thread: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo (/showthread.php?tid=5304)
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - WRXtranceformed - 04-29-2013
Whoa nice, I didn't know they had a 6MT version...I was driving the auto. I am kind of feeling the same way about the new CTS. Everything on paper looks awesome including the new V-sport twin turbo v6. But I have to think that hopping onto the first MY of a new American car isn't a good idea again. My car has held up pretty well but has had some annoying quirks (coil pack replaced at 60k, leaking sunroof and third brake light, etc.)
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - BFisch06 - 04-30-2013
The 2.0T is a slightly-altered version of the LNF that's in my Chevy HHR SS and Saturn Sky Redline. Excellent engine, especially with a tune. Trifecta makes a canned tune for the LNF that bumps power to about 330 and torque to 340 or thereabouts. Unfortunately, the only way to get a manual on the ATS is to get the 2.0T - it isn't offered with any other engines. Sounds like you were quick impressed, minus the color. What kind of fuel economy did you get?
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - WRXtranceformed - 04-30-2013
Wow seriously? I have a Trifecta tune on the CTS, they seem to do a good job. That is a big jump in power for just a canned tune. That amount of power in that car would make it pretty fun! I reset the fuel consumption meter and averaged around 28mpg with a mix of mostly highway and some city driving. Not too bad. I thought I read that you could use regular fuel in it too.
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - WRXtranceformed - 04-30-2013
Also, Pfadt Engineering apparently just built an ATS with a new turbo kit they are developing that ran 162.5mph at the Texas Mile. They are on the Cadillac forums.
There is another legit company that is already offering a tune along with a water injection kit.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.vtunerperformance.com/?p=80">http://www.vtunerperformance.com/?p=80</a><!-- m -->
Upgrading your new Cadillac ATS 2.0T was never easier! Average increases of 50 hp / 50 lb-ft from 3000 rpm – 5500 rpm have been achieved when running our methanol/water injection system with all stock components! This is the most economical upgrade available to achieve massive increases while maintaining stock fuel efficiency on your ATS. Methanol/water injection has the added benefit of reducing carbon deposits on your intake valves, which has been an issue on many direct injected engines resulting in degradation of power in as little as 5K miles.
Stage 0 (291 hp/ 322 lb-ft Upgrade)
Stage 0 methanol/water (309 hp / 332 lb-ft Upgrade)
- Flashable Tune Via Handheld
- No Laptop Required
- High Speed Data Logging
- Max Vehicle Speed limiter adjustment
- Updates Via Email
- Transmission tuning option for automatics included
- View And Clear Diagnostic Trouble Codes
Stage 0 Tuning System (Handheld tuning system + custom tuning).
Average increases of 35 hp/35 lb-ft from 3000 – 5300 rpm. Peak increase to 291 hp / 322 lb-ft
And APPARENTLY there is a V-version of the ATS coming out. I am seriously considering this car as a replacement for mine. The irony of it is that I bought my CTS because of an Enterprise rental I had years ago as well :lol:
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - CaptainHenreh - 04-30-2013
Yeah, an ATS is looking really nice, especially considering Cadillac depreciation.
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - HAULN-SS - 04-30-2013
Im wondering if they are going to do an ATS-V or a Buick Grand national..would they do both?
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - WRXtranceformed - 04-30-2013
Buick kind of needs to go away. They market SO hard with A-list athletes but I never see anyone driving their cars other than old people.
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - D_Eclipse9916 - 04-30-2013
WRXtranceformed Wrote:Buick kind of needs to go away. They market SO hard with A-list athletes but I never see anyone driving their cars other than old people.
Except they are selling like hotcakes in China...
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - Mike - 05-31-2013
got a kia soul for $12/day out in the northwest. not a bad car at all. 2k miles on it so basically brand new.
got 27mpg with mostly city/mountain miles.
had some rattles i wouldn't expect out of a pricier car (this isn't a "pricier" car so it was acceptable).
ergo was ok, but seats were pretty shit.
tech package was decent with usb-in and bluetooth.
i didn't pop the hood, but based on its proclivity to downshift, i'm assuming it was the 140hp engine, which granted no acceleration on the mountains, but was surprisingly workable on city streets.
the suspension was odd. the vehicle is small and relatively low, but it felt like its limits were really premature. i never got comfortable throwing it about.
aside from four adults, it didn't have space for anything. my gti has about double the cargo capacity.
for $17.5 msrp, i wouldn't call it a bad car (i've experience FAR worse), but i'd be buying something used.
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - Jeff - 05-31-2013
Meh, just traded a 11 Soul Base. I drove it around a bit, I pretty much agree with everything you said. This one is 5-speed so the power can be better managed. Much like the Dart base I think it is retarded that it doesn't have cruise with its base price just over 15k! Here's to hoping I can get $11,500 for this chunk.
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - Mike - 06-01-2013
i had the 6spd with cruise. i didn't think they made a 5spd?
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - Jeff - 06-01-2013
Pretty sure this 11 is a 5. I will look.
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - Jake - 06-28-2013
Just got back from three-ish days in Arizona with my parents. Dad had booked through Expedia, and the package included "an economy car rental" through Dollar. I asked if he minded my company at the rental counter so we got a good car, and of course he said that would be great.
Rental Counter man was named Trip, I think. Trip told us that what we paid for (a subcompact, apparently) would cover something like an Accent or Fiat 500. This is problem, because mom's suitcase is about the size of a Fiat.
A "compact" would be $7/day more and get a Focus/Elantra, a "midsize" was $15 and would be a Fusion or Optima. I asked if the Fusion would be a '13 and he said yes. He also got it for $10/day, which Dad was very okay with. I ended up driving this thing around for a few days.
It looked exactly like this - a red '13 Fusion SE with presumably no options:
![[Image: 6644562157x400.jpg]](http://images.cobaltgroup.com/7/5/1/6644562157x400.jpg)
Frankly, I'm impressed that this was a "base-ish" model. It came with a switchblade key, a la VW. The black cloth seats had a nice stitching design and were incredibly comfortable. Driver's was power adjustable with lumbar. Auto headlights. Steering wheel controls for audio/cruise. Had rear A/C vents which the backseat passengers appreciated. Center stack layout was nice, even without the gigantor MyFord Touch screen. Ours had the smaller (still full-color) screen like this:
![[Image: 2013-Ford-Fusion-SE-2.0L-EcoBoost-interi...hboard.jpg]](http://www.carrentingreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/2013-Ford-Fusion-SE-2.0L-EcoBoost-interior-dashboard.jpg)
The radio sounded great (and the free Sirius trial hadn't yet expired, which was great as old-people-Arizona FM radio plays awful music) for being the non-Sony system. The coldest air conditioning I experienced over the trip was inside this car. It cooled the car down quickly and kept it cold, even in indicated 110° temps. If you go full-throttle, it'll cut off the AC compressor until you stop that nonsense. Not like full-throttle is worth trying, though, which brings me to my next point.
In the ever-eloquent words of Sweet Brown, OH LAWD JESUS is this car slow. The SE's base engine is a 2.5L four, making 175 hp and something similar in torque. It's mated to a six-speed slushbox that actually wasn't all bad. But 175 hp and no torque is just not enough to move the car with any authority. I lost every single drag race to every single old person in Sun City West. Throttle position and number of revs just didn't matter.
I know they offer a 1.6L turbo and a 2.0 turbo (the 2.0 is my ST motor, de-tuned a bit) and I'd be very curious to see how either motor drives compared to the older 2.5. It was such a dog.
The car was easy enough to see out of, looked great (several compliments on styling from family members who got rides) inside and out, was big enough to carry all of our stuff, and kept us cool in the inhabited-for-no-fathomable-reason desert that is Arizona.
Nicely done, Ford.
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - Jeff - 06-28-2013
Mike Wrote:i had the 6spd with cruise. i didn't think they made a 5spd?
I looked, it is a 5-speed.
Where in Arazona did you go?
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - Evan - 07-19-2013
![[Image: IMG_20130714_122825-XL.jpg]](http://evan55.smugmug.com/Other/cars/i-pDGQDHB/0/XL/IMG_20130714_122825-XL.jpg)
Rented a 2013 Wrangler to take on the beach over vacation.
Not going to waste much time writing about this POS, it doesnt deserve it.
First time driving a wrangler, though I owned a 93 cherokee for years.
Immediately after driving off from the rental shop, the handling was so awful I thought the guy who rented the jeep before me had left the tires at 10psi after driving on the beach.
So I pulled over, popped on the air gauge. 35psi. Plenty of air.
Floaty, vauge, completely disconnected, feels like driving on marshmallows. So thats just how wranglers handle. Chrysler has redefined "base model" with this vehicle. Roll up windows. No power locks. Im surprised it has a radio. I had to check the registration to believe its a 2013 vehicle. I laughed out loud when I went online to check the msrp. $24k. My wife's loaded focus cost less than that.
Not a fair comparison really, so I thought, why DO people buy wranglers? I always assumed it was kind of a butch convertible, and convertibles are pretty awesome, so maybe that makes it worth it. So I started to put the top down. After 10 minutes wrestling with the engineering product of whatever high school dropout union employee chrysler hired to design the abortion of a retractable soft-top, I took off down the road, but due to the big fat rollbar/padding and framed windows, it had zero of the open air convertible feeling and really was more of a big sunroof.
It did do just fine on the beach, but so did a luxo land rover with 20" wheels and summer tires, and Im quite sure my CX-5 would have too, so Im not sure that was a good test. The beach patrol nazis made everyone lower tire pressures, which is quite stupid. I had taken my cherokee on much softer sand without touching the tires, but perhaps idiot yuppies on vacation figure out new and exciting ways of getting themselves stuck.
The motor had some scoot, but it took a second after mashing the pedal to respond. Maybe due to the slushbox, maybe due to the stay-puft suspension. Who knows.
Overall I was glad to turn it back in, and annoyed I had paid (too much) real, actual money to voluntarily drive it for a couple days.
Far and away the worst vehicle I have driven, taking over the spot previously held by a rental nissan sentra from a couple years ago.
Ok, I did waste too much time writing about this thing.
I can only imagine that chrysler can get away with selling this thing is that it essentially has zero competition.
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - Mike - 07-19-2013
because chrysler.
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - WRXtranceformed - 07-19-2013
Mike Wrote:because chrysler.Quoted for truth
Watching the wifetobe's Sebring disappear beneath the inspection doors of the Hyundai dealership was one of the highlights of my year. I still have the oil stains on my driveway from that abomination
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - Jake - 10-24-2013
Took the ST in for warranty work, was given one of these as a loaner car for the day:
![[Image: f_266382398-2596257710.jpeg]](http://images01.olx.com/ui/15/31/98/f_266382398-2596257710.jpeg)
A 201x Focus SE hatch, firetruck red with ugly wheel covers, no options, "PowerShift" dual-clutch automatic transmission, 28k miles.
I got the key, grabbed the PRNDL and waited as a soccer mom performed a 98-point-turn in her GMC Acadia in order to park in front of the showroom. Eased the car out of the parking lot and pulled out onto Route 50 to head home.
I have two things to say about this car.
1. It is remarkably well-equipped for being a base model. Bluetooth, power windows/locks/mirrors, keyless entry, 7-speaker radio with color display, Sync, USB/line-in, cruise control, A/C. Beats the pants off a base-model Escort from years back, easily. I couldn't build an SE with wheel covers - they must have changed the packaging for 2014 - but this is a like... $15k car. I was impressed there.
2. Everything you've read about the "PowerShift" gearbox being complete garbage is true. At 28k miles, the entire car shuddered badly enough in 1st gear to make me think "just go to 2nd, it's smoother there" as the clutch packs were worn out something awful. Creeping in rush-hour traffic was akin to riding shotgun as your 15-year-old learns manual.
I can't believe Ford puts this transmission in the Focus and Fiesta and thinks it's acceptable long-term performance. I have a few friends with automatic Focii and everyone complains about the jerkiness over time. Ford will reflash the TCU and change the clutches, but the problems re-appear. I asked a technician about it when I first took the ST in to be evaluated, and he said "yeah, I do about 6 or 7 Focus transmissions a week, they are constantly in for clutches."
I've driven the SE 5-speed, I own the ST 6-speed, and they are both good cars. The non-turbo automatic, though... for as good as the chassis is, the transmission is just horrible.
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - SlimKlim - 10-24-2013
It must take some serious skill to design a product bad enough to ruin a wet clutch in 30k miles. Typically transmissions that use a wet clutch design almost never need replacements of the actual clutch, its making the hydraulic actuation units reliable that has stumped the idiots at BMW and VAG for the past 15 years. Some of the DSGs have well over 200k miles without significant wear on the clutches because they spend far less time slipping than a traditional manual and have two friction discs to share the work load with.
Re: Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo - Jake - 10-24-2013
^ This PowerShift was the polar opposite of your DSG, Joey. They both upshift quickly, that was the only similarity. No manual controls, slow to downshift when you give it some throttle, and massive flaws in how the clutches engage.