04-18-2011, 08:29 AM
So we took a weekend trip down to Charleston to get away from it all and decided to rent a car for the trip for three reasons:
1. Chelsea works for Enterprise so she gets laughably cheap rates
2. It was supposed to hail on the drive down and I didn't want my car to be a victim like thousands of other cars in this area about a week ago
3. I have a busted foglight and didn't want rain to get all up in it until I replace it tonight
The choices were narrowed down to their premium segment, which was
1. New V6 Mustang (I begged her to find a V8 but they don't rent them)
2. New 300C
3. New Genesis
4. Volkswagon CC
I let her pick, and we ended up with this:
![[Image: Volkswagen-CC-2.jpg]](http://www.jamwallpapers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Volkswagen-CC-2.jpg)
It was a pretty base model obviously, but had Sat / HD radio and a couple of nice features.
My overall thoughts:
Appearance: Really like, front the front anyway. There is much to be desired in the rear (that's what she said) and the standard 16" (I think) wheels are pretty Civic-ish. With a nice set of wheels I think the car would look fantastic. The interior is rental car-esque but still reasonably laid out for a German car. The HUD is pretty confusing to navigate through like most German vehicles and the seats were designed to be "sporty" but ended up squeezing my thighs the whole trip...and I am not a big guy.
Performance: Holy understeer. The car was downright scary on off-ramps, I almost plowed into a curve coming out of an aggressive turn. I think a big part of the smushyness of the handling probably came from the crap tires they put on it. I would really like to drive one with a decent set of tires and the adjustable sport suspension option, I think it would probably be a night and day difference. The car would literally float driving down the highway at ~80mph, I had to make constant adjustments to keep it straight especially when it was windy.
I was really impressed with the 2.0T engine though. For only 200hp it was great from a low dig and pulled surprisingly quickly from 80-100mph. Where it kind of fell flat was in the midrange of 50-70 and 35-50. You could definitely feel the turbo kick in when you hammered it. But it was very smooth which probably got help from the DSG transmission (do not like). Overall we averaged about 29mpg which is good, but that's also what my TL-S musters on the highway with more weight and +86hp.
At first my normal German car hate kicked in when my girlfriend pulled up in it, and then during the trip when the radio went in and out intermittently (it kept picking up / dropping HD signal, which is annoying) but I really started to like the car by the end of the trip. Would I buy one? No, but I think it was a well executed car and would probably be a really nice DD with all of the trimmed out options.
1. Chelsea works for Enterprise so she gets laughably cheap rates
2. It was supposed to hail on the drive down and I didn't want my car to be a victim like thousands of other cars in this area about a week ago
3. I have a busted foglight and didn't want rain to get all up in it until I replace it tonight
The choices were narrowed down to their premium segment, which was
1. New V6 Mustang (I begged her to find a V8 but they don't rent them)
2. New 300C
3. New Genesis
4. Volkswagon CC
I let her pick, and we ended up with this:
It was a pretty base model obviously, but had Sat / HD radio and a couple of nice features.
My overall thoughts:
Appearance: Really like, front the front anyway. There is much to be desired in the rear (that's what she said) and the standard 16" (I think) wheels are pretty Civic-ish. With a nice set of wheels I think the car would look fantastic. The interior is rental car-esque but still reasonably laid out for a German car. The HUD is pretty confusing to navigate through like most German vehicles and the seats were designed to be "sporty" but ended up squeezing my thighs the whole trip...and I am not a big guy.
Performance: Holy understeer. The car was downright scary on off-ramps, I almost plowed into a curve coming out of an aggressive turn. I think a big part of the smushyness of the handling probably came from the crap tires they put on it. I would really like to drive one with a decent set of tires and the adjustable sport suspension option, I think it would probably be a night and day difference. The car would literally float driving down the highway at ~80mph, I had to make constant adjustments to keep it straight especially when it was windy.
I was really impressed with the 2.0T engine though. For only 200hp it was great from a low dig and pulled surprisingly quickly from 80-100mph. Where it kind of fell flat was in the midrange of 50-70 and 35-50. You could definitely feel the turbo kick in when you hammered it. But it was very smooth which probably got help from the DSG transmission (do not like). Overall we averaged about 29mpg which is good, but that's also what my TL-S musters on the highway with more weight and +86hp.
At first my normal German car hate kicked in when my girlfriend pulled up in it, and then during the trip when the radio went in and out intermittently (it kept picking up / dropping HD signal, which is annoying) but I really started to like the car by the end of the trip. Would I buy one? No, but I think it was a well executed car and would probably be a really nice DD with all of the trimmed out options.
Posting in the banalist of threads since 2004
2017 Mazda CX-5 GT AWD Premium
Past: 2016 GMC Canyon All Terrain Crew Cab / 2010 Jaguar XFR / 2012 Acura RDX AWD Tech / 2008 Cadillac CTS / 2007 Acura TL-S / 1966 5.0 HO Mustang Coupe
2001 Lexus IS300 / 2004 2.8L big turbo WRX STI / 2004 Subaru WRX / A couple of old trucks
2017 Mazda CX-5 GT AWD Premium
Past: 2016 GMC Canyon All Terrain Crew Cab / 2010 Jaguar XFR / 2012 Acura RDX AWD Tech / 2008 Cadillac CTS / 2007 Acura TL-S / 1966 5.0 HO Mustang Coupe
2001 Lexus IS300 / 2004 2.8L big turbo WRX STI / 2004 Subaru WRX / A couple of old trucks