Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo

[Mike]

I had a loaner A3 TDI about a year ago. You can page back to where I reviewed it, but it sucked. They beefed up the suspension for the added weight of the diesel (Google actually says that car is lighter than the 2.0T? Regardless, that was the line from the Audi folks) and that made it ride like shit. I liked the motor, but not at the expense of jarring my brain over every bump. The interior was decent, but quirky and more VW than Audi in terms of material quality.

Today I got an A3 2.0T. Same quirky and slightly disappointing (for an Audi) interior, but the suspension does not suck and the motor is an f'ing hoot in a car this "small" (still 3300+!?). Plenty of power when you stomp it. Arguably too much for a car of this type, but I digress.

I'm beginning to get this car, but only with the 2.0T. I'm still not there because it's still a $33k Bavarian Civic, but... I'm enjoying my time with it at the very least. If someone in this club were to buy one, I wouldn't give them too much stinkeye.

[WRXtranceformed]

I've always thought those looked good on the exterior...I remember seeing one on 7 outside of Purcellville years ago that had an S3 body kit. Looked sharppp

[Jake]

Over the weekend, I had the chance to sample one of Subaru's finest, the 2015 Legacy. A friend and I got a really good deal on it from an unnamed rental agency around the Washington DC area and were surrounded by airplanes when we went to pick it up. Odd, I thought that was a Saab thing.

We picked it up on Friday night, I had some wedding to go to in Leesburg on Saturday, so my buddy took the car and I met him on Sunday morning to see some other friends of ours for the day.

It was "Carbide Gray" and looked like this:



Ours was the 2.5L flat-four (braaaaap) mated to Subaru's used-in-errything CVT. 175 hp and equal amounts of torque, shoved through all four wheels, all the time. We got the "Limited" trim, and the leather seats and Harman/Kardon audio both greatly contributed to the enjoyment of the vehicle throughout the weekend. Oh, and the A/C was pretty good. Heated front and rear seats weren't used but hey, it's nicely equipped.

Some impressions... nice and roomy. Comfy seats. H/K audio is good but not as good as the H/K in my mom's 2011 Outback. The infotainment system is "fine" (I think the software is cribbed mostly from Toyota) but the touchscreen attracts dust/dirt easily. We had to continuously wipe it down over the weekend, just to select between 80s on 8 or Pop2k on the included XM subscription. Gas mileage was impressive, at a reported 34 mpg driving through the mountains to [REDACTED], Maryland.

The car has a "M" mode for the transmission, with paddle shifters. But, it upshifts at redline for you and then will only occasionally downshift if you slap the (-) paddle again. Reliability may be suspect, however, as we did incur an "A/T Oil Temp" warning light about halfway through the day on Sunday. We suspected this was from too much playing with the paddle shifters, so we ended up leaving the car in D for the rest of the day. It behaved better and honestly, the CVT is intended to hold the motor in the power band and does a good job of it.

Suspension was a bit wallowy for my taste. The wheels were (I think?) 18's, but the tires had just enough sidewall to soak up bumps and keep the ride from being too jarring.

The 2.5 isn't a lot of motor for how big the car is. They do offer it with a 3.6 (which my mom's Outback has) and that would be the more appropriate motor. Subaru has programmed the throttle to be super aggressive right at tip-in, which makes it feel fast away from a stop. But, keep rolling on the throttle and there just isn't much to use.

Overall, it's not a car that I'd buy but I respect it for what it was for us - it was a fighter, an underdog amidst a sea of old, grizzled, prepped Subarus and BMWs and Miatas that had seen some shit. And y'know, it greatly contributed to the quality of my weekend.

Can't beat that for $24.99 a day.

[youtube]mYZmQTLpMEE[/youtube]

[ScottyB]

I LOVE IT

nice save at :38 btw. how shotgunned were the rockers when you went to turn it back in to the rental agency? :lol:

[Jake]

I LOVE IT

nice save at :38 btw. how shotgunned were the rockers when you went to turn it back in to the rental agency? :lol:

Heh, thanks!

They were mostly fine, we had blue-taped the front lip, fog lights and rockers in an effort to keep 'em pretty clean.

[BLINGMW]

haha way to get your $ worth :thumbup:

[Mike]

Spent the weekend with a new Ford Explorer. If you didn't tell me it was a Ford Explorer, you could have tricked me into thinking something German and costing twice as much. REALLY nice car. Good fit, finish, road manners, features.... my only complaint is the 21mpg I saw with mostly highway driving. Oh no, one other complaint was the car's hesitation to accelerate when you stomped it - felt like an abnormally long pause before it got into angry mode.

I've dug the looks since the first time I saw them. If I needed something of that size and with some ability to tow (I don't know the rating... maybe they've done away with tow ability?), I wouldn't hesitate to pick one up. Assuming the Escape is of the same ilk, it may need to make my shortlist, but also might be a touch small... Need to look at cargo numbers.

[SlimKlim]

The '16 Explorers have me doing a double take when I see them driving around, I dunno why exactly but I think this latest facelift is really handsome. Could be a good replacement for my mom's Scion, that thing is getting a little long in the tooth and my Dad never really liked it much anyway.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Spent the weekend with a new Ford Explorer. If you didn't tell me it was a Ford Explorer, you could have tricked me into thinking something German and costing twice as much. REALLY nice car. Good fit, finish, road manners, features.... my only complaint is the 21mpg I saw with mostly highway driving. Oh no, one other complaint was the car's hesitation to accelerate when you stomped it - felt like an abnormally long pause before it got into angry mode.

I've dug the looks since the first time I saw them. If I needed something of that size and with some ability to tow (I don't know the rating... maybe they've done away with tow ability?), I wouldn't hesitate to pick one up. Assuming the Escape is of the same ilk, it may need to make my shortlist, but also might be a touch small... Need to look at cargo numbers.

The new Ford Explorer is minivan territory (for towing at least).

[Jake]

Looks like it's rated at 5k lbs if you get the 3.5L V6 (N/A) or 3.5L EcoBoost. The 2.3 is rated at 2k.

[Ken]

The '16 Explorers have me doing a double take when I see them driving around, I dunno why exactly but I think this latest facelift is really handsome. Could be a good replacement for my mom's Scion, that thing is getting a little long in the tooth and my Dad never really liked it much anyway.

That's funny, I literally saw one for the first time today (or at least the first time I've noticed) and kind of did a double take too. Looks good.

[Jake]

My friend Tian borrowed the Yukon on Monday night to help with his move. I was set to join him/others on Tuesday night and get my truck back, so he gave me the keys to his CR-V and I just drove it to work/his new place.

It's a 2000, with 136k on it. Black leather interior, I think it was some "special edition" back then. This is all notable to me because when my parents were shopping for a new car at the time, we were about 90% sold on this exact car/color combo. And then Ford dropped a bomb called Escape and we liked that way more. But, I could've ended up with this car as my first, and gone down a long path of Honderp "low is a lifestyle" ownership.

So it looks like this:



There's not much to say because I drove it maybe 15 miles. But, I'm really glad we didn't buy one.

1. It's slooooow. Rated at 146 hp and pushed through a 4-speed automatic with AWD.

2. Nothing about it feels tremendously substantial. It's very much a Civic wagon and you're reminded of that constantly. Everything is "thin".

3. Driving it was like trying to ride a small pony. I am WAY too big for it. Couldn't get comfortable at all in/on the driver's seat, the positioning is all wrong for someone my height.

4. Interior ergonomics are weird. It's like they took the Civic, lifted it, and forgot to figure out where half of the dash buttons should go until it was too late. Cruise on/off is next to the air vent, windows are by your left knee, e-brake is on the floor (fine in a Civic, but you have to like, bend over and reach for it in this).

That said, we used it to help with his move, and with the seats down it can swallow an impressive amount of shit.

That's all.

[Ryan T]

So we just traded in our '13 Impala for a new gov. vehicle.

We got a 2015 Dodge Durango Special Vehicle Package:

It's got a 290hp/260ft/lbs 3.6L V6 AWD with an 8-speed automatic transmission. As part of the special vehicle package it comes with heavy duty cooling, bigger alternator, no third row seating, rear load leveling suspension, bigger brakes and a few interior goodies.

The 8-speed does really good on highway roads but when you get it on back roads/mountain roads it starts to struggle/get confused. The AWD system works well on rutted out mountain roads and hasn't left me wishing for anything more. Power delivery is good. We've only put about 2300 miles on it but so far it is getting around 22mpg, which isn't all that much less than the Impala we traded in. Ride is smooth and handling is pretty secure feeling given the heavy weight of the car. I can't speak for the stock suspension, but the one on the SVP is really nice.

This Durango came with bluetooth UConnect, USB, CD player and SD card hookup. All of these work really well and are very intuitive.

[Jake]

Was told that I'd have pace cars provided for my Chief of Pace duties at the NASA East Coast Championships over the weekend at VIR. Mazda is a NASA sponsor, so it was entirely unsurprising to hear that they had provided us two of their finest for our pacing duties.

We had a 2016(?) Mazda3 and Mazda6. The 3 had 115 miles on it and the 6 had about 350. Both were dark gray, the 3 had a black interior and the 6 had cocaiiiiiine seats that were the purest of white for all of 17 minutes.



I spent much more time in the 6 but drove both in relative anger. They share a drivetrain - the Skyactiv 2.5L with 185 hp and a similar amount of torque. The 6 is roughly 300 lbs heavier than the 3 so obviously one was slower than the other.

Quick impressions of the 6... styling is spot-on. Ours was the Grand Touring that was rolling on 19's yo. They looked good and had just enough sidewall to soak up all the curbing that definitely wasn't jumped. Brakes were good but initial pedal feel was too touchy. Suspension is impressive and for being so big, the 6 really could be hustled around VIR. I had a few pace laps where I was told to "catch the field NOW" and it was willing enough to dance. Nice bit of lift-off oversteer if you wanted it.

The motor sounds better than anticipated with a nice growl at higher revs. The transmission is a 6-speed "automatic" that is basically a dual-clutch with a torque converter for 1st-gear starts, or at least that's what I think it is. It shifted pretty snappy and when left in Manual mode, would let you bang the fuel cut all day long. THANK YOU Mazda. Subaru, take a hint. In "Sport" but left to shift itself, it would downshift under braking to prepare for the next corner. Really pretty satisfying for a two-pedal and not much lag when you pulled the shift paddles (but some, a GTI is faster).

Only downside... holy god is it slow. It really needs more power in the form of a turbo, a hybrid setup or a V6 to be "quick" at all. I know all these family sedans are going to the small 4-cylinder setup but with three or four people inside, it was pretty lethargic. Top speed on the back straight was 9 mph slower.

Interior was nice, lots of leather everywhere. The Mazda version of iDrive is a bit clunky but it wouldn't turn me off of the car entirely.

So yeah, I liked it enough given it's in a class of car that interests me as much as Bud Light.

[WRXtranceformed]

Got me a brandy new Suburban LT:

I actually like it better than the Yukon and the other burban they gave me (I think this one is newer). Chevys now seem less temporary, more quality on their interiors and everything is moving toward being thoughtfully laid out again like the Japs do so well. Like I really like how the lane assist, pedal adjuster, climate control etc are physical buttons I can just push and not have to sort through menus for. This had the tow package and actually the suspension feels quite nice and comfy. They did a good job making this thing feel not as big as it actually is. Like every GM car I have driven it needs a tune to improve throttle response but otherwise I can see why it's the mommy mobile of choice for America

[Jake]

Lee, they did a bunch of updates for the "2015.5" model year and that may have been the difference between the Yukon you had and this Suburban. Tow package may also include the magnetic shocks which are +++.

What do you think of rearward visibility?

[WRXtranceformed]

Lee, they did a bunch of updates for the "2015.5" model year and that may have been the difference between the Yukon you had and this Suburban. Tow package may also include the magnetic shocks which are +++.

What do you think of rearward visibility?

That would make sense because this feels like a different car. The suspension is awesome EXCEPT when you go over aggressive speed bumps...I almost got bounced out of my seat. The rearward visibility is pretty dismal unfortunately (I think because of the cabin shape and rear window size) and I found it hard to monitor my blind spots.

One of the trim panels on the driver store started coming loose and flapping like crazy at highway speeds which is obviously annoying but I would give it a 50/50 chance of it actually getting ripped off on the way home.

[WRXtranceformed]

Annnnnd yep! That piece snapped off on the way home at highway speed! The clips holding it on and automotive tape combo didn't seem super well designed, but who knows what originally happened to make it pop out. I won't necessarily hold that against Chevy but I've never seen pillar trim come loose on a new car.

[Sijray21]

I won't necessarily hold that against Chevy but I've never seen pillar trim come loose on a new car.

lol, something fell off of a new car during normal operation. that's pretty ridiculous and amazing.

I hope the rental company doesn't give you any crap for that.

[WRXtranceformed]

Nah I already talked to the mgr we are all good! I'm just glad it didn't hit anyone behind me. I tried to push it back on at a rest stop but the clips weren't designed to be fixed really, at least from what I could tell. The piece snapped off near the bottom, which is crazy...it didn't just rip the whole piece off apparently.