Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo

[Jake]

Well where are you going? Pick up car in DC?

Yeah, DC or Arlington. Heading to PA for the weekend.


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[ViPER1313]

https://turo.com/rentals/cars/va/alexand...s=VskM_0V3

[ViPER1313]

Actually F that, here you go https://turo.com/rentals/cars/va/arlingt...s=VskM_0V3

[JPolen01]

I like Adam's 2nd idea. Also,
https://turo.com/rentals/cars/va/alexand...s=JTDoZcCg

https://turo.com/rentals/cars/md/rockvil...s=JTDoZcCg

[.RJ]

Shame I sold the 135, you could have rented that for a 6-pack.

[Apoc]

Shame I sold the 135, you could have rented that for a 6-pack.

... and you woulda had a second car when all your shit breaks.

[.RJ]

Shame I sold the 135, you could have rented that for a 6-pack.

... and you woulda had a second car when all your shit breaks.

[JPolen01]

After a few calls to Honda NA and some pretty good bitching at them they caved and said if I wait a week and a half they will give me a loaner for the entire time the car is in the body shop. I can wait a month to save $300 on a rental.

It pays to complain!!

[Jake]

Nice, Jon!

Whoever suggested I spend 500 miles on the highway in an Alfa 4C... put down the crack pipe. I don't fit in one well, at all... would rather borrow my dad's Miata (which I also don't fit in).

[ScottyB]

After a few calls to Honda NA and some pretty good bitching at them they caved and said if I wait a week and a half they will give me a loaner for the entire time the car is in the body shop. I can wait a month to save $300 on a rental.

It pays to complain!!

aaaay nice job, damn right they should cover you.  

super jealous you get to take advantage of the paint recall, and be sure you scrutinize the shop's work.  i always regretted not doing a more thorough inspection on my 2.5RS when it got a new hood, the shop did an awful job on the metallic mix and i didn't call them out on it because i was in a rush and just wanted to be gone.

[WRXtranceformed]

So I won the rental car lottery on my week long west coast work trip. I show up in Spokane late and they're mostly sold out. The girl tells me I can have a Jeep Compass, a truck, or a Camaro. You know which one your boy chose. What surprised me was that it was the SS trim when I walked outside:




What I liked:
1. Having a car like that to drive through the rolling hills of the Palouse
2. The engine and transmission - these modern muscle cars definitely have the power level dialed in. In Sport and Track mode, I really didn't experience much of the crappy GM TCU programming. It shifted quick and well. And 8 speeds with an engine with that much power? My Lord when you slam the go pedal you never lose torque
3. The handling through turns - I can see why this platform did well at the Nurburging. It feels super planted through high speed turns and really wants to turn in. I give it high praise here even with my rental example having obvious alignment issues (the steering wheel was permanently tilted about 8*)
4. The sound - Remote starting this thing every morning made me laugh. My CEO told me my boss needed to check my expense reports (jokingly, he's a car guy). I was getting what I think was getting some weird backfire vibration on hard downshifts but no cool burbles, I got spoiled from the Jag. That's my only gripe is moar backfire

What I didn't like:
1. Visiblity - It's borderline dangerous. You've got like maybe 6 vertical inches out of the back window, really no visibility into your blind spots, super tiny mirrors and a windshield that I think really could be extended up much higher. If you are first or second at a stoplight, you can't see whether it changed or not without leaning past the steering wheel. To actually own this car in a not-rural area, you would IMO have to either get a package that gives you blind spot monitoring or buy the convertible and keep the top down as much as possible
2. The interior is pretty weirdly laid out. The touch screen actually angles down and away from the driver which is really weird and pointless to me. Seats are just OK. The sound system sounded like there was only one speaker and it was behind the touch screen.
3. SUPER dusty brakes. I noticed it just from a few days of driving
4. While the handling is very good, the car does not feel stable or safe on uneven pavement or when hit with minor road bumps. Which leads to:
5. Overall it's pretty unrefined, which would probably be my argument for most American muscle cars. I think if you've never driven a high horsepower German or British coupe/sedan and jumped into one of these, you'd probably think it was fast AF (which it is) and the best performance car on the road. But when you've experienced a world class suspension and complete drivetrain package that comes along with cars in the next tier price point, you really understand why there's such a big price gap. In other words, this is the type of car that I would not want to drive across country in, through all manner of road quality and weather. I would have done it in the XFR in a heartbeat.

Speaking of which, some random guy in Charlotte messaged me on Facebook and said he bought my old XFR from the guy I sold it to down in Greenville. He found my name from the service records. He said it was well cared for and still running like a champion, I told him I'd give him a thumbs up if I see him around town.

The SS was fun for a week though and it made that trip across WA / ID a lot more enjoyable

[ScottyB]

i'd love to hoon an SS but sad to hear they didn't get the chassis as right as they should have on the newest model from your reports. i love the way they look in blue.

that's so cool the Jag is back in town and still ripping 11's at the occasional stoplight, hopefully. that was definitely one of your coolest, possibly THE coolest car you've had in your stable.

[Sully]

Sounds like there was an issue with the sound system. Someone played with the settings maybe and had only the center channel turned up or factory amp blown?

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[WRXtranceformed]

Sounds like there was an issue with the sound system. Someone played with the settings maybe and had only the center channel turned up or factory amp blown?

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This thing had been ridden hard and put away wet (literally,  there were splatters of white paint on the driver's side) so it's very possible

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i'd love to hoon an SS but sad to hear they didn't get the chassis as right as they should have on the newest model from your reports.  i love the way they look in blue.

that's so cool the Jag is back in town and still ripping 11's at the occasional stoplight, hopefully.  that was definitely one of your coolest, possibly THE coolest car you've had in your stable.

I think it would be fine to hoon on a perfectly manicured track, but it wouldn't be my first choice for backroads hoonigans.

And brother, I agree.   That was my favorite to date 

[Jake]

I took the truck in for a few warranty-related things last week and they gave me a 2016 Focus SE as a loaner. It had 27k miles, Ford's 2.0L N/A four-cylinder making some amount of horsepower, and the PowerShift DCT transmission. God damn, Ford really screwed the pooch with these stupid cars. PowerShift came out in 2012 with this generation of Focus, it sucked from day one, and it still sucks now. They took a different approach than VW's DSG and it eats clutches. Mine would slip and stutter, every time I left a stoplight in 1st, with just 27k miles on the odometer.

Had a hard time getting comfortable in it, too. The distance/relationship between wheel, seat, pedals was all kinda off for my body. Anyway, it got 30+ mpg in Beltway commuter traffic but overall it was not very good. See DJ, I can hate on Ford when it's deserved.

Also, black wheels look like ass on any car.

[ViPER1313]

Also, black wheels look like ass on any car.

Fight me bro.

[JPolen01]

The black with the red looks especially heinous.

[ViPER1313]

The black with the red looks especially heinous.

Come at me bro!

[Apoc]

That's kinda the look I'd be going for on the GTI - I like it.

[Jake]

If you're going to have black wheels, thus making the design of your fancy alloys hard to see, why not just get steelies and save the rest of us from some eye strain?

Silver/gray/etc all pop really nicely, black does not.