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Landed at OC John Wayne airport last week where Avis had my car ready w/o having to wait in line. The Chevy Cruze LT looked nice enough. It was a basic gray sedan with only a couple thousand miles on it. Basic transportation right? Wrong! Annoying P.O.S. is what it was! I wish they gave me the same VW Jetta I had during my last visit to SoCal.The accelerator pedal on that Chevy Cruze felt like I was modulating a bungee cord under my foot. It had no get up and go. Well maybe a little but only when I floored it. The brakes were grabby. Handling was OK but not as nimble or tossable as the VW Jetta.
And that transmission was a total junker. I'm not sure if it was a real transmission or a CVT faking shifts. I thought I would gain a little more throttle response and performance by taking the transmission out of D for Drive and sliding it down one level to L. There were only two forward positions to choose from, D & L. When I did this from a stop and then accelerated, the engine would just rev all the way up toward redline and never shift. However, if I dropped in down to L from D while already in motion (not from a stop) it would shift and give me a little better throttle response. Weird and quirky.
And talking about weird and quirky, the auto Stop/Start is a royal pain on the Chevy Cruze. It cannot be defeated! I could sometimes force the engine to continue running at a stop but only if I turned ON the air conditioner.
To be fair, the interior materials were pretty good for an inexpensive compact sedan and the technology was up to date with a nice LCD touch display and good integration with my smartphone. But I wouldn't want to drive one again!
How a longed for that VW Jetta Avis gave me during my previous visit to SoCal.
Edits: 05/27/17 05/27/17Follow Ups:
Yeah, I've rented some doozies. The most recent POS was a Chevy Sonic about a year ago. I'd never heard of it. Haven't seen one before or since.
The really scary rental was in El Paso, TX. A Mazda 3. Drove it to Las Cruces, NM, which was the nearest hotel to White Sands Missile Range. Have y'all ever driven over the Organ Mountains in a car that has four toy tires? Yikes!
And, there's the rental in Milwaukee, WI. I don't remember the company. Mighta been Dollar or Budget. Anyway, the girl at the counter was giving me a song and dance, 'cause apparently, they didn't have the car class which I had reserved. 'Course, she didn't tell me that. She was trying to up-sell me to a Chrysler 300 for a nominal fee. I declined. Turns out, I got the 300 anyway!
Ya gotta pay attention - all the time.
:)
Hmm, I thought Mazda was getting lots of praise from the usual auto magazines in recent years. Skinny tires on twisty roads can be a scare.
I had a newer Toyota 4Runner Limited and they put taller 'fancy' wheels on it vs the SR5 and lower models. Unfortunately the wheels and tires were only taller but rather skinny. You could barely go around a corner w/o the tires squealing. And I'm not talking about racing around a corner. The thing just didn't handle well at all and I've owned two older 4Runners in the past that were better. Look at the rear of any recent Toyota 4Runner Limited and tell me those skinny wheels/tires don't look like they belong on a cartoon vehicle!
The rental companies that I've dealt with charge me the same for a larger class vehicle if the class I reserved is truly not available. (But sometimes they will try to talk me into a larger class for only a 'small' nominal charge per day). No thanks.
Trust me, Abe. The Mazda 3 doesn't have toy tires. My kid's came with 215 R45 18s.
-Rod
Ha! Maybe it wasn't a "3". Maybe it was a "1" or whatever.But it had toy tires.
Going down the east side of the Organ Mountains every morning was more than enough to get my brain going.
:)
Edits: 05/28/17
Last rental car I got was a Nissan Versa. I was supposed to get a mid-sized, but Enterprise being the usual Enterprise, the Versa was all they had available.
I guess I've been pretty lucky to be able to have nice(er) cars in my life, 'cause I was just appalled at this thing. Noisy as all hell, ugly and horrendously cheap looking interior, handled like the suspension consisted of warm marshmallows, and didn't have enough power to get out of its own way. Had 16k on the odo, and drove like it had 216k -- at 70 mph, the thing was all over the road and shaking like it was going to blow to pieces. I've driven cheap Kias as rentals, and none were even close to the pile of crap this thing was. I can't believe people would actually spend their own money for something like this -- if funds are limited, go buy a couple year old decent used car. Perhaps Nissan is unaware that people lost interest in Vegas and Pintos about 40 years ago....
I also rented a Versa (hatch) a few years back. It had decent freeway speed, but the motor sounded like it was working overtime. About another thousand rpm more than most other cars out there. It kept up with traffic just fine, but I was glad it was going back soon, before it launched a piston.
Edits: 05/27/17
"When I did this from a stop and then accelerated, the engine would just rev all the way up toward redline and never shift. However, if I dropped in down to L from D while already in motion (not from a stop) it would shift and give me a little better throttle response."
That sounds pretty normal for automatic.
Hmm, I think I was hoping that it would act like a 'sport mode' but I guess that's not how they're supposed to work. I've had 'sport mode' and 'sport plus' in other cars with automatics.
and push the trans to the left.
Edits: 05/27/17
don't you usually driver a Beemer?
Don't feel bad, I have a Chevrolet Aveo (2009 bought new with 3,200 miles on it).
If I had the dough for a Beemer that would be magnificent, a friend of mine had a 2 door 3 something series, totally not the same as a Chevrolet.
Get into a Cadillac next time, you might be impressed :)
No, I drive a Bimmer at home. A Beemer is a BMW motorcycle. :-)
But regardless, within the same price class the VW Jetta was far superior to the Chevy Cruze IMHO. I'll ask for a Jetta the next time and hope they give me one.
lol, that's crazy.
well enjoy your trip, what are you travelling for work?
have a good night try to relax.
I'm back home now. I was in SoCal all last week. Was looking at my Avis bill which triggered my rant. ;-)
Coming from a guy who quit his job it might not mean much but if you were traveling for work and went through that hell I would call in sick Monday. Sounds like you just need some rest. Especially after driving that, sounds like torture from someone used to something else.
Hah!
Also off topic but I got a Snapper hedge trimmer and a Snapper blower that uses the 82v batteries I was telling you about earlier when I bought that mower. All set now.
BMW are beautiful cars ,
Maaaate, we agree, on something, at last!I was initially really pleased to travel for work. Sort of a tick in the right approval box from the management, IYTMMeaning. ? Electronic Commerce Strategy, and Risk Management.
I enjoyed the meetings - which most often consisted of teaching clinicians and managers to do Object Oriented Design and agree on standard models. I like teaching / instructing.
I was tired most of the time, and did NOT sleep well.
Travelling overseas!!??, the recognition of being invited and sent was great but settled to tired and stressed.
And with travel there's always the delayed flight, lost luggage, diversions .....
[United Airlines once landed me into a Washington domestic airport, instead of Baltimore. And, expected me to drive a LHD car to my hotel in Baltimore, at NIGHT!!! ......
'They' gave me a small bus and a driver instead. The sweet little, shouted-down, white-faced dears.
I am a teeny bit ashamed that I let my sergeant-major side out.]
That it was necessary to do it as a change agent in health informatics helped me keep going.
It was amusing that my colleagues, were JEALOUS.
Burn-out was heading my way.
Warmest
Tim Bailey
Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger
Edits: 05/27/17
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