What's the best holiday hire car you've had?

What's the best holiday hire car you've had?

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Blackbird425

Original Poster:

1,885 posts

104 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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Just had a 318d hire car in Spain for a fortnight. Massively impressed with it. Motorway refinement exceptional, 1000km on a tank (a Euro a litre too) and plenty of poke. Superb nav and Bluetooth connectivity. Even has Rev matching on the downshift. Only negatives a relatively weak stereo and it seems a little easy to get the traction light on with what I presume are low rolling resistance tyres.


rallycross

12,747 posts

236 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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Toyota GT86 from Herz in Auz.
Was booked to have a budget hatch like a Yaris and when I saw they had a GT86 in the car park and they agreed to an upgrade for a nominal fee I had to have they keys.

4 days and 1.000 km later I was left unimpressed by the Gt86 which I was expecting to love but was frustratingly gutless.

037

1,315 posts

146 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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I always get a rubbish one! There could be 100 cars in the car park and I can guarantee I will be shown to the crappest!

telecat

8,528 posts

240 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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Chevrolet Camaro in Florida. Not the best place to have it but it went very well.

dxg

8,127 posts

259 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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Ordered an estate car, got a VW Touran which was really good, if a little dull. Then someone drove into the side of it when it was parked up, which is a whole other story...

Another time, I ordered a hatchback class, and a BMW 1 series turned up. Managed to get torque and hp gauges up on the infotainment screen - do they all have that feature?

h0b0

7,559 posts

195 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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VW toureag or Volvo XC90. Bloody kids. We should have a thread on what hire cars have you had to turn down because of having kids.

Warmfuzzies

3,962 posts

252 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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C7 Corvette. Two weeks in May this year, Orlando destination. $728 all in. Superb.

Edited by Warmfuzzies on Sunday 26th June 18:09

Speed addicted

5,562 posts

226 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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Its a close thing between the 5.0 mustang in New York state or the battered Landcruiser with studded winter tyres we got in Iceland! Loved them both, and didn't want to give either back.
Landcruiser! by Brent Leport, on Flickr

RammyMP

6,729 posts

152 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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I had a Dodge Charger in Florida a couple of years ago, it sounded good but wasn't the quickest!

tog

4,517 posts

227 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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Lincoln Town Car for a fortnight in California on our honeymoon a few years ago. Dreadful car, but exactly what we I wanted - comfy, wafty, bargey.

JakeT

5,406 posts

119 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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Cadillac Deville mk8 in the States a while ago. Northstar V8 coupled to a 4spd auto trans and it was a proper land boat. Made an S class feel light and nimble by comparison. Very comfortable while driving the entire length of California, and back seat room was massive.

vikingaero

10,256 posts

168 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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Landed at LAX to see a sign at Alamo: "Ask us about our special summer deals on Lexus".

"What's your deals on Lexus?" I enquired.

Tap tap tappety tap and she announced an upgrade to a GS300 would be £8 per day. Sold!

Then a couple of days later I had a blow out on the freeway. Changed the wheel in 35C heat and drove to LAX to ask for a spare as we were going to Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, Vegas, Death Valley and a load of National Parks.

They didn't do spare tires (see what I did there) and offered me an alternative car a Lexus LS400.

I had another LS400 in SFO when the hotel valet knocked the door off on a car park pillar...

f1nn

2,692 posts

191 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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Blackbird425 said:
Just had a 318d hire car in Spain for a fortnight. Massively impressed with it. Motorway refinement exceptional, 1000km on a tank (a Euro a litre too) and plenty of poke. Superb nav and Bluetooth connectivity. Even has Rev matching on the downshift. Only negatives a relatively weak stereo and it seems a little easy to get the traction light on with what I presume are low rolling resistance tyres.

You are doing this wrong mate...it's a low powered diesel 3 series, there will be a hundred or so people along shortly with their pitch forks to burn you at the stake for suggesting it is a perfectly reasonable form of transport.

deltashad

6,731 posts

196 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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At the risk of being hung and shot in the head, had a lot of rentals and my favourite which I always hope for is a 1 series BMW.

spookly

4,012 posts

94 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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About 10 years ago I got a delivery miles Merc E320 in Pisa for £180 for the week :-)

Used a British Airways Gold card to get a 15% discount, and get two car classes above the one I paid for. Paid 15% off Golf/Focus money for an E class.

DamnKraut

456 posts

98 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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Now this is an unusual suggestion.

Best fun I had was in 15 or so year old Nissan Bluebird when travelling through New Zealand. It was a budget rental (15 quid a day or so) from a local rental car company where the guy at the rental car office just marked "scratches all over car" in the protocal and told me to bring it back in one piece.

Drove it in a not so gentle manner which showed after a few days when a stone chip in the windscreen developed to a full blow crack... so much for chassis rigidity laugh

So much more fun driving an old bucket then a brand new 30k car where the rental car company is picky about every little scratch.

Here's a pic of the Nissan:


Yacht Broker

3,158 posts

266 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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I am in the US right now driving coast-to-coast (East to West).

Here is my humble little hire car rented through Avis.

Brand new (ie. less than 200 miles on it when I picked it up) Maserati Ghibli Twin Turbo.





Best not ask the cost, especially factoring in the 'One way hire' supplement.

Sounds the nuts in sports mode. The yanks can't get enough of it. I've been stopped so many times by people wanting to know what it is etc

Baryonyx

17,990 posts

158 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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Buick LaCrosse 3.6 V6 in America. It was really nice. Just a well specced Insignia really, with a decent engine, plenty of toys and a really nice dark stained ash wood finished interior. Perfect for touring between Maryland and Virginia. The spring and damper rates must be different too, as it rode very well, despite being on big wheels. Far better than any Insignia I've been in.

edo

16,699 posts

264 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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Blackbird425

Original Poster:

1,885 posts

104 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
quotequote all
Another one I had. Never felt anything like the claimed 300 and a bit bhp. Good fun nonetheless