Do they make hire cars gutless for a reason?!

[vrsmxtb]

I know nothings faster than a hire car but...

...every bloody foreign hire car I've had has seemed like it's at least 20bhp down on what it should have.

I'm currently in a 400mile old Hungarian Fiat Linea (basically a Grande Punto with a boot) with a 80bhp 1.4 petrol, which is a fairly decent car actually save it's utterly gutless, thirsty engine.

In Spain we had quite a nice Citroen C5 ruined by it's 1.6diesel engine which couldn't pull the proverbial skin off a rice pudding.

Anyone had a pleasantly surprising, non-exotic hire car with any go to it?

[Dog Star]

Rented a Hertz Seat Leon diesel in Cork a few weeks ago. I thought it went really well - in fact it was a pretty nice car all round. Certainly nobody overtook me

[RP1]

Had a Hyundai i10 about the time they came out as a rental in Greece a few years ago. Was really surprised what a decent car it was and the 1.2 engine seemed pokier than most of the other traffic out there!

[jbi]

idiotic European tax laws mean cars are saddled with engines too small to move them.

Ironically they will get better fuel economy if they just put a proper engine in them in the first place.

[Dr Interceptor]

A few years back in Portugal I had booked the usual Group B car with aircon (Punto/Corsa etc), but on arrival was upgraded to a Peugeot 307/308 estate - it had the 1.6 HDI engine in it, and made progress much more civilised than revving the bks off the usual petrol Punto.

Having said that, there is something alluring about driving a hire car to with a thou of its life.

[seawise]

I got upgraded from a group E Mondeo type car into a brand new BMW 320d last weekend - it was ok i suppose.

[shirt]

i was wondering this the other day. i've got a ford figo [indian made mk5 fiesta] with a 1.4l engine that is total wk. had a 1.8 swift before it which would struggle to crack 100kph.

[GreigM]

Not sure if they still do this, but it wasn't uncommon years ago for fleet purchased cars to have smaller injectors than the regular models - to basically blunt performance and improve longevity in the face of unsympathetic drivers.

[CampDavid]

I'm in Malta at the moment, enjoying the delights of a Clio Campus which appears to require the use of 1st gear a lot more than any other car I've driven. Still a decent enough steer though

[LuS1fer]

I had a Focus 1.4 or 1.6 and it was great. Diesels I hate with a passion anyway.

[McHaggis]

I had the joys of a 3 cylinder 1.2 Polo in Madeira. The island with lots of hills.

At the end of the week I returned it and said it felt very underpowered. The Sixt guy said, "yes they are, but they are standard issue, we keep saying they should only send diesels...'

[Traveller]

We rented a Skoda Octavia diesel in Spain during the volcano mess 2 years ago. It went very well, seldom doing less than 160 Euro Leptons through Spain and France, in fact it topped out at around 180 metric Leptons on a long downhill. It was a pretty decent car and was light on fuel, considering it was WOT most of the way.

[Steve vRS]

GreigM said:

Not sure if they still do this, but it wasn't uncommon years ago for fleet purchased cars to have smaller injectors than the regular models - to basically blunt performance and improve longevity in the face of unsympathetic drivers.

Bobbins.

[FoundOnRoadside]

Rented a car in that foreign land of Manchester, got a 1.4 Mk6 Astra. In SRI trim. 100hp in a 1500kg lard-arse car. fking woeful. Couldn't get over the A628 towards Sheffield without being flat out in 3rd at 50mph and being unable to get past artics on the crawler lanes. Went back the A57 which wasn't much better. Got 28mpg average.

On the other hand, got a beaten to crap 1.2 Clio in Spain, and it went really quite well, even up that mountain that overlooks Benidorm (went to see some huge cave network).

[GoodDoc]

Steve vRS said:

GreigM said:

Not sure if they still do this, but it wasn't uncommon years ago for fleet purchased cars to have smaller injectors than the regular models - to basically blunt performance and improve longevity in the face of unsympathetic drivers.

Bobbins.

Yeah, this doesn't pass the sniff test. Do they fit the smaler injectors at the factory for fleet cars, or when they arrive at the fleet company. What happens when the cars are sold on? Do they then fit new standard injectors or re-install the old ones?

I understand the desire to protect the cars from less than caring customers, but I don't think this wouldn't help — in fact I suspect strangled performance would cause unsympathetic drivers to drive with even less care — and you then have the issue of what to do with a non-standard car.

I suspect that fleet companies will be more concerned about reducing the cost of running their entire fleet than trying to stop the few inevitable 'bad' customers.

[FoundOnRoadside]

I dunno, Dad had an ex-Royal Mail Escort van with the 1.8D. It was really slow, I mean glacially slow. Best it could do was 80mph, and that took about 6 miles flat out. But it did well over 65mpg.

Injectors needed replaced around 120k, on the new injectors it went far, far better and only did 50mpg. Could get towards 100mph without much issue. Injection pump wasn't touched, only the injectors were replaced.

I'd agree that certain fleet vehicles had lower performance engines.

[Mister3man]

Had a hire car through my company once. Brand new insignia Sri 1.8. I thought it would be alright but it was hopeless. Drank fuel, gutless + uncomfortable.

[McHaggis]

FoundOnRoadside said:

I dunno, Dad had an ex-Royal Mail Escort van with the 1.8D. It was really slow, I mean glacially slow. Best it could do was 80mph, and that took about 6 miles flat out. But it did well over 65mpg.
.

I think Royal Mail and UPS vans might be an exception to the rule - aren't they a custom spec? I suspect for fleets like RM (100k vehicles?) the would do a custom engine mapping / modification as there is a benefit of fleet size? But not for regular company fleets.

[eltax91]

GoodDoc said:

Steve vRS said:

GreigM said:

Not sure if they still do this, but it wasn't uncommon years ago for fleet purchased cars to have smaller injectors than the regular models - to basically blunt performance and improve longevity in the face of unsympathetic drivers.

Bobbins.

Yeah, this doesn't pass the sniff test. Do they fit the smaler injectors at the factory for fleet cars, or when they arrive at the fleet company. What happens when the cars are sold on? Do they then fit new standard injectors or re-install the old ones?

I understand the desire to protect the cars from less than caring customers, but I don't think this wouldn't help — in fact I suspect strangled performance would cause unsympathetic drivers to drive with even less care — and you then have the issue of what to do with a non-standard car.

I suspect that fleet companies will be more concerned about reducing the cost of running their entire fleet than trying to stop the few inevitable 'bad' customers.

Hire car companies car not for the life of the engine, nor how it's treated in it's early days, they keep them for 6 months/ 10k miles anyway. Buying nationally means they achieve economies of scale, so when they move them on their is little/ no loss on depreciation.

Fleet may be different. My mum's company has all their Diesel fleet cars "mapped" for economy before giving them to employee's. They also install data loggers in the pool cars and anyone breaking a known use policy (usually outside working hours) or breaking limits etc is reprimanded. They see the use of cars as part of their corporate image. They are a family owned printing company that trades on their "green" credentials and have hooked some internationally recognized clients on this reputation. So I guess the tale of smaller injectors could ring true for some fleet bosses.

[GreigM]

GoodDoc said:

Yeah, this doesn't pass the sniff test. Do they fit the smaler injectors at the factory for fleet cars, or when they arrive at the fleet company. What happens when the cars are sold on? Do they then fit new standard injectors or re-install the old ones?

Perhaps anecdotal evidence, but I was told by a Rover main dealer that this was the case. Fitted at factory, never removed - hence why my ex-fleet rover at the time had smaller than standard injectors for that engine. He said it was a common "fix" for them and he believed at least Vauxhall at the time offered the same "feature" to fleet buyers.