Drivng two perfectly ordinary rental cars for a month...
Discussion
One Japanese, one American.
It would be nice to report on the rental Nissan GTR vs the Corvette C8. Maybe another time.
No, this was a month with a Chevrolet Malibu and a Nissan Versa from Hertz . Normal DD type cars, roughly similar in price, with about 30,000km on each of them. The last time I bought a new Japanese car was 1979 and my last American purchase was in 1997 apart from a Jeep which is a different animal. Lots of catching up to do. I though I might was well try these cars as normal daily drivers, so mixed highway and city driving. No acceleration times, track performance or the like.
(1) CHEVROLET MALIBU.
All black, it looks like a police car and I had the urge to stop other cars and issue traffic warnings.
Fit and finish:
The seats were soft and flabby, and controls cheap and plasticky and the headlights were not great. It did have bluetooth and AppleTalk so at least could be connected. Interestingly GM has announced that they are developing their own interface instead of AppleTalk which will be superior. This seems blockheaded to me. My own modern cars all have AppleTalk so no sweat moving from one car to another.
Seat heaters worked in the cold weather but seem to heat a narrow central strip of the seat. Rear window heater takes twice as long as on my own cars to be effective. Overall I had the impression that the cost accountants had been hard at work to balance providing features while doing at the lowest possible cost. The car rattled and squeaked and just felt like a cheap used car.
Driving:
It is quiet enough but brakes were grabby , especially in reverse where the slightest touch on the brake pedal felt like jamming on. . In light snow the ABS came on alarmingly often. I drive in these conditions frequently and never have this in other cars.Overall it is a fairly vague car to drive and I think it well illustrates why the domestic manufacturers lost the battle except for SUVs and trucks.
The one odd feature I liked:
The car has rear seat sensors and signals when the driver's door is opened that there is something on the back seat. In the city with a lot of car thefts this is quite handy.
NISSAN VERSA
Notably smaller than the Malibu the Versa came in a nice shade of blue and had excellent paintwork.
Fit and Finish:
No comparison. The car felt like new inside, switchgear was functional and tidy, (mainly buttons, thank Heavens- I am sick of the gloss buttons and screens in my own cars that end up covered in fingerprints).
Seats were much more comfortable, heaters worked well and quickly. A very handy set of phone connection and charge points were grouped underneath the dash. In general everything did not gave an impression of cheapness.
Driving:
It is not a Ferrari but there is enough performance for city and highway driving. Very quiet, a bit buzzy under harder acceleration, and steering was precise and turning circle quite tight. I could easily see this a a perfectly reasonable commuter car and it is small enough for the city.
One thing I disliked is that the sharply raked windscreen reflects the glare from the top of the dash in bright sunlight so it feels as if there is a haze ahead, though this does not happen otherwise. They need the change the finish of of the dash to be completely matte.
The one odd feature I liked:
If you forget to lock the car it gives you a quick beep as you walk away to remind you to lock up.
Overall the car is a very satisfactory DD, and hugely better than the Malibu.
Of course, my experience of living with Japanese or American cars is severely dated;
My last new Japanese car was this Celica that I bought in 1979, while my last American sedan was this Olds Aurora V8 from 1997, which felt a lot better quality than the modern Malibu.
Evidently if I had to choose one of the modern cars it would be the Nissan in a walk. Just interesting to try something quite different from my DDs.
It would be nice to report on the rental Nissan GTR vs the Corvette C8. Maybe another time.
No, this was a month with a Chevrolet Malibu and a Nissan Versa from Hertz . Normal DD type cars, roughly similar in price, with about 30,000km on each of them. The last time I bought a new Japanese car was 1979 and my last American purchase was in 1997 apart from a Jeep which is a different animal. Lots of catching up to do. I though I might was well try these cars as normal daily drivers, so mixed highway and city driving. No acceleration times, track performance or the like.
(1) CHEVROLET MALIBU.
All black, it looks like a police car and I had the urge to stop other cars and issue traffic warnings.
Fit and finish:
The seats were soft and flabby, and controls cheap and plasticky and the headlights were not great. It did have bluetooth and AppleTalk so at least could be connected. Interestingly GM has announced that they are developing their own interface instead of AppleTalk which will be superior. This seems blockheaded to me. My own modern cars all have AppleTalk so no sweat moving from one car to another.
Seat heaters worked in the cold weather but seem to heat a narrow central strip of the seat. Rear window heater takes twice as long as on my own cars to be effective. Overall I had the impression that the cost accountants had been hard at work to balance providing features while doing at the lowest possible cost. The car rattled and squeaked and just felt like a cheap used car.
Driving:
It is quiet enough but brakes were grabby , especially in reverse where the slightest touch on the brake pedal felt like jamming on. . In light snow the ABS came on alarmingly often. I drive in these conditions frequently and never have this in other cars.Overall it is a fairly vague car to drive and I think it well illustrates why the domestic manufacturers lost the battle except for SUVs and trucks.
The one odd feature I liked:
The car has rear seat sensors and signals when the driver's door is opened that there is something on the back seat. In the city with a lot of car thefts this is quite handy.
NISSAN VERSA
Notably smaller than the Malibu the Versa came in a nice shade of blue and had excellent paintwork.
Fit and Finish:
No comparison. The car felt like new inside, switchgear was functional and tidy, (mainly buttons, thank Heavens- I am sick of the gloss buttons and screens in my own cars that end up covered in fingerprints).
Seats were much more comfortable, heaters worked well and quickly. A very handy set of phone connection and charge points were grouped underneath the dash. In general everything did not gave an impression of cheapness.
Driving:
It is not a Ferrari but there is enough performance for city and highway driving. Very quiet, a bit buzzy under harder acceleration, and steering was precise and turning circle quite tight. I could easily see this a a perfectly reasonable commuter car and it is small enough for the city.
One thing I disliked is that the sharply raked windscreen reflects the glare from the top of the dash in bright sunlight so it feels as if there is a haze ahead, though this does not happen otherwise. They need the change the finish of of the dash to be completely matte.
The one odd feature I liked:
If you forget to lock the car it gives you a quick beep as you walk away to remind you to lock up.
Overall the car is a very satisfactory DD, and hugely better than the Malibu.
Of course, my experience of living with Japanese or American cars is severely dated;
My last new Japanese car was this Celica that I bought in 1979, while my last American sedan was this Olds Aurora V8 from 1997, which felt a lot better quality than the modern Malibu.
Evidently if I had to choose one of the modern cars it would be the Nissan in a walk. Just interesting to try something quite different from my DDs.
Thanks for the post, seems under-appreciated for some reason!
The Nissan looks like a great car for "do it all" transport. Not available in the UK and in fact we are really limited in terms of smaller sedans/hatchbacks that are lightweight, simple and easy to drive but big enough to carry a family in relative comfort.
The Nissan looks like a great car for "do it all" transport. Not available in the UK and in fact we are really limited in terms of smaller sedans/hatchbacks that are lightweight, simple and easy to drive but big enough to carry a family in relative comfort.
Tiglon said:
If it's genuinely useful to have a sensor to tell you that there's a murderer waiting for you on the back seat, I would recommend moving somewhere less murdery.
I think he means for detecting backpacks / other stuff before you get out of the car. In SF they’ll smash your windows to steal a $1 bill that’s on display. 
I like your review - I've thought before that Pistonheads should have a dedicated thread where folks could pop in and leave a mini-review of their car(s), or in this case, cars they've got some experience of. Not full road tests, just the basics and impressions that you've done here. Would be pretty interesting I think.
How about it Mods?
(Yes, I know Readers' cars exists, but isn't the best fit for 'mini reviews' in my opinion).
How about it Mods?
(Yes, I know Readers' cars exists, but isn't the best fit for 'mini reviews' in my opinion).
My F30 BMW has rear seat sensors. Essentially it lights a seat belt image in the instrument cluster, it has sensed there is a weight on the back seat (usually my heavy coat) and the seat belts are not latched - I imagined that was a fairly common feature on some cars. Useful, because in the U.K. the driver is responsible for children 13 years or under being safely restrained.
jhonn said:
I've thought before that Pistonheads should have a dedicated thread where folks could pop in and leave a mini-review of their car(s)
I've thought similar, although perhaps a sub-forum where members could start threads about 'regular' cars they own or have driven. Kind of like the Top Gear of old, where Willie Woolard (et al) would do sensible reviews of the sort of cars that 95% of the population own and drive. 2Btoo said:
I've thought similar, although perhaps a sub-forum where members could start threads about 'regular' cars they own or have driven. Kind of like the Top Gear of old, where Willie Woolard (et al) would do sensible reviews of the sort of cars that 95% of the population own and drive.
It’s natural to be more interested in the sporty or luxury cars (and I am no exception) but I thought would be worthwhile to do something less exotic. Personally I love threads where someone works on an old car of no great value and brings it back to life for instance.I am not advocating any reduction in Ferrari threads
2Btoo said:
I've thought similar, although perhaps a sub-forum where members could start threads about 'regular' cars they own or have driven. Kind of like the Top Gear of old, where Willie Woolard (et al) would do sensible reviews of the sort of cars that 95% of the population own and drive.
A sub-forum sounds good; though I was thinking more of Doug Demuro type reviews (written though), where an owner could write about driving impressions, likes/dislikes, reliability, quirks, nice touches/glaring omissions, does it do what is says on the tin, etc.I've always enjoyed hearing actual owners/drivers first-hand experiences; could be useful for anyone planning an expensive purchase!
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