Modern hire car horrors

[Hanuman]

I worry that certain varieties of vegetation are still considered verboten!

[John.]

Originally Posted by The Real MSH!

I worry that certain varieties of vegetation are still considered verboten!

Depends on what you do with said vegetation I suppose.

[mackenzie50]

I don't get hire cars too often but our works' pool vehicles are in varying states of recent/newness- I've done 44,000mls in my Focus estate from new and we have Rangers too, but the seats are awful, and were awful from the very start -I have a bad back and these modern carseats torture me!..It's a relief and a joy to slip back into either my S2 or equally ancient Toyota(!)Hilux seats...

[msh]

Originally Posted by The Real MSH!

Oh, I don't know. The Internet is littered with youtube compilations of people who have no idea what the car is doing.
My younger brother survived his teens by simple luck, I believe, because he had no notion of when a car was reaching the limit, and that is something that applies to the vast majority of people.

How many accidents have folk avoided just by knowing what is happening around them. I've dodged dozens, at least. And yet you still see people oblivious to an ambulance with flashing lights and a blaring siren trying get by.

My point was that car which has better handling and better NVH properties and likely turbocharged engine which requires less effort to accelerate, is more likely to promote fast driving. Would you be tempted to disobey speed limits in a wobbly car with an engine that requires hard revving to accelerate? I, on the other hand, usually [rarely ] driving relatively weak NA petrol engined cars, have found myself driving @ 90 kmph in a city, where 50 kmph is allowed, just because I was driving in a C4 A6 2.5 TDI, where rather small press on accelerator still required enough torque from ECU to accelerate from 60 to 90

Crazy stunts are totally different thing. I, coming from law obeying family, having been raised by mother, school teacher, have always found amazing what more "wild" folks tend to do with old cars, mostly vw's and opels. For example, last weekend I spent in christian youth camp and ended up spending last night while chatting with four other guys mostly about cars [instead of sleeping ], two of them were that kind of people and could tell a lot of adventures and experience while doing crazy things, also, one of them was experienced in crazy stunts, like driving car sideways between two threes, which are spaced just slightly more apart than length of the car, or doing a couple of 360 degree turns on wide gravel road while driving @ 120 kmph, without crashing and ending that stunt still driving forward @ 60 kmph. I doubt I would have guts to even try something of that

[leggy]

Originally Posted by mackenzie50

...I have a bad back and these modern carseats torture me!.....

Sorry to hear that!...
The Toyota seats played havoc with my lower back, and whilst the Astra's seats seemed better initially, the pains in my right shoulder blade are telling me otherwise, so I can certainly relate to your wanting to slip back in to your S2, or in my case, my 80.

[leggy]

Originally Posted by msh

...one of them was experienced in crazy stunts, like driving car sideways between two threes, which are spaced just slightly more apart than length of the car, or doing a couple of 360 degree turns on wide gravel road while driving @ 120 kmph, without crashing and ending that stunt still driving forward @ 60 kmph. I doubt I would have guts to even try something of that

I'd have the guts, providing that I had the correct training, but with 'some' modern cars having the ability to be able to park themselves nowadays, it won't be too long before the stunt drivers and the aforementioned stunts become a thing of the past...all rather sad really!

[leggy]

A wee update on the Astra...

I phoned the hire company yet again on Tuesday morning to tell them about the 'change engine oil soon' warning light. They didn't seem too concerned about it, just thanked me for letting them know, so no more swapzies for me, and only a few more days to go before I hand the Astra back to them anyway. In the meantime, I'm kind of getting used to driving the Astra now, I least I have more control over it that it has of me, but as stated above, I'll be soooo glad when I can slip back in to my comfy 80's driver seat once more.

[F6RTY]

Hired this out of LAX on Friday. Today, just outside of Las Vegas after driving through Red Rock Canyon it packed up. Got recovered to McCarran Airport where thankfully they keep Hertz 'Adrenaline Collection' cars and they issued me with another. The truck took an hour and a half to arrive and he got lost finding the rentals place but Hertz were on the ball and I was away in no time. I'd spotted a few Penske Racing Mustangs just in case they were out of Challengers!

These cars do go quite well! 5.7 litre Hemi and 375hp.

'Old' R/T in Red Rock Canyon:



New one in Las Vegas:



Alan

[John.]

Originally Posted by F6RTY

Sweet!

Didn't you want an Avensis?!

[F6RTY]

Didn't you want an Avensis?!

Dear John,

No.

I'd rather walk.

Luv, Alan


In all fairness it probably would be more reliable and give better 'gas' mileage.