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My rental car ratings - 2012

Don Vito Corleone

Don Vito Corleone

Elite
So this year I have rented several cars, both due to travel for work and because my car has been hit, twice, while parked, and thus I was given loaners while body work was being performed. My thoughts and ratings:

2011 Chevy HHR: I don't know how else to say it - this is an awful car in all respects. I know it's an older design, but so is my 330i (though of course I am not comparing the two directly, since they operate in totally different market spaces and price points). It was buzzy, uncomfortable, handled poorly, and was all around the worst car I have driven in years. Also my particular example seemed to have led a hard life - the alignment was off. Overall I give this a D.

2012 Hyundai Sonata: Overall, not a bad highway cruiser. This was the only one of the cars with Bluetooth and iPod connectivity, and generally it worked fine for my needs. I actually drove this car about 300 miles over two days and it worked well. Not a ton of power, and the interior's execution and materials really don't live up to the swoopiness of the exterior. Solid B-.

2012 Nissan Versa S hatchback: I ended up in this because my assistant somehow inadvertently got me a compact car. Believe me, she heard about it! :~) I honestly didn't know that, in the year 2012, one could still buy a car with manual windows and door locks, but apparently you can. Together with a 122-bhp engine and a 4-speed automatic, this was not a fun ride in any respect, and felt just like a stripper rental car circa 1990. That being said, it was competently built and should hold up OK. It may not even be fair to letter-grade the car in that it was a smaller, more stripped down car than the others, but I will anyway - I give it a D+.

2012 Nissan Maxima: This was the best of the cars overall. Very good power, and I love that VQ exhaust note. I actually kind of like the Nissan implementation of an always-in-your-pocket automatic keyless system better than my BMW's Comfort Access. This is a fast highway car and does very well in that environment. On the downside, the styling looks strange to my eyes, the giant monochrome LCD screen on non-nav cars (like mine) is goofy, the CVT feels really weird compared to a conventional transmission, and the car's sporting pretensions are revealed to be, well, pretensions as soon as you try to corner with any kind of speed. This car gets a B.

2012 Chevy Impala: Just dropped this off this morning (and it was really the car that inspired this thread). What a disappointment! Isn't this supposed to be able to compete with the Accord, Camry and Sonata? In practice, it's fairly quick on the freeway but absolutely hates to turn, and the steering wheel is as floaty and disconnected from the road as any I have felt in my 25 years behind the wheel. The ergonomics are dumb for such a traditional car (Why put the wiper controls on the turn signal stalk instead of having another stalk? Why no gear indicator markers alongside the shift lever?) The interior looks decent in photos, but as soon as you get in, you realize that the leather-textured surface of the entire dash and nearly all of the interior you are actually touching (including where your left hand rests if not on the wheel) is hard, hollow plastic. There is a ton of fake wood that, again, could photograph well but in practice it looks completely phony. Similarly, the lining of the pillars looks like the fabric headliner, but when you touch it, it's actually hard plastic molded with the texture of fabric. This car feels nasty and cheap with 15K miles on it, and God knows how much rattling and squeaking the future will hold. I would have more confidence in the stripped-out Versa in that respect. Speaking as a taxpaying American this car makes me sad. I give it a C-.
 
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I want to add to this...

my rental car / loaner cars ( a lot of them were rentals that i got as loaners) of the last 2 years. All of these have been because my car was in for service , or in the shop for being broken in some way except 1 that was for business.

2011 yaris sedan, automatic base model.
this car has 103 hp. it feels kind of weird because the seating position is high, and the windshield is huge. does have a ton of visibility. the gauges are center mounted since toyota wanted to save money building left and right hand drive on the same dash. that is a little odd too. it drives like most toyotas which is very floaty but pretty overassisted and effortless. pretty roomy. engine sounds like maybe broken electric shaver and thrashes like crazy. the 4 speed automatic is terrible and gear hunts a lot from a stop, and at higher speeds takes a bit to downshift. again it has 103 hp and is pretty slow. the best thing i can say about it is a car, but i'd probably question the intelligence of anyone who bought one as theres better new cars for same price. this had manual windows, and door locks just like the OP's versa. its pretty much the worst car you can buy on the market new right now.

F

2010 corolla. This drives also like that yaris at least feel wise. but it was pretty normal looking and the windshield wasnt huge and it had a more normal driving position. i'd say it felt slightly less cheaply made. like most toyotas the center stack plastic was pretty terrible (honda / nissan / mazda for japanese cars make much much better plastics generally, though the new civic is awful). that said this car was much more liveable as the transmission wasnt nearly as bad as the yaris one, and it had somethign like 130 hp so it wasnt completely terrible on a freeway. it was still a 4 speed auto , which is ancient these days, but at least it didnt feel like it had to gear hunt as much.

D

2012 impala "LT". I think the LT stood for limited. so i think this is the same car the OP drove. but i was driving this around when i got in a fender bender and had to get a new front bumper cover on my normal car. that said, this car wasn't really too bad. it had some sort of fake pleather, and sufficient power that i didn't feel like i really had to plan say freeway merges or passings like say in the yaris which takes a bit of effort. the impala had sirius and had a trunk big enough to probably store an entire family in. now i can't really say much about GM fwd handling, but for such a big car it basically felt floaty and comfortable. basically drove like a toyota. so yeah GM = toyota. granted i think the impala competes with the avalon so the avalon is probably better, but it wasnt like it was awful. it had sirius radio which was well the best thing about it. I remember distinctly thinking that if i didn't really caer about cars,given how cheap impalas were that i'd probably be totally happy with this car for what it would likely cost to buy.

C+

2009 camry hybrid. rented this with a coworker in oregon. now, it was the "premium" rental and i didnt even drive it just sat in it with my coworker. first off for a car that was like $30k (granted a lot was the hybridness) it was pretty crappy inside. center stack plastics were terrible like rustoleum painted "silver". i think you'd do better in almost any other midsize competitor (malibu, fusion, altima, accord are all nicer inside). it drove typically toyota like which is well numb and soulless. you could hear the regenerative braking make its regeneration sounds and my coworker said the braking was very non linear. he also mentioned that he drove a v6 honda oddessey and that was more fun to drive. C

2008 audi a4 s-line FWD cvt.

got this as a loaner once. now i drive a 2010 model with quattro. only had this for an hour as it was for some maintenance . all i can say is if you sit in a b7 a4 and a b8 a4, the interior is much more well modern looking in the new ones. its not hugely different to drive than the new ones, but this being a non quattro it would plow a bit more if you really pushed it. the suspension seemed to be a little more floaty, but it was a loaner car that people probably had beat on. i only really did this once since i drove it for like 20 min.
 
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The main reason I bought my Maxima was the engine and the way it drives. Camry is boring and numb, the Accord isn't much better, and American cars were shit in 2003.

After 9 years and 120,000 miles I don't want to set it on fire every time I get in it. I guess that says something about the car. It is still comfortable and drives well... and it is paid for.

Frankly, none of the cars listed in this thread so far are on my list of cars to eventually replace my aging Maxima... not even the new Maxima. I just don't care for the look of the newer models.
 
JulesMaximus said:
The main reason I bought my Maxima was the engine and the way it drives. Camry is boring and numb, the Accord isn't much better, and American cars were shit in 2003.

After 9 years and 120,000 miles I don't want to set it on fire every time I get in it. I guess that says something about the car. It is still comfortable and drives well... and it is paid for.

Frankly, none of the cars listed in this thread so far are on my list of cars to eventually replace my aging Maxima... not even the new Maxima. I just don't care for the look of the newer models.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I had a 2001 Maxima SE with 5MT and it was fine for what it was. Good freeway car and fairly fun to drive as long as you weren't really asking it to handle and weren't in a situation where its ginormous turning circle was a problem.
 
Don Vito Corleone said:
So this year I have rented several cars, both due to travel for work and because my car has been hit, twice, while parked, and thus I was given loaners while body work was being performed. My thoughts and ratings:

2011 Chevy HHR: I don't know how else to say it - this is an awful car in all respects. I know it's an older design, but so is my 330i (though of course I am not comparing the two directly, since they operate in totally different market spaces and price points). It was buzzy, uncomfortable, handled poorly, and was all around the worst car I have driven in years. Also my particular example seemed to have led a hard life - the alignment was off. Overall I give this a D.

2012 Hyundai Sonata: Overall, not a bad highway cruiser. This was the only one of the cars with Bluetooth and iPod connectivity, and generally it worked fine for my needs. I actually drove this car about 300 miles over two days and it worked well. Not a ton of power, and the interior's execution and materials really don't live up to the swoopiness of the exterior. Solid B-.

2012 Nissan Versa S hatchback: I ended up in this because my assistant somehow inadvertently got me a compact car. Believe me, she heard about it! :~) I honestly didn't know that, in the year 2012, one could still buy a car with manual windows and door locks, but apparently you can. Together with a 122-bhp engine and a 4-speed automatic, this was not a fun ride in any respect, and felt just like a stripper rental car circa 1990. That being said, it was competently built and should hold up OK. It may not even be fair to letter-grade the car in that it was a smaller, more stripped down car than the others, but I will anyway - I give it a D+.

2012 Nissan Maxima: This was the best of the cars overall. Very good power, and I love that VQ exhaust note. I actually kind of like the Nissan implementation of an always-in-your-pocket automatic keyless system better than my BMW's Comfort Access. This is a fast highway car and does very well in that environment. On the downside, the styling looks strange to my eyes, the giant monochrome LCD screen on non-nav cars (like mine) is goofy, the CVT feels really weird compared to a conventional transmission, and the car's sporting pretensions are revealed to be, well, pretensions as soon as you try to corner with any kind of speed. This car gets a B.

2012 Chevy Impala: Just dropped this off this morning (and it was really the car that inspired this thread). What a disappointment! Isn't this supposed to be able to compete with the Accord, Camry and Sonata? In practice, it's fairly quick on the freeway but absolutely hates to turn, and the steering wheel is as floaty and disconnected from the road as any I have felt in my 25 years behind the wheel. The ergonomics are dumb for such a traditional car (Why put the wiper controls on the turn signal stalk instead of having another stalk? Why no gear indicator markers alongside the shift lever?) The interior looks decent in photos, but as soon as you get in, you realize that the leather-textured surface of the entire dash and nearly all of the interior you are actually touching (including where your left hand rests if not on the wheel) is hard, hollow plastic. There is a ton of fake wood that, again, could photograph well but in practice it looks completely phony. Similarly, the lining of the pillars looks like the fabric headliner, but when you touch it, it's actually hard plastic molded with the texture of fabric. This car feels nasty and cheap with 15K miles on it, and God knows how much rattling and squeaking the future will hold. I would have more confidence in the stripped-out Versa in that respect. Speaking as a taxpaying American this car makes me sad. I give it a C-.
Click to expand...
No, the Malibu is for the Accord/Camry/Sonata midsize segment.
The Impala has been regulated to fleet use for the past ten years.
And for that, it's served rather well.
 
If you bothered to mash the gas in the 2012 Impala you would see it goes reasonably well, 300 HP or so. The engine is the only nice feature. The one I rented had ~3,000 miles on it. I hated it. Highway merging and stop light takeoffs were good because of the power, but it did torque steer quite a bit. The engine is very good. The car is terrible. I had the opposite experience, the car didn't feel floaty at all to me - it felt dead. The steering was dead and turning the wheel seemed more like a suggestion regarding direction. On the straights It felt like it was being dragged on rails and had 10,000 pounds in the trunk.
 
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JulesMaximus said:
They were crap in 2005.
Click to expand...

Define crap.

If by crap you mean dull and boring, yeah I agree.

If by crap you mean unreliable or junk, well, my boss's 06 impala LTZ has been anything but. Yes it has needed a couple things but it has around 180k hard miles - he's an ex cop if that tells you anything 😛
 
I try not to rent cars... I'm disappointed every time.

I did get stuck with a brand new Grand Caravan on our trip back from Nevada last month... the interior worked pretty good for our trip (the seats fold down into the floor) but the engine was a DOG and, well, after all... it IS a minivan. I had to bribe my wife to ride in it.

Wasn't all that impressed with the 2012 Explorer we drove out, either.
 
I should start reviewing my rental cars as well, since I always seem to get some oddball rides from my local Enterprise. My last three were a Ford Mustang V6 Coupe, a Dodge Journey, and a Saturn Outlook. Those last two were land yachts with three rows of seats. Their idea of a "mid-size" car kinda confuses me🙂
 
ultimatebob said:
I should start reviewing my rental cars as well, since I always seem to get some oddball rides from my local Enterprise. My last three were a Ford Mustang V6 Coupe, a Dodge Journey, and a Saturn Outlook. Those last two were land yachts with three rows of seats. Their idea of a "mid-size" car kinda confuses me🙂
Click to expand...

When I was in the Air Force (in about 2003 or so) I was once given a V6 Mustang with a stick as a rental car. It was certainly more fun than a garden-variety rental. I was a little surprised that Hertz or whomever it was even rented out a car with a manual transmission.
 
It's fun driving and reviewing different cars. I tend to do the same thing and have posted a few here over the years.

I try to remain objective but it's hard sometimes. 😉
 
Don Vito Corleone said:
2012 Chevy Impala: Just dropped this off this morning (and it was really the car that inspired this thread). What a disappointment! Isn't this supposed to be able to compete with the Accord, Camry and Sonata? In practice, it's fairly quick on the freeway but absolutely hates to turn, and the steering wheel is as floaty and disconnected from the road as any I have felt in my 25 years behind the wheel. The ergonomics are dumb for such a traditional car (Why put the wiper controls on the turn signal stalk instead of having another stalk? Why no gear indicator markers alongside the shift lever?) The interior looks decent in photos, but as soon as you get in, you realize that the leather-textured surface of the entire dash and nearly all of the interior you are actually touching (including where your left hand rests if not on the wheel) is hard, hollow plastic. There is a ton of fake wood that, again, could photograph well but in practice it looks completely phony. Similarly, the lining of the pillars looks like the fabric headliner, but when you touch it, it's actually hard plastic molded with the texture of fabric. This car feels nasty and cheap with 15K miles on it, and God knows how much rattling and squeaking the future will hold. I would have more confidence in the stripped-out Versa in that respect. Speaking as a taxpaying American this car makes me sad. I give it a C-.
Click to expand...

no, the malibu is supposed to compete with the camcord. the impala is mostly a fleet vehicle. it uses the GM W platform, which dates back to the early 80s. the front subassembly is held on with wet newspapers. and everyone hates that GM control stalk.
 
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