I recently changed positions and have an opportunity to rent a number of cars, and wanted to offer my thoughts on them.
Honda CRV 2018
I love the car. Spacious for both front and back seats. Comfortable
seating. Enough space and comfort I fell asleep the first time in the back seat, and I have a 6'2" frame and, lets just say oversized proportions.
The air conditioning is excellent, the 2.4 liter engine has excellent
horsepower, and coupled with a continuous velocity transmission (CVT),
gets 34 mpg on the highway, 28 around town. The car is very quiet.
A very nice back up camera, which is also scanning for on coming traffic that is out of the range of the camera.
A very nice back up camera, which is also scanning for on coming traffic that is out of the range of the camera.
One annoying feature is the automatic Hi Beams. They come on sometimes when there is on coming traffic. We asked to have that disabled, but they came back.
Nissan Altima, 2017
I love the car. Spacious for both front and back seats. Comfortable seating. Excellent trunk, and a glove compartment that you could hide a body in. Or maybe it is the back door to the T.A.R.D.I.S.
The air conditioning is excellent, the 2.5 liter engine has excellent horsepower, and coupled with a continuous velocity transmission (CVT), gets 42 mpg on the highway, 32 around town. With an 18 gallon fuel tank the car has a range of well over 600 miles. The car is very quiet.
One down point is the sun-visor. It is too small for the job.
Kia Soul 2017.
Ugly. The seats are a bit small. The engine has little pep and takes its time getting to highway speeds. The ride is noisy. Mileage is rated at 26 city and 31 highway. The gas tank is 14 gallons, which gives this car a range of about 350 miles. I could almost see the gas gauge move when doing 70mph. The air conditioning is poor. The backup camera is only presenting a straight line and doesn't curve when the wheels turn.
Stupid marketing campaign, with 4 hamsters grooving to the tunes in one. I guess the gerbils had a union. But I think it actually worked, as everyone that saw the car, asked were the hamsters were.
Stupid marketing campaign, with 4 hamsters grooving to the tunes in one. I guess the gerbils had a union. But I think it actually worked, as everyone that saw the car, asked were the hamsters were.
On the good side, the glove compartment is spacious, and the sun-visor is a good size.
Chevy Impala (hybrid) 2017
Nice looks, good electronics, good acceleration. 13 gallon gas tank, with a continuous velocity transmission (CVT), it gets 49 mpg city, 43 on the highway. Those numbers are the rated numbers. I didn't do enough driving to do a personal millage run. The engine does a noticeable shutter when idling as it turns off after about a minute. But the car is responds without hesitation when you step on the accelerator to go, and I never noticed when the engine turned back on. The disadvantage here is the air conditioning also turns off when the engine turns off.
Chevy Tahoe 2017
I was mortified being handed the keys for this. My inner environmentalist wailed at the injustice.
It has good pickup, which, with a 5.3 liter engine, it should. And the mileage wasn't too bad at 16 city and 23 highway. The ride was "swimmy" which could be because the car was designed for far more load then one driver. I am still looking for the Starbucks in the back.
Jeep Cherokee 2020
I only accepted this car after Alamo Rent-A-Car tried to get my ass in a Maserati, a Dodge Challenger, when I was originally offered a Nissan Altima.
My opinion is this car is unsafe to drive.
The main reason for this opinion is that the engine shuts off immediately when you come to a complete stop, and there is a noticeable delay when the engine turns back on. This is unlike the Chevy Impala with the same feature which had no delay. If you are at a stop and need to rush across the road, you have to allow for between .05 and .1 seconds, which can get you killed.
Also unsafe, is the cruise control. Several times I was trying to just make a minor adjustment of a mph or two, up or down, to find the car was now trying to get to 80mph, or 40mph.
That it shuts down the engine immediately when stopping also reduces the comfort level, as the air conditioning will also turn off every-time you come to a stop.
I found the engine to be weak.
I found the engine to be weak.
Like the Jeep Grand Cherokee 2018, which I reviewed a couple of years ago, the cars radio is annoying, as it turns on, unbidden, every time you turn on the car.
On the plus side, it has the cap less fuel filler.
Jeep Grand Cherokee 2018
This car has the best keyless entry system I have experienced. Simple wrap you hand around the handle and the car unlocks. The backup camera has the bend feature when you turn the wheel. And the brakes are really good.
One very annoying "feature", you cannot leave your radio OFF. When you turn on the car, the radio WILL come on. We have been informed by the salesmen at Jeep you can only mute it, but never turn it off.
On the other side, the car has an astonishing lack of power, actually under performing the Kia Soul mentioned above. Which makes the MPG of about 20 a mystery. Note, that is about the same mileage as the Chevy Tahoe. The gas cap is on the passenger side, which I consider a minus. The gas cap release button is very well hidden. On the drivers side door, under the arm rest. Not readily visible unless you are under 5 foot tall. So if a midget car thief steals the car they have a shot of putting gas in it.
This car has the best keyless entry system I have experienced. Simple wrap you hand around the handle and the car unlocks. The backup camera has the bend feature when you turn the wheel. And the brakes are really good.
One very annoying "feature", you cannot leave your radio OFF. When you turn on the car, the radio WILL come on. We have been informed by the salesmen at Jeep you can only mute it, but never turn it off.
On the other side, the car has an astonishing lack of power, actually under performing the Kia Soul mentioned above. Which makes the MPG of about 20 a mystery. Note, that is about the same mileage as the Chevy Tahoe. The gas cap is on the passenger side, which I consider a minus. The gas cap release button is very well hidden. On the drivers side door, under the arm rest. Not readily visible unless you are under 5 foot tall. So if a midget car thief steals the car they have a shot of putting gas in it.
Hyundai Elantra
This car was ok. The seats were a little narrow, the electronics primitive by today's standards. The ride is noisy. The engine was peppy, and the MPG was over 50 on the highway, and about 36 around town. The sun visor was a good size.
This car was ok. The seats were a little narrow, the electronics primitive by today's standards. The ride is noisy. The engine was peppy, and the MPG was over 50 on the highway, and about 36 around town. The sun visor was a good size.
Notes on cars of years gone by. My thoughts on the 10 best and the 10 worst cars of the last century:
The 10 best:
The 10 worst:
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