The only car Alamo had left was a Chevy Malibu in Miami. First impressions suggest that it's a rebranded Vauxhall Insignia, but with a tiny drawback in that they appear to have forgotten to screw it together.
The driver's door was wonky, the interior rattled, the engine was terrible, the autobox far too enthusiastic when accelerating on the motorway, the fuel economy appalling, the air conditioning noisy and the seats uncomfortable.
Also, the XM subscription had expired, the sat nav had been deliberately disabled, the driver's door mirror was one of those stupid magnifying things that had a blind spot the size of an ocean liner, the info screen was high resolution and colour but could only show one thing at a time, and the footrest was the wrong angle.
Good stuff? The neon blue interior lighting was cool, and if you switched the units from imperial to metric the speedometer needle simply moved to the correct number (which did explain my confusion as to why the speedo went up to 180...).
Avoid.
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Wed 11 Mar 15 at 10:44
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What, Miami?
Spent 12 hours at the airport whilst in transit from BA. Got temporary membership of a hotel gym, with both pool & gym on the roof. Probably orgasmic if you were a plane spotter.
Last edited by: legacylad on Wed 11 Mar 15 at 13:12
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I don't much fancy any part of Florida. But if forced to go there I would insist on some sort of proper hire jalopy - real Cadillac black limo or a powder-blue Cadillac convertible of a decent size, not some modern world-car compact or sub-compact POUS (the U stands for 'utter').
If nothing like that was available I would refuse to go.
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>> But if forced to go there I
>> would insist on some sort of proper hire jalopy
How about a Mustang? Just make sure you don't get the EcoBoost version :o
www.ford.com/cars/mustang/
Actually 310bhp & 320lbft sound pretty good; pity they don't put it in a Fiesta :)
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Not sure if this will work, AC, without a Twitter account, and I'm not clever enough to extract it for you. But you might like it. Assuming it works, it's the 14th letter on this page - Hunter S Thompson attempting to justify his expenses for his Cadillac.
The 13th letter there might also be up your street.
twitter.com/LettersOfNote/media
If it doesn't work, it will just have to be a tease, sorry!
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>> The 13th letter there might also be up your street.
Yes, Hunter Thompson is a man of sound attitudes and respectable habits.
However, having written one or two letters of this sort myself, trying to josh and shame my employers into paying me properly, I can state authoritatively that they don't work at all well on publishers and editors. Charming urbane civilised gentlemen until the contract is signed or the commission given, they then mutate into urgently demanding, mean-spirited, humourless, evasive alleged bankrupts who are never in their offices when you call them to get you out of jail or whatever.
Actually this doesn't apply to the last job I did. But it used to happen all the time.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Wed 11 Mar 15 at 14:31
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Avoid Florida? Noo its a fascinating place to explore and visit, you really wouldn't want to live there tho, not because of the mozzies and the snakes and the gay-ders but because of the the floridians!
As for the malibu (not the place but the car) its a typical yank built job from the sound of it. Its amazing, some of them are built quite well, and some are appallingly thrown together sheds.
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>> Its amazing, some of them are built quite well,
>> and some are appallingly thrown together sheds.
>>
A number of times I've been to the US and Canada I've had Jeep Grand Cherokees and they do vary quite dramatically. The Florida ones are 2WD but some can feel well put together and are very wafty, others are harsh and noisy. One of the best was in Canada, that was a full AWD version, had done 40,000kms (very high then, although I gather rental companies are hanging on to cars longer now) and had had a hard life. But it all but silent on concrete freeways.
Seven of us went to Orlando last summer so hired a couple of cars - got a Chrysler Town & Country (same as Dodge Caravan) minivan and Jeep Compass. The minivan was very nice indeed - would be a brilliant family car here apart from parking it, and there was nothing wrong with the Jeep but it was amazingly basic - didn't even have height adjustable drivers seat.
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We normally get the town and country minivan. Very good had loads never had one break down. Got plenty of toys inside and for a V6 auto they are pretty good on fuel not that i was paying the bill.
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wouldn't want to live there...because of the Floridians!
Yes, imagine a whole community of over-affluent pensioners with nothing to do all day but sound off about their distaste for the modern world.
};---)
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>> wouldn't want to live there...because of the Floridians!
>>
>> Yes, imagine a whole community of over-affluent pensioners with nothing to do all day but
>> sound off about their distaste for the modern world.
>> };---)
And denying climate change
www.iflscience.com/environment/florida-bans-employees-mentioning-climate-change
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Wanted a Mustang, but it was a spur of the moment trip and they'd run out. Universal Studios fantastic, so was KSC, and the last three days were spend snoozing on the beach and paddle-boarding around the 'gators.
Toll roads, though...
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Wed 11 Mar 15 at 18:06
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First time I took the ex to visit my septic friends I picked up a red Stang in SF. Looked the biz, but was sadly disappointed. Very. Cheap & nasty interior, with an arthritic gas guzzling 4.0 V6
Then I made the same mistake a few years later when leaf peeping out of Boston, heading N for a week. Gotta say, the service from Enterprise was exceptional. The Stang looked immaculate in black, showroom fresh, heated leather chairs on freezing early Oct mornings in Maine, roof down but ultimately left feeling cheated. A V8 would have been so much better, for the sound alone.
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Hire car review - Chevrolet Malibu - legacylad
