Collected a 1.4 Turbo Meriva from Hertz in Spain last week. It had 4,000 km on the clock when collected, 5,100 when dropped off.
It's one of these funny cars that seem to be the fashion that's taller than a normal car. Great for getting stuff into it. Only a small boot (depth-wise) but the height more than makes up for this. So of course I jacked up the driver's seat high - with the inevitable effect of being unable to see the numbers on the top of the Speedometer. A common fault with Vauxhalls IME. I didn't think much of the visibility; I often felt there were huge blind spots behind pillars/head rests - what happened to the head rests that are shaped like ring doughnuts so you can see through the middle; they improve things a little, anyway.
My hatred of the electronic parking brake has already been discussed here.
Otherwise, it was, well, a car. It drove, it stopped. Definitely a Vauxhall though. They have a particularly distinctive notchy feel in their gear boxes. Being a 1.4 it struggled a bit when doing 130km/h on the French autoroute - noisy and a bit tricky to keep going, I thought. You can see why people will pay more for a more luxurious car - and equally, why in fact they won't do so, for this was a nice little car and I was sad to return it to its stable.
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Vauxhall Meriva B - Some thoughts from a.. new
Vauxhall Meriva B - Some thoughts from .. new