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I rent cars about five or six times a year, usually in Israel but occasionally elsewhere. I thought I would do a blog on my impressions of each car, but who would read it; so instead I will do a thread and if you want to comment/ignore feel free.
I usually travel with the family which is SWMBO plus three children aged 16, 14 and 10. They are growing so we are getting to the point at which we need a car for five adults. When we had child No. 3 we had all the baby paraphernalia so it made sense to rent a seven seat car for the space and also because our eldest had some social skill/behaviour issues so separating him from the others was a good thing. Matters have improved and as we travel relatively light we usually rent a medium sized saloon (Mazda 3 sized) and usually we are given a Hyundai i35 (A booted version of the i30, but a bit more stylish). It is fine for the journey from the airport to our apartment and any long journeys we do without all the luggage. Good car apart from badly positioned air vents (cold hands), steering that is too light and it lacks the low end torque I am used to from a turbo diesel (almost all rental cars in Israel are petrol automatic).
This most recent trip we wanted some winter sun, so we drove from north of Tel Aviv to Eilat. It is about 250 miles, the majority of which is single carriageway unlit desert roads so in daytime it can be a four hour trip without stops. With all the luggage and a long journey I wanted a seven seater for space and comfort; so I reserved a Mazda 5 or similar.
I love it when rental companies upgrade you to a car that is less suitable for your needs than the one you ordered. Having no MPVs, I was given a Mitsubishi Outlander. So a higher, larger car, with no more interior space and less economical. Driving away from an airport in a strange car in pouring rain is a good test of how intuitive it is to find and use various functions. In this case, we managed to get all our luggage in easily as the third row of seats dropped into the floor with one tug of a strap. Reasonably commanding driving position, but the seats lack lumbar support. Clear dashboard marred by a hard to find button for the trip computer and a built in SatNav/Audio that makes the system in my S-Max look 22nd Century. Didn’t help that the language was split between English and Hebrew – my knowledge of the latter is adequate for holidays but not the finer details of altering settings in the Nav system.
The rear most seats are occasional only and we did not use them apart from a short trip with two other people to a restaurant. The family coped with the long trip, but it is remarkable how the availability of three separate seats for the second row (like my S-Max) make for a much more comfortable trip. Having a 60/40 split is far less comfortable for the middle passenger as is having a transmission tunnel instead of a flat floor. The main issue was space and the slightly bouncy ride. Balloon tyres are great for road imperfections, but a heavily loaded car at speed causes bounce and float leading to claims of sickness from rear passengers.
The return journey at night showed the car to have good headlights and a surprisingly good turn of speed but was hampered by an odd gearbox. It refuses to drop down out of sixth gear unless truly provoked. Acceleration is therefore minimal unless you use the flappy paddles or you bury the pedal to the metal. Therefore economy is poor and this is all exacerbated by an engine with limited torque so revs are needed to make progress. Whilst diesels make have some issues, the one thing they are good at is getting a heavy car up to speed quickly. The ability to squeeze the accelerator on my S-Max TDCi and just woosh past slower cars was greatly missed on dark desert roads where the only light is from other cars or cats eyes. Overtaking was simply more risky as I felt as though I needed more speed that I would have normally used to give me the margin of safety. Coming up behind a car, I needed to drop the gearbox by at least two cogs and then pull out accelerating wildly, whereas the S-Max would have been on song and the manoeuvre would have been completed in less time.
Economy overall for about 1,000km has been 30mpg, which is not bad for a heavily laden, automatic, large petrol car being driven at speed and with a bike rack attached to the tail gate. I just know that the journey in the S-Max would have been no slower, more economical, more comfortable and probably safer.
The PHEV version of the Outlander was on my radar for a short while. Whilst I can see myself in it, my family (especially my boys who are always questioning when I am going to replace the S-Max) declared that they preferred the S-Max also.
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