Off to the States next week and have just received my travel documents. The car rental agreement states I'm getting a Chevvy Impala. Had a look on t'tinternet and find it's got a 3.9l engine, with a whole.......233bhp. How do they make such big engines with such small bhp!!
Anyone driven an Impala. Should I consider an upgrade?
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That's how they make their engines last a long time.
as well as the pollution regs
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I seem to remember those old sixties Impalas with the bootline like a flying gull did a year or so of saloon car racing against 3.8 Jags and so on even before the 2-speed automatic 7-litre Ford Galaxies appeared and beat everything...
I suppose you could try to get them to upgrade you to one of those mlc, but I wouldn't rate your chances... :o}
Won't the thing they have promised you cruise silently about at any legal speed supplying a smooth ride and doing about 20mpg though?
I don't think they do budget muscle any more, do they?
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Yes you should upgrade MLC, enjoy every apect of your time there, and my own suggestion... Dodge charger, not with the wimpy 6 pot, got to have the all powerful 6 litre V8 jobbie (i believe it shuts half the engine off when up to cruising speed and is reasonably economical...ish)
I would say have a mustang, but i test drove one here, and the ride is somewhat hard.
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Colleague had one while on secondment in the USA and I drove it a couple of times. It didn't drive too badly for a big American saloon, about the same as the Dodge Charger I was driving at the time anyway.
Big engine... small BHP - it's partly down to the 87 octane "regular" gas which is about the same as 91 octane here (different measuring systems). Therefore you can't run such high compression ratios which limits power output. They aren't as thirsty as you might expect either. I also had a Jeep Grand Cherokee 3.7 v6 while out there and even in the middle of winter it was doing 23mpg (UK Gallons) - hardly bad when you think a Range Rover diesel gets that here if driven hard.
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I've got to fit two kids in the back...so I'll see what they've got. V8 sounds tempting. Got to have something to look forward to after baggage handlers strike, poor exchange rate, hurricanes and Mickey Mouse going on strike :)
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My parents booked an Impala rental for their last trip. Once they got there they were given an 'SS' - 300bhp V8!
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But remember, it's over $4 per gallon there so take it easy :¬D
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I had one of these when on holiday in California in January. We managed to drive from San Francisco, down the Pacific Highway, to Los Angeles airport on one tankful.
It was fine although the interior trim was a little 'low rent'.
Edited by RobertyBob on 20/08/2008 at 10:07
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I'd say don't bother upgrading here; as you'll more than likely get an upgrade when you arrive over there, due to the fact that absolutely no one rents large cars these days.
When I was in the states in June, I rented a Dodge Charger and instead got a Chrysler 300 (brand spanking new) and ended up doing 3000 miles in 2 weeks. Absolutely loved it :)
By the way the price of petrol has gone down a bit from when I was there (it was $4 a gallon then) it's gone down to about $3.80 and the price of petrol changes on a daily basis; as against weekly here in some petrol stations.
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Agreed about the upgrade.
We used to always book the smallest car in the brochure. When we got there they would offer upgrades which we'd always politely refuse.
In the end we always got a decently large four door saloon for the original cost because they never had the smallest car available.
Suppose it might be different now, though.
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I'll wait till I get there and see if I can get a Charger V8. :)
Bit of thread drift..but what does it cost to hire a sat nav. I'm contemplating buying one from Wallmart and then sell t when I get back. (I know I can use a map, but I'm on holiday!)
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Quick motoring tale. May 2008. I was in a Ford Mustang Convertible auto V6 which is a 4.0 210 BHP and a very very nice car.
Anyhow went to Yosemite and had a great time but had to leave at 4 am to get back to San Francisco for the flight. Raining on the valley floor. Thought nothing of it.
You have to go over a mountain to get out of the park. Sheet ice on the top. Two lane blacktop with 1,000 foot drops each side. Inching along for a hour praying for all my life was worth whilst the locals in 4X4's with snow chains sped by.
Exited to wonderful Californian sun. Pays to do your research...
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www.chevrolet.com/impala/
This is the vehicle I think.
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If they had the V8, go for it; I know I would :)
I think it costs $10 - $12 a day for the sat nav rental; they may give a discount if renting for a week. I have to say though it is cheaper getting one over here and then buying an updated map of North America. It'll work out cheaper if you have to use it again in the states, and of course you can use it here.
That's what I did; I just bought North American maps for my Garmin unit and it worked like a dream. I never once got lost :)
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I've already got sat nav built into my car, so don't need a stand alone unit.
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it's got a 3.9l engine with a whole.......233bhp. How do they make such big engines with such small bhp!!
That's about 60 bhp/litre, not too bad actually. A Mk IV Golf GTi is only 57.5 bhp/litre.
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I'd agree with other posters about cheaper petrol, but remember that the USA's a helluva lot bigger than you might think, and you'll consequently end up driving a lot further.
Whatever you rent, DO NOT have a Ford Escape SUV; harsh ride and utterly soulless.
Edited by Harleyman on 21/08/2008 at 01:04
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and at the other end of the scale you have a N/A civic type R with 100bhp/litre or the turbo Lancer with 150bhp/litre
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and at the other end of the scale you have a N/A civic type R with 100bhp/litre or the turbo Lancer with 150bhp/litre
And a N/A Yamaha R6 with over 200 bhp/ltr.
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Okay, I'm getting one of these for a week next month too, in all probability.
Actually I'm geting Alamo's "standard 2 door car" which used to be a Chevy Monte Carlo but they discontinued that last year, and of course I won't be over there in time for the new Camaro to hit the streets.
Chances are I'll end up getting "upgraded" to the four-door sedan - or does anyone have recent experience of the Alamo USA fleet who can tell me otherwise?
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