George
August 4th, 2015, 09:56 AM
It has been five years since I’ve rented a car, and also five years since I’ve flown in an airplane. Both things have changed quite a bit, but I won’t bore you guys with airplane and airport stories here in the Open Road.
At the rental counter, I expected to be handed a set of keys and told what I would be driving, but instead was told to go choose whatever we wanted from the Compact or Economy section or whatever it was called – the small, relatively inexpensive cars. I was hoping we’d get an upgrade, but no such luck this trip. The keys for each car were hanging from the driver’s side door locks. After choosing a car, we drove to the little check-out booth near the parking lot exit and that’s how they knew what we took.
There was a row of Chevy Sonic sedans, one Ford Fiesta hatchback, and a couple of Hyundai something-or-others way down the line that we didn’t get near enough to examine. While I like classic GM cars as much as any other classic car, I’m not a fan of modern GM offerings for reasons I won't go into here. My family didn’t seem to have a preference, so I attempted to load our four carry-on bags into the hatchback of the Fiesta. The luggage compartment was so tiny that there was no way to jam four carry-on bags back there, and that was the end of that.
Next to the Fiesta was a red Sonic sedan, and my son had the trunk open a second after he saw my predicament with the luggage. I, on the other hand, had to look around a while to find the trunk release button when it was my turn (it's on the center console, under the emergency brake handle). The Sonic’s trunk is quite large for such a small car, and the bags went in with lots of room to spare. This car was bright red, my son’s favorite color, as he never lets us forget, and my wife commented that perhaps we’d do better with a more sedate color. I couldn’t imagine getting busted for speeding in such a small car, but I figured perhaps a more plain-jane car would be less interesting to thieves or vandals in whatever parking lots we might find ourselves. About then I noticed a red TURBO badge on the dark grey Sonic next to the bright red one, and also alloy wheels and 50-series tires, and therefore I quickly agreed with her. I don’t think I’d ever buy a Turbo car with expensive tires, but for a rental, why not? Maybe there would be an autocross track next to our hotel.
The car had 3400 miles on it. I must assume it was a 2015 model. It smelled new inside and was surprisingly roomy. Like most American cars built for American-sized people, the seat actually went back father than I needed it to for my almost 6’2” body to reach the pedals, and there was lots of headroom, too. Legroom is a constant annoyance in my Accord, where I’ve spent the last seven-plus years wishing I the seat would go back another inch or two. I’m also glad I’m not a guy who wears baseball caps, as on the rare occasions I have, the top of the cap and the bill rub on the headliner when I turn my head while driving.
Here are my impressions of the car after driving it for eight days, and heavily clouded by my personal likes and dislikes. This is from a guy who drives a wheezy old 1999 Honda with 218,000 miles on it, so much of what annoyed me with this car is probably common to most newer cars.
It’s actually a decent-looking car, for a tiny little Chevy. The headlights were very bright as compared to the dim ones struggling to shine through cloudy plastic covers on my Accord. There were also a second set of lights down low. I think of these as “fog lights” but that's not the correct term, is it? Driving lights? Cornering lights? Racing lights? I dunno, but you guys know what I mean, I’m sure. I didn’t like that the headlights were on by default. I don’t like having to turn lights OFF when getting in a car, but at least I could turn them off, as compared to a Chevy WT-1500 pickup truck I once had as a rental, which had the lights on all the time, no matter what.
I also strongly dislike how GM cars have the reverse lights come on when the car doors are unlocked or locked. This is highly annoying to people trying to find a parking space in crowded lots. “ You know the deal…you’re prowling for a space – any space – and suddenly you see someone’s reverse lights go on, so you stop and put on your turn signal, only to realize there’s no one in the car and the owner is walking away but the damn reverse lights are still on. I cannot see any possible reason for the reverse lights to go on unless or until the car is in reverse.
Forward visibility was excellent but rear visibility was poor. The headrests, particularly the rear ones, are very large. The pillars are wide and turning to look back over my left shoulder before changing lanes to the left was practically useless. The interior rearview mirror is shaped like an American football or rugby ball, which makes things worse. Why not just have a rectangular one? Oh yeah, form over function. I have the same beef with the exterior mirrors, which are teardrop-shaped. They are large close to the windows, which is great to see the doors of the car I'm driving, but out at the ends – the useful part of the mirrors – they’re just little pointy corners that don’t inspire confidence when changing lanes. Didn’t anyone test-drive this car and attempt to change lanes safely on the highway before they started selling them? I guess not.
Speaking of mirrors, we were on the highway at night and I reached up to flip the too-small interior mirror to night mode after a truck with high and bright headlights got behind me. Suddenly, at maximum volume, like THE VOICE OF GOD, a woman’s voice bellowed through the speakers: “THIS IS ON-STAR! WHAT IS YOUR EMERGENCY?!”
What the hell?
My wife saw a disconnect button appear on the “info-tainment center” – oh, how that thing sucked – and hung up on her. Just when I was recovering some semblance of sanity and swerving back into my lane from this terror attack, she came back on again: “I’M CALLING YOU BACK! WHAT IS YOUR EMERGENCY?!!!” I said something like “we’re in a rental car – sorry” and she finally went away. Jeebus, that is dangerous as hell. I will NEVER own a modern GM product for this reason alone – never mind all the political reasons and horror stories I’ve heard from suckers who have bought GM cars over the years.
And while I’m ranting – don’t worry, I’m about to get to the good stuff – the radio annoyed the hell out of me. There were no knobs! Everything required taking my eyes off the road to study my options and then select tiny buttons. What’s wrong with good old tuning and volume knobs and raised preset buttons that can be used without looking at them? On the third day I discovered the rearview camera, which apparently comes on when the car is put into reverse. I hadn’t seen it sooner because I was looking where one is supposed to be looking while in reverse: out the rear window, with my arm behind the passenger seat. I can only assume these rearview cameras will further dumb-down drivers who now won’t have to learn how to back up safely and parallel park without taking eighteen tries while traffic backs up for blocks behind them. I also discovered, as the radio was on some annoying commercial, that the radio cannot be turned off or down while the car is in reverse. I’m sorry, but this is complete nonsense. Why remove perfectly functional features just to put in some video game tomfoolery that encourages less competent drivers to stay that way? I said something to my wife like, "hey, did you see this camera?" She did, but hadn't mentioned it. She knows me well. :)
Okay, on with the good stuff, finally: that car was FUN to drive. Granted, I don’t have much to compare it to, but it was great. We all had plenty of room inside the car, except once when I leaned over to pull my wallet out of my back pocket and crashed into my wife in the passenger seat, but I could get used to that. And, I almost always drive alone, so for me, a car this size would be just fine. I found myself eyeing Corollas and Civics and wondering if they’re as roomy inside as this Chebby was. I think the last Turbo car I drove was a Renault Fuego in the ‘80s, so I don’t claim to know much about Turbos, but this one went like the proverbial scalded cat once I figured out that I shouldn’t let off the gas when I felt the car upshift. That caused it to bog down. Keeping my foot down kept the car flying down highway on-ramps like a champ. Those highly risky lane changes due to poor rear and rear/side visibility were great fun, too, as I could zip around someone puttering along with their head down while texting on their damn smart phones in an instant.
I didn’t do much fast cornering, but the car seemed to handle really well, too, and the brakes…oh, the brakes. I loved the brakes. The first time I hit them my wife slammed forward in her seatbelt, as I am apparently used to stomping on the brakes in my car to get them to do anything. I quickly got used to the stop-on-a-dime brakes in the Sonic, and when we all piled into my old Accord at the airport yesterday, I was actually scared driving home because my brakes are so weak by comparison. I rarely have my whole family in my car, but it was the obvious choice to leave sitting at the airport for several days. The brakes in the Sonic are probably the best thing of this whole experience: I’m going to take my Accord to the shop for some LONG-overdue service and to get the brakes checked. That will happen this week. My brakes don’t feel spongy or make noise or anything, but they do take a long time to stop the car, and I’ve been driving it for so long I guess I haven’t noticed they have gotten so bad.
At the rental counter, I expected to be handed a set of keys and told what I would be driving, but instead was told to go choose whatever we wanted from the Compact or Economy section or whatever it was called – the small, relatively inexpensive cars. I was hoping we’d get an upgrade, but no such luck this trip. The keys for each car were hanging from the driver’s side door locks. After choosing a car, we drove to the little check-out booth near the parking lot exit and that’s how they knew what we took.
There was a row of Chevy Sonic sedans, one Ford Fiesta hatchback, and a couple of Hyundai something-or-others way down the line that we didn’t get near enough to examine. While I like classic GM cars as much as any other classic car, I’m not a fan of modern GM offerings for reasons I won't go into here. My family didn’t seem to have a preference, so I attempted to load our four carry-on bags into the hatchback of the Fiesta. The luggage compartment was so tiny that there was no way to jam four carry-on bags back there, and that was the end of that.
Next to the Fiesta was a red Sonic sedan, and my son had the trunk open a second after he saw my predicament with the luggage. I, on the other hand, had to look around a while to find the trunk release button when it was my turn (it's on the center console, under the emergency brake handle). The Sonic’s trunk is quite large for such a small car, and the bags went in with lots of room to spare. This car was bright red, my son’s favorite color, as he never lets us forget, and my wife commented that perhaps we’d do better with a more sedate color. I couldn’t imagine getting busted for speeding in such a small car, but I figured perhaps a more plain-jane car would be less interesting to thieves or vandals in whatever parking lots we might find ourselves. About then I noticed a red TURBO badge on the dark grey Sonic next to the bright red one, and also alloy wheels and 50-series tires, and therefore I quickly agreed with her. I don’t think I’d ever buy a Turbo car with expensive tires, but for a rental, why not? Maybe there would be an autocross track next to our hotel.
The car had 3400 miles on it. I must assume it was a 2015 model. It smelled new inside and was surprisingly roomy. Like most American cars built for American-sized people, the seat actually went back father than I needed it to for my almost 6’2” body to reach the pedals, and there was lots of headroom, too. Legroom is a constant annoyance in my Accord, where I’ve spent the last seven-plus years wishing I the seat would go back another inch or two. I’m also glad I’m not a guy who wears baseball caps, as on the rare occasions I have, the top of the cap and the bill rub on the headliner when I turn my head while driving.
Here are my impressions of the car after driving it for eight days, and heavily clouded by my personal likes and dislikes. This is from a guy who drives a wheezy old 1999 Honda with 218,000 miles on it, so much of what annoyed me with this car is probably common to most newer cars.
It’s actually a decent-looking car, for a tiny little Chevy. The headlights were very bright as compared to the dim ones struggling to shine through cloudy plastic covers on my Accord. There were also a second set of lights down low. I think of these as “fog lights” but that's not the correct term, is it? Driving lights? Cornering lights? Racing lights? I dunno, but you guys know what I mean, I’m sure. I didn’t like that the headlights were on by default. I don’t like having to turn lights OFF when getting in a car, but at least I could turn them off, as compared to a Chevy WT-1500 pickup truck I once had as a rental, which had the lights on all the time, no matter what.
I also strongly dislike how GM cars have the reverse lights come on when the car doors are unlocked or locked. This is highly annoying to people trying to find a parking space in crowded lots. “ You know the deal…you’re prowling for a space – any space – and suddenly you see someone’s reverse lights go on, so you stop and put on your turn signal, only to realize there’s no one in the car and the owner is walking away but the damn reverse lights are still on. I cannot see any possible reason for the reverse lights to go on unless or until the car is in reverse.
Forward visibility was excellent but rear visibility was poor. The headrests, particularly the rear ones, are very large. The pillars are wide and turning to look back over my left shoulder before changing lanes to the left was practically useless. The interior rearview mirror is shaped like an American football or rugby ball, which makes things worse. Why not just have a rectangular one? Oh yeah, form over function. I have the same beef with the exterior mirrors, which are teardrop-shaped. They are large close to the windows, which is great to see the doors of the car I'm driving, but out at the ends – the useful part of the mirrors – they’re just little pointy corners that don’t inspire confidence when changing lanes. Didn’t anyone test-drive this car and attempt to change lanes safely on the highway before they started selling them? I guess not.
Speaking of mirrors, we were on the highway at night and I reached up to flip the too-small interior mirror to night mode after a truck with high and bright headlights got behind me. Suddenly, at maximum volume, like THE VOICE OF GOD, a woman’s voice bellowed through the speakers: “THIS IS ON-STAR! WHAT IS YOUR EMERGENCY?!”
What the hell?
My wife saw a disconnect button appear on the “info-tainment center” – oh, how that thing sucked – and hung up on her. Just when I was recovering some semblance of sanity and swerving back into my lane from this terror attack, she came back on again: “I’M CALLING YOU BACK! WHAT IS YOUR EMERGENCY?!!!” I said something like “we’re in a rental car – sorry” and she finally went away. Jeebus, that is dangerous as hell. I will NEVER own a modern GM product for this reason alone – never mind all the political reasons and horror stories I’ve heard from suckers who have bought GM cars over the years.
And while I’m ranting – don’t worry, I’m about to get to the good stuff – the radio annoyed the hell out of me. There were no knobs! Everything required taking my eyes off the road to study my options and then select tiny buttons. What’s wrong with good old tuning and volume knobs and raised preset buttons that can be used without looking at them? On the third day I discovered the rearview camera, which apparently comes on when the car is put into reverse. I hadn’t seen it sooner because I was looking where one is supposed to be looking while in reverse: out the rear window, with my arm behind the passenger seat. I can only assume these rearview cameras will further dumb-down drivers who now won’t have to learn how to back up safely and parallel park without taking eighteen tries while traffic backs up for blocks behind them. I also discovered, as the radio was on some annoying commercial, that the radio cannot be turned off or down while the car is in reverse. I’m sorry, but this is complete nonsense. Why remove perfectly functional features just to put in some video game tomfoolery that encourages less competent drivers to stay that way? I said something to my wife like, "hey, did you see this camera?" She did, but hadn't mentioned it. She knows me well. :)
Okay, on with the good stuff, finally: that car was FUN to drive. Granted, I don’t have much to compare it to, but it was great. We all had plenty of room inside the car, except once when I leaned over to pull my wallet out of my back pocket and crashed into my wife in the passenger seat, but I could get used to that. And, I almost always drive alone, so for me, a car this size would be just fine. I found myself eyeing Corollas and Civics and wondering if they’re as roomy inside as this Chebby was. I think the last Turbo car I drove was a Renault Fuego in the ‘80s, so I don’t claim to know much about Turbos, but this one went like the proverbial scalded cat once I figured out that I shouldn’t let off the gas when I felt the car upshift. That caused it to bog down. Keeping my foot down kept the car flying down highway on-ramps like a champ. Those highly risky lane changes due to poor rear and rear/side visibility were great fun, too, as I could zip around someone puttering along with their head down while texting on their damn smart phones in an instant.
I didn’t do much fast cornering, but the car seemed to handle really well, too, and the brakes…oh, the brakes. I loved the brakes. The first time I hit them my wife slammed forward in her seatbelt, as I am apparently used to stomping on the brakes in my car to get them to do anything. I quickly got used to the stop-on-a-dime brakes in the Sonic, and when we all piled into my old Accord at the airport yesterday, I was actually scared driving home because my brakes are so weak by comparison. I rarely have my whole family in my car, but it was the obvious choice to leave sitting at the airport for several days. The brakes in the Sonic are probably the best thing of this whole experience: I’m going to take my Accord to the shop for some LONG-overdue service and to get the brakes checked. That will happen this week. My brakes don’t feel spongy or make noise or anything, but they do take a long time to stop the car, and I’ve been driving it for so long I guess I haven’t noticed they have gotten so bad.