Guess the hire car…

Small SUV like a Qashqai type of thing.

My brother just collected his booked intermediate car – for four on a two week stay in UK.

They had run out of vehicles, and offered him a transit with three seats(!) or a Corsa that was un-cleaned and had to be delivered from an hour away…..

Bit scratched up, but could be worse, and saves me worrying about getting a mint motor scratched.

Sat-Nav is a bonus.

1.5l Diesel Mondeo. All they had left, as fancied a faux by faux really.

Heated wing mirrors?

It’s a ford, so no.

Not even a start button 🙁

I bloody love start buttons 🙁

Compared to a poo brown Focus, that’s not a bad car. It’ll be slow as hell, but should be frugal.

Looks like you’ve already got a parking ticket

It’ll be slow as hell, but should be frugal.

It’s not the quickest. Gets to 70mph in about ten minutes.

Turns out I kinda know the guy who worked there. He said they’d have more choice if I wanted to swap it tomorrow, but not sure I can be bothered to. Cars a car really.

had a job last year and had to get three of us to Düsseldorf. the workshop is next door to enterprise. they gave us a top of the range petrol RR Sport… i told the lads since it was a british motor i had to drive it. left at 10pm. Autobahnfrei.
Munich to Düsseldorf in about 3,5 hours. rrrrrrrrooooooommm!

we felt like drug dealers.

Move aside we are coming through 🙂

As an aside. Mondeos are huge. Like 2 focuses glued together huge.

As an aside. Mondeos are huge. Like 2 focuses glued together half an S-Max huge.

FTFY

1.5l in something that big, bloody hell. Bet that’s a depressing drive.

1.5l in something that big, bloody hell. Bet that’s a depressing drive.

I was thinking that earlier when I boiled an egg while waiting for it to get up to 50. Think I might see if I can swap it for a Focus. Prob is, they only has 1.0 ecoboosts in. It seems most hire car fleets are underpowered.

Probably for good reason I guess.

What’s the top speed like in reverse?

What’s the top speed like in reverse?

Surprisingly quick.

What station was the radio tuned to?

Is it an FM radio?

Does it have a vinyl roof?

Enjoyed that. Be sure to continue this game, whomever rents next. I was in ‘7-seater or similar’ land on my last holiday and I’m not sure anyone would’ve guessed one of these 🙁

What station was the radio tuned to?

The DAB, well la-de-daa, radio was set to 1Extra.

I listened to it for a bit before feeling old, so switched to Radio 4 and the soothing sounds of You and Yours.

I get a few hire cars for work. Most are ok, some are truely awful (Fiat 500L). I recently had an Astra 2l diesel. It had enough power to scare my colleague when I was driving on some lake district B-roads.

Last hire car we had, ended up booking a “Golf size” car. Ended up with a Fiat 500L. Dreadful car. 🙁

i think the problem with hire cars is you can get used to nice ones, last hire in similar group was a fully blinded out Quashqai with a decent engine, so when you get something a bit meh, it’s annoying.

I liken it to going out for a meal. Say you went the same place a week apart. The first time you paid £20 you got 3 courses (blinged out Quashqai), but the second time you paid the same but only got 2 courses (ratty mondeo). Just seems off, but you gotta accept it sometimes as its that or nothing.

We’re currently driving around BC in a rather splendid Cadillac V6 sporty thing after being told by the nice man at Vancouver airport that they’d run out of what we’d booked. It’s feature packed with goodies, so many in fact that I have to keep getting the manual out to see how it all works. The most important being how to switch off the **** stop/start function!

Mondeo? Well they don’t hate you that much then. I used to get quite a few hire cars with work, have already mentioned the worst one, nothing incredibly exciting, maybe the best was a 307CC (yes really, it was fine to drive and of course it was available because it was the middle of winter, so I put on my down jacket and winter gloves and put the top down). Also had a V6 Vectra, which was a Vectra so not great to drive but fun in a straight line when you’re not paying for the fuel – in the days when we could return the cars empty so I didn’t even have to submit a claim for a full tank for a 200 mile round trip, though I was nursing it home having got the fuel gauge to under half on the trip out.

Mondeo? Well they don’t hate you that much then

I think it being a 1.5l diesel means they 50/50.

scratched up, but could be worse, and saves me worrying about getting a mint motor scratched.

I hope you took photos rather than being billed for all those scratches on the way home..

I hope you took photos rather than being billed for all those scratches on the way home..

I could key it myself, and probably be covered.

@scuttler best thing about being in that car is you don’t have to look at the outside of it

In more positive news I had a DS and whilst I would never have chosen it it was a decent car. I rented a 500 once and would now never buy one.

The last hire car I booked was a ‘golf or similar.’

Last time I booked a “Golf or similar”, this was Budget’s response:

*SMUG MODE*

Ooh I’d forgotten I once got an Alfa. Had booked an estate as we had quite a bit of kit and got this sportback thing which wasn’t very practical. Just about fitted everything in though it was a squeeze -well I wasn’t about to phone them up and ask for something different. A Mondeo would have been a better tool, but not as fun. That definitely beats the 307cc

I just parked the car at the local Tesco. It’s longer than their parking spaces.

Apparently the Mondeo hatch is longer than the estate……well, by 4mm.

Now 2 of our party are making their own way at the weekend, tempted to chop it in for something smaller….means a new thread maybe 😀