Probably. I’ve experienced lots of rentals these past few years, rarely getting the make and model ordered. It’s always ‘similar’ which isn’t a problem. However, as it’s a very last minute trip, booked today and flying out to Spain Tuesday, and friends joining me arrive several hours later, I’m not hanging around Alicante waiting for them. So the cheapest rental car I could find was a Fiat 500, €13.50 for ten days, full to full fuel. I’ve used OK Cars four times this year, and know they have 500s, so I’m confident it will actually be one.
A bit different to my normal wheels, but I’m expecting to enjoy myself driving it in mixed conditions. I’ll let you know!
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I hired one in Sicily, it was very nimble and nippy, and exceptionally uncomfortable. I was disappoint.
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Driving a Panda around Kefalonia at present. Nice little car, nicer than anyway than the I 10 I usually seem to get in Greece. It aint arf hot here!
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I like Fiat Pandas. I know that's not allowed, but I do. Still get them quite a lot as renters in Italy. I'm always pleased when they say it's a Panda.
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I’m sure that the Panda is a fine car, but some hairy a***d Yorkshire bloke driving a Fiat 500 just seems wrong. Perfectly chic in some Italian city, but not quite so outside Lidl stocking up with cheap booze.
Apart from a balaclava should I wear any particular clothing, although I hope to spend most of the time in our other rental? 3 hairy a***d Yorkshire blokes in a 500 is even worse.
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Oh for God's sake its just a car. Are you man or wuss?
:-)
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>>some hairy a***d Yorkshire bloke driving a Fiat 500 just seems wrong.
When I had my garage built, a couple of Italians (built like brick outhouses) who did the concrete beams for the block & beam floor, turned up in a pink Fiat 500, heavens knows how they fitted inside. They each carried two beams (one on each shoulder) from the delivery truck. My builders managed one each!
Nothing wrong with a little Fiat.
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>> They each carried two beams (one on each shoulder) from the delivery truck.
When my old man was having a path extended down his garden I was about able to carry a 2x2 concrete slab down the garden without breaking something.
My cousin (ex-Australian special forces) who was across visiting could manage 3-at-a-time bearhugging them to his chest.
Something like 120kg.
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Hahahaha...few years ago Motorhome was in for some work at the Fiat dealer. "We can give you a Panda overnight" was an offer I couldn't refuse
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Whatever you normally wear to drive the Macan should be fine LL. The cowboy outfit, the policeman outfit or the builder costume should be spot on you'd think...
;-))
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>> Whatever you normally wear to drive the Macan should be fine LL........
...the hairdresser look?
(though I'd lose the hairy a***d bit......)
;-)
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>>(though I'd lose the hairy a***d bit......)
Waxing or just good old-fashioned friction?
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>>
>>...... just good old-fashioned friction?
>>
....bi-product of wearing the cowboy outfit....?
Last edited by: tyrednemotional on Sun 16 Jun 19 at 18:00
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Yes obviously - the by-product of riding chaps.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaps
Last edited by: Lygonos on Sun 16 Jun 19 at 18:16
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>> >>(though I'd lose the hairy a***d bit......)
>>
>>
>> Waxing or just good old-fashioned friction?
B,C&S
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Ahhh…
The old "maroon bag of agony".
www.amazon.co.uk/Veet-Men-Hair-Removal-Cream/product-reviews/B00KX3PF22
Last edited by: Lygonos on Sun 16 Jun 19 at 19:43
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Looks like amazon ditched the 20 pages of amusing reviews - can only find a couple :-(
www.amazon.co.uk/review/R231U4ZG0YDNHD
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>>
>>
>> Looks like amazon ditched the 20 pages of amusing reviews - can only find a
>> couple :-(
>>
>> www.amazon.co.uk/review/R231U4ZG0YDNHD
>>
On my browser right now...
Amazon...
Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations:
Ryobi OBC1820B 18V ONE+ Brush Cutter [Zero Tool], Green
I guess after using it on the required area, there would be "zero tool" left.
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>Driving a Panda around Kefalonia at present.
What's Kefalonia like now CGN? Where are you staying?
We first went when the airport was just a wooden shed, you had to grab your own luggage off the baggage truck and needed a 4x4 to get down to Anti-Samos beach.
Went may times after but haven't been back since the early noughties when we moored up in Fiskardo for a couple of nights. It was getting too commercial.
Beautiful island and great people.
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Just outside Sami. Kefalonia is still beautiful. Have been here four times over the past 25 years. Tourism has of course grown but once outside Lassi or Scala the island is much as it ever was. Roads are better now but very little traffic outside Argostoli. One of my favourite Greek islands really. (Lesvos is favourite).
Do you remember the old Drapano bridge in Argostoli when you could drive across? Been pedestrianised for a few years now.
Fiskardo is a bit too trendy these days but still pretty as is Assos
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Mon 17 Jun 19 at 06:46
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I've had a Fiat 500 a few times this year sometimes with SatNav, sometimes without. Since I'm usually on my own or just with wifey, I don't need or want anything bigger. I never realised they were everywhere until I was driving one. Usually white, it seems.
I really like them, quite stylish inside and out. I rented a Renault a couple of months ago, so dreary and dull that I've no idea what it was called. Then a Citroen a couple of weeks later which was so dull that I still thought it was a Renault and couldn't find it in the Co-op carpark. I was walking backwards and forwards, searching for a car with a Renault logo on the grill.
Hope it will always be the Fiat 500 although I like the Panda, too. I wouldn't mind one of those either.
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Never tried a 500. Daughter's sis in law has one and it seems OK for her. Looked at a Panda when I bought the Roomster but it failed the 'Brompton in boot' test.
Last hire car I had was a Citroen C1 which had to be changed for an Aygo after it threw an engine fault light. Nothing exciting about it but it got us from Malaga to Granada and a bit of tootling about while we were there.
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Would that be the Pericles Hotel CGN? Stayed there a few times around the time when they were filming Captain Corellis Mandolin and using Sami as a substitute for Argostoli .
We are currently on holiday in Crete with an I10 hire car. Same one as for the last three years.
Last edited by: helicopter on Mon 17 Jun 19 at 20:48
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No but close. Nikos apartments just found the corner from the Pericles. I like Sami. A bit scruffy In places but a proper Greek town. Apartments are very traditional - shower tray leaks and no sink plug ,:
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>> We are currently on holiday in Crete with an I10 hire car. Same one as
>> for the last three years.
Have they washed it?
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It was washed and valeted when we picked it up Saturday and is sitting outside our apartment already coated with a thick layer of dust Z after visiting our favourite beach which is a couple of kilomtres down unmade track. Crete and dust go together like fish and chips.
I like the i10 because I am over 6ft and the seat goes back far enough for me to sit comfortably unlike being cramped in some cars we have hired. This one also runs smoothly and quietly with enough power to tackle the mountains .I have had hire cars where the A/C had to be turned off to climb a hill .
Last edited by: helicopter on Tue 18 Jun 19 at 08:01
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"...washed and valeted when we picked it up ... already coated with a thick layer of dust after visiting our favourite beach which is a couple of kilometres down unmade track"
I had a mini SUV like that when last in Portugal. It was absolutely filthy, so I went to the car wash with it before taking it back ( - I was there a month, and didn't want the hire company lumping me with a cleaning bill!). While washing it, it occurred to me that the insurance probably wasn't valid "off-road". Won't stop me in future though... :-)
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>Do you remember the old Drapano bridge in Argostoli when you could drive across?
I remember it well. Narrow and very low walls. Have they built another bridge for motorised traffic now?
Fiskardo has always been trendy because it's the yachties favourite. Safe mooring or even laying anchor when the weather is good.
Sammi is nice. I remember a small bakery at the eastern end of the quay that sold every type of Greek pastry you could imagine, most of them covered in honey. They also made a wicked coffee. Not as touristy as Fiskardo because it's not safe for yachts. When the ferry from Brindisi comes in it creates too much wash.
We've never stayed in Lassi but we stayed in Katelios and Scala when they were still relatively quiet. There's also a nice place we stayed in called Carretas Nest on the beach where the turtles lay their eggs about half way between Scala and Katelios. Very quiet because it is illegal to have bright lights or music after dark and no beach brollies allowed to protect the turtles. Brilliant to walk down the beach early morning and see the fresh tracks in the sand.
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Oops, forgot to mention.
If you like unspoilt beaches:
As you come off the Argostoli to Poros road to head towards Scala, after about 500m there's a side road on the right. The road doubles back on itself and there is a house on the right. Take the little track that runs along the side of the house and after a three or four miles you end up at a gorgeous secluded little cove with golden sand and high cliffs behind you. It's a rough dirt road so make sure you have tyre damage cover.
It's the zigzag road here:
www.google.com/maps/@38.0861429,20.6927828,2311m/data=!3m1!1e3
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I do not know whether it has changed since we were last there but we went to the top of Mt Aenos on what was a fairly reasonable road in a Jimny but then instead of returning by that road we took a very rough and narrow track which zig zagged down the back of the mountain through the forests and on the lookout for the herd of wild horses which live there. We did eventually have a 30 second glimpse of them before they disappeared into the trees. Magical to see them but very tiring drive.
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Very disappointed. Despite an array of 500s in various hues I was given the keys to a Micra. Probably ok as a town car. Very basic spec, arthritic, not enjoyable to drive either on the autopista or mountain roads.
Fortunately my friends, who arrived several hours later, got the keys to a smart looking Megane with a very tricksy touch screen and more get up and go, so the Micra will be left unused for the next week. Yet only a few weeks ago I thoroughly enjoyed hooning around in a 1 litre 3cyl 115 horse Leon from the same rental company. Such is life.
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I fibbed. The Micra was used every day. My pal with the nicer Megane rental used it most days himself to go off and do scary things in the mountains.
It was actually ok as a very very cheap runaround...€13.50 ten days full to full. The basic 1.0 3cyl non turbo model with 71 donkeys. Or were they goats? Got me up and down the Autopista at a sedate legal limit, sometimes less. Hauled me up twisty mountain roads for my circular walks escaping the heat on the coast. Very basic spec, the air con struggled in the heat, 5 forward gears was one too many and my phone has better sound quality.
Mustn’t grumble. It served a purpose.
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Was it a new model Micra or one of the old ones? The newest ones look quite nice, at a passing glance anyway. We've had a loan, a couple of times, of one of the previous models when the Qashqai has been in for a service. It was ok for what it was.
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New model. Very nice looking. Trendy rear door handles. Unfortunately ( as I found after a little research) it was the old engine...1.0 IG Visia spec. The newer turbo engines have up to 117 donkeys so chalk and cheese compared to my elderly 71 goats under the hood.
I was spoilt with both the Focus and Leon which I’ve fortunately been upgraded to gratis on numerous occasions
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Last month for a weeks cycling in Mallorca we ticked the ‘Seat Leon or similar’ box and got a brand new Audi A1 S-line. Quite nice but illogical Spanish infotainment not helped with the volume button being almost on the floor, some distance from the screen. But the worst thing was the lane departure warning system! Annoying, and made me glad I was on the island to cycle and not drive!
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I suppose you're one of those annoying cyclists that clog up Sa Colobra and the old road to the north. I used to so enjoy driving them until the cyclists found them as a training route.
The last time I was at Puerto Soller, the railings at the harbour were completely clogged with bikes (I'm a cyclist).
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Yes I certainly am - it’s a great road Sa Colabra! But surely the coaches clog it up more trying to get round all those hairpins (26 IIRC)
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Currently hacking around in a 500 1.2 Lounge for a few weeks on Tenneriffy. Hopeless collection at TFS as I had a long walk to collect it, found more scratches than the paperwork indicated, no one in the adjacent portacabin ( as promised) to report to, walk back to terminal, told to mark scratches on paperwork myself which they photocopied. Tyre pressures very low. Once on ‘ motorway bad wheel vibration from 95kph so cruising at the limit is not very comfortable. No manual to change dash language....I may google and do it tomorrow.
Very underpowered for the gradients encountered recently, so glad my friend volunteered to use her battered old C5 instead. She thinks 120kph is the minimum speed on TF1, and was making very disparaging remarks about being chauffeured at only 100kph.
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FIAT 500 - It’s a Fiat - Zero
