Just in case you'd forgotten: www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=76930
Basically for our Virgin Western USA flydrive we upgraded from an 'economy' vehicle to an 'intermediate', and I was quite looking forward to seeing what we'd get (3.0 V6?).
Well we got to Alamo in Los Angeles a couple of days ago, and what a disappointment! Walking down the row of intermediates there were a few Kias, Nissans, even a Ford Focus - all fine cars I'm sure, but not quite what I had in mind. The best of the bunch looked to be this one:
i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae173/focushj/DSCF0260.jpg (yesterday in Lake Havasu, where the old London bridge is)
It's a Nissan Sentra, which according to Wiki is an American Sunny. I think it's got a 2.0 engine, and I can confirm SteVee's comment that 'a small auto - especially in hilly country is awful'. Today I could not do the 75mph speed limit on the level without it dropping down a gear, and keeping speed up on anything like a hill was a real struggle. (It doesn't help that it pulls to the right a bit, so it's not that easy going in a straight line, which you have to do a lot of on this sort of holiday.)
Have American cars really shrunk that much, or should I have a moan to Virgin?
Holiday going very well BTW despite the car. Just 'done' the Grand Canyon today, Las Vegas tomorrow...
Last edited by: Focus on Thu 8 Apr 10 at 05:17
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I should add that Virgin give the Pontiac G6 as an example of an intermediate in their brochure.
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Holly smoke! its as ugly as sin as well.
you poor lad.
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>> (It doesn't help that it pulls to the right a bit so it's not that easy going in a straight line >> which you have to do a lot of on this sort of holiday.)
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Take it back and say there's something wrong with the steering and they'll probably give you an upgrade.
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yes tell them its unsafe.
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I get the impression that they are much more careful recently. My intermediate this week is a Toyota Corolla. Sadly, it doesn't seem to be as unstoppable as I'd been led to believe. Good stereo though, even if it's only non-RDS FM.
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I think for the kind of car you were expecting you need a higher category than Intermediate. I hired a car from Alamo in Boston a few weeks ago and had upgraded to Luxury (total cost about £200 for 5 days).
Walking down the line there were lots of choices, including even some high spec Ford Tauruses. I ended up with a Lincoln Town Car 4.6 V8 which was about the best there. Had been told it would be a Cadillac DTS or equivalent, which I would regard as a better car than that, but there were none available. A lot of it is pot luck I think as to what they categorise where and what is available on the day.
MPG wise even with that big engine, and cruising around 80, the bill for the trip of around 800 miles was less than $100.
Have fun in Vegas, was lucky enough to go there for a stag party last year, an amazing place!
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>> I think for the kind of car you were expecting you need a higher category
>> than Intermediate.
Thanks for the prompt. I've just looked at my Alamo receipt more closely - it says: 'Class Driven ICAR, Class Charged IDAR'. Now according to this tinyurl.com/38fchva an 'ICAR' is a Compact (which is what I would class the Nissan as, and the Wiki entry agrees), while 'IDAR' is Intermediate, which is what I thought I was getting. So I suspect if I had been paying for it myself I would have got a refund; as it is, I think I need to go to Virgin for it.
>> Have fun in Vegas was lucky enough to go there for a stag party last
>> year an amazing place!
We did! Didn't involve gambling though - had a couple of goes with about a dollar a go on some slots, but when we went to the roulette tables the $5 minimum bet put us off. Last of the big spenders us :)
BTW came back with some snow chains, which it turned out we needed for some of the drives (included passes over 8000ft). Didn't get to use them - you just needed to carry them. Just as well, because it would have invalidated the car insurance. Something else where I think Virgin could have been more helpful ie. warning about this sort of thing given the route and date of travel. We ended up missing out Yosemite altogether because it became practically inaccessible.
Haven't checked yet whether they fit the Focus - I think they might.
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USA flydrive - car choice (cont.) - Focusless
