Gessel On…

The Cadillac was a surprisingly pleasant and responsive car.  It is definitely a heavy thing, and while the V8 seemed quite powerful, it did not jump like a scalded cat… or even a mildly surprised cat when one stomped on the accelerator.   However an inattentive foot would easily close on 100 on the highway without any clear indication that excessive speed was being achieved.

The DTS seems like a “sporty” model with firm seats and a suspension that is designed to avoid the cartoonish body roll that exemplifies luxury American cars.  But, amusingly, only one axis was identified: while the car handles turns very well, it pitches like a steamer under acceleration; pitching so much that the headlight beams come off the tarmac if you floor it at night.

As rentals go, it is quiet and comfortable and sportier than a Taurus, it is definitely a premium rental with a premium sound system and over the top automation.

The Buick Allure is similar to the Toyota Avalon in form and function, but isn’t quite up to the task. The Buick is a nominally acceptable American car, but Buick dashboards are (and always have been) these strange, broad flat things that don’t really appeal to me. The car is a reasonable four door sedan, neither particularly bad at anything nor particularly good.

• Quiet - generally quiet, but got a bit noisy on the 401. The AC system is a bit too zealous - it’s hard to just get a vent function on a nice day and the windows open are noisy.
• Comfortable - fairly comfortable.
• Engine - a moderate engine, responsive but not astonishingly so.
• Suspension - it works well enough but isn’t super agile.
• Basic amenities - everything that could be reasonably powered is.
• Stereo - it was good enough but the high frequency speakers point straight to the center and so it sound unbalanced (the driver’s side tweeter pointing at the passenger and being inaudible to the driver).
• Security - the trunk is large and secure.

The Toyota Avalon is a very nice car - comfortable and large. The engine is powerful and the car is spry for it’s size, quite capable of zipping past a string of cars to make an exit.

We took it up commonwealth avenue in Boston, a street with a far, far less than perfect surface and it the suspension never got upset, nor did it get noisy in the car. While the car is roomy it is easy to navigate though narrow streets filled with stochiometric Boston drivers and pedestrians.

We found the stereo plenty loud and very quite good. The car came with satellite radio, which is kind of entertaining - a punk channel even - but doesn’t work all that well under trees or on narrow urban streets; just blacking out is a bit more annoying than the fade out of standard radio and we find ourselves tuning into the very fine local radio. The radio cover door is a bit over the top: why would you want to cover a radio? It isn’t for security - it’s just aesthetic and makes the radio hard to control when closed by the door edge is ugly when open.

• Quiet - very quiet, very silent.
• Comfortable - extremely comfortable and easy egrees. Well designed controls.
• Engine - fast, powerful and quiet.
• Suspension - very agile and stable. Never got upset.
• Basic amenities - everything that could be reasonably powered is.
• Stereo - excellent sound quality though the low frequency isn’t hip hop friendly.
• Security - a large, roomy, secure trunk.

This week i got a new Ford Taurus X, an interesting rental car. It’s an SUV type vehicle, oversized and overaccesorized, but a surprisingly pleasant vehicle that’s fairly easy to drive and comfortable.

Now the theory is that such a car would be good for off-road use or something since it has four wheel drive, but that’s really not happening. Better to think of it as a minivan with a nose and some extra weight in the drive train. Desipite the foolishness of SUVs in general, and especially given gas prices, the car had some neat features.

The Pontiac Grand-Am is actually kind of fun.  It handles fairly well and has a powerful engine that makes it a little too easy to spin the back wheels.  Not the quietest car I’ve driven, but the stereo was loud and sounded fine.

The Chevy Impala is a fairly typical American car - actually a little more comfortable than the buick.

A typical American boat - the Buick is big and heavy and squishy and not exactly my type of car. I don’t really like the over-plush seats or squishy suspension. The faux wood interior styling isn’t really my thing either.

I rent a lot of cars, and sometimes Hertz gives me something a little more interesting - like this Volvo V50. It’s a lot more comfortable than the usual Tauri, faster, and has a better stereo. The key features of a rental car are:

1. Quiet - this car is about as quiet as any I’ve rented except perhaps the Audi A4.
2. Comfortable - the V50 is a little less roomy than a torus, but I find the layout fits very well and doesn’t feel at all cramped.
3. Basic amenities - I’ve gotten rental cars with manual windows or manual seats and mirror adjustments. It would matter less in one’s own car or just driving around, but realizing the mirrors are out of wack as you try to merge onto the freeway that is probably taking you the right direction before the GPS has locked satellites and discovering that you have to reach over, unroll the window, and poke at the mirror is sub optimal. The Volvo has everything you’d expect.
4. Stereo - up here in Canada I listen to CBC-R2. Good classical and some funky music too. It’s nice when it sounds good. The Volvo has a great stereo that performs well at any volume and isn’t absurdly bass heavy like a Scion. On the other hand, the Volvo doesn’t have an iPod port like the Audi or a MP3 compatible CD player like a lot of Mustangs have.
5. Security - I usually have a computer with me and sometimes it is convenient or necessary to leave it in the car. A trunk is a lot more secure than a wagon, and while the Volvo has a pull-out cover to hide what’s in the back, it’s not as confidence inspiring as having a solid trunk.