I rented a car for my trip to Cleveland, OH from STL since my employer is paying the tab and oilBabe is taking the newest of our vehicles, a 2002 Sienna to Dallas at the end of the week.
So I reserved a G6, thinking that would be a good size for the 550 miles I'd travel. I get to the counter and the lady says we've got you in a G8, whatever that is. So I told her it was the new Pontiac, made in Australia. The first thing she says is can't we make those here?
Good question.
Anyway, the bus takes me to my car and it's in some boy racer orange, and looks like it has all the go fast goodies, with the hood scoops, the wide stance and the low profile tires, dual exhaust, etc. But the keys where no where to be found, so I hike to the office and the lady says one of the guys must be hanging on to the keys so he can take it home. About 5 minutes later, one of the guys brings the car to the office and I am on my way.
My first impression is that the controls are not well thought out. I'm sure I could learn to use them and did for the most part. Although I'm not sure what the settable overspeed alarm is for, and I don't advise you setting it until you know how to turn it off, LOL.
The red "LED" display for the stereo is impossible to see at sunset traveling east, so it will be washed out at times at sunrise and sunset depending on your direction of travel.
The seats seems supportive, and this example with 1800 rental miles seems reasonably well bolted together. The car handles well. I've not tried it on any really challenging handling yet, so my comments so far are based on how it "seems."
The engine doesn't match up to the looks. While I didn't expect a V8 in a rental ride, the car screams go fast, but the engine is just adequate. It's a heavy car and the 3.6L V6 is coarse under load. During cruise, it's fine, and so far, according to the display has delivered 25.3MPG is 35 miles of freeway and around town driving.
The 5 speed automatic has three modes, normal mode, put it in drive and go. There is a sport mode, drop it in drive and move the shifter to the right and it appears to use a more sporty program to shift, and the manual mode which allows you to upshift and downshift by moving the gear shift lever forwards and back in the approx 2" gate on the RHS of the mechanism.
The cruise control is difficult to work. The controls are on the turn signal lever and I've already signaled once trying to set the speed. With the other buttons on the wheel, why not put the cruise control buttons there too, or take a note from the Japanese car makers and put the cruise control on a small switch that I can reach from the wheel and not turn on some other item such as the turn signals.
There is already what appears to be some paint flaking, but I don't know if this is the result of rental car abuse or build quality.
I have another 1100 miles with this ride, so I'll let you know how it goes, get some photos, etc.
So I reserved a G6, thinking that would be a good size for the 550 miles I'd travel. I get to the counter and the lady says we've got you in a G8, whatever that is. So I told her it was the new Pontiac, made in Australia. The first thing she says is can't we make those here?
Good question.
Anyway, the bus takes me to my car and it's in some boy racer orange, and looks like it has all the go fast goodies, with the hood scoops, the wide stance and the low profile tires, dual exhaust, etc. But the keys where no where to be found, so I hike to the office and the lady says one of the guys must be hanging on to the keys so he can take it home. About 5 minutes later, one of the guys brings the car to the office and I am on my way.
My first impression is that the controls are not well thought out. I'm sure I could learn to use them and did for the most part. Although I'm not sure what the settable overspeed alarm is for, and I don't advise you setting it until you know how to turn it off, LOL.
The red "LED" display for the stereo is impossible to see at sunset traveling east, so it will be washed out at times at sunrise and sunset depending on your direction of travel.
The seats seems supportive, and this example with 1800 rental miles seems reasonably well bolted together. The car handles well. I've not tried it on any really challenging handling yet, so my comments so far are based on how it "seems."
The engine doesn't match up to the looks. While I didn't expect a V8 in a rental ride, the car screams go fast, but the engine is just adequate. It's a heavy car and the 3.6L V6 is coarse under load. During cruise, it's fine, and so far, according to the display has delivered 25.3MPG is 35 miles of freeway and around town driving.
The 5 speed automatic has three modes, normal mode, put it in drive and go. There is a sport mode, drop it in drive and move the shifter to the right and it appears to use a more sporty program to shift, and the manual mode which allows you to upshift and downshift by moving the gear shift lever forwards and back in the approx 2" gate on the RHS of the mechanism.
The cruise control is difficult to work. The controls are on the turn signal lever and I've already signaled once trying to set the speed. With the other buttons on the wheel, why not put the cruise control buttons there too, or take a note from the Japanese car makers and put the cruise control on a small switch that I can reach from the wheel and not turn on some other item such as the turn signals.
There is already what appears to be some paint flaking, but I don't know if this is the result of rental car abuse or build quality.
I have another 1100 miles with this ride, so I'll let you know how it goes, get some photos, etc.
