Car Talk 4: The Richard Hertz Rent-A-Car 500

[Apex]

https://www.carthrottle.com/post/the-al ... d-awesome/

New Defender coming in both 2-door and 4-door versions.

Is it me or is that thing hideous !?

I’m on its looks.
Will have to see one in person to make a judgement.

[Swedish Chef]

VW Polo. Brand new. No balls from the 1.0T. 7DCT loves to lug the motor and keeps it at 1200-1500 RPM. Tiny nugget of power from 2500-4K and then it’s done. Turbo lag. DCT combined with start stop is hilariously poorly tuned.

This car rattled and buzzed just like my GTI used to and it has 7k km on it on smooth well maintained roads.

Ride quality was acceptable. Turn in was good. You can tell it’s a beam axle. Handling generally good but I didn’t push it. Doesn’t get upset or knocked off line in a turn if you hit a bump. 1 wheel peel everywhere.

Cargo space was alright held 2 carry ons and a backpack hidden in the trunk easily.

Visibility is horrible. Wipers had a mind of their own. Nice radio and CarPlay integration. Quick touch screen so they finally fixed that. A couple infotainment freezes and glitches. Relays clicked when they got hot. Mysterious clunk sometimes from the rear. Nice seats but no lumbar so they hurt after some time. Decently quiet on the highway. Motor sounds like a washing machine.

I dunno. Typical VW. Wasn’t terrible to drive but I don’t exactly care about the car. I do think it was a nice overall size, what the Golf used to be. Like MK4 size. GTI model could be fun if it had like 160-180 HP. Boring looking thing compared to the Renault’s and such out here.

160-180hp would be completely in this segment.

Polo GTI has a 200hp 2.0T, but I’d still take the Clio RS.
Base 0.9Turdbo Clio would be just as awful as your Polo though.

Shows how VWoA were completely right in not bringing the Polo over to North America, especially if they’d have to import them from Yurop.

[D Griff]

I actually also rented a VW this week - 2014 JSW TDI in Denver. I rented it on Turo for 24 hours to go into the mountains for some hiking before my work week out here.

I actually liked the car pretty well. Same dash/interior as my MK6, brought back some fond memories and was mostly rattle-less and nice inside after five years and 62K miles. TurDI is definitely turd-like, it's OK from like 5-35 MPH and otherwise slow as hell but it did return over 38 MPGeees despite driving in the mountains and flooring it constantly. DSG was pretty cool... turbo lag made it still kinda feel like an old auto - you dip into the throttle and it does downshift instantly which is , but regardless nothing happens for a second while it builds boost. Driving/owning for five years kinda just makes other engines feel like boat anchors.

All things considered though, it's a comfy, stylish, efficient car with lots of space and decent driving. I'd give it a 4/7.

Whoa that’s odd, I wonder what the story of this car is. The tdi in 2 door form which is around 300lbs+ lighter than the massive jsw, was about as heavy and slow as you should have it. And it was 0-60 in 9 seconds already .... tons of torque from 2000-3200 but that’s the entire powerband. Dead below 2 k and above 3500 redline at 4k

My guess/impression is that he took the payout+fix and just leaves it in airport parking and Turos it. Probably thinking he could make more than taking the full buy back? Or could be someone who rarely needs a car (lives downtown or the like) but likes it for mountain trips, so it was cheap as hell to take the fix, keep it, and Turo it much of the time.

I just don't really see how he would make any money, I paid $40 to have it for 24 hours/200 miles... I'm sure utilization is 50% or less at best... seems like for the owner, obviously Turo takes a cut too.

[max225]

Whoa that’s odd, I wonder what the story of this car is. The tdi in 2 door form which is around 300lbs+ lighter than the massive jsw, was about as heavy and slow as you should have it. And it was 0-60 in 9 seconds already .... tons of torque from 2000-3200 but that’s the entire powerband. Dead below 2 k and above 3500 redline at 4k

My guess/impression is that he took the payout+fix and just leaves it in airport parking and Turos it. Probably thinking he could make more than taking the full buy back? Or could be someone who rarely needs a car (lives downtown or the like) but likes it for mountain trips, so it was cheap as hell to take the fix, keep it, and Turo it much of the time.

I just don't really see how he would make any money, I paid $40 to have it for 24 hours/200 miles... I'm sure utilization is 50% or less at best... seems like for the owner, obviously Turo takes a cut too.

Just more super smart people who don’t have time to “Uber” so they “make money” like this. Completely ignoring the cost of owning a vehicle. My buddy has a “business” turoing cars.... he has 11. He conveniently ignores the fact that he sunk 80k cash into this... and there is a bit of maintenance and depreciation going on.
But hey man... $3500 cash flow every month and his time is “free”

[MexicanYarisTK]

VW Polo. Brand new. No balls from the 1.0T. 7DCT loves to lug the motor and keeps it at 1200-1500 RPM. Tiny nugget of power from 2500-4K and then it’s done. Turbo lag. DCT combined with start stop is hilariously poorly tuned.

This car rattled and buzzed just like my GTI used to and it has 7k km on it on smooth well maintained roads.

Ride quality was acceptable. Turn in was good. You can tell it’s a beam axle. Handling generally good but I didn’t push it. Doesn’t get upset or knocked off line in a turn if you hit a bump. 1 wheel peel everywhere.

Cargo space was alright held 2 carry ons and a backpack hidden in the trunk easily.

Visibility is horrible. Wipers had a mind of their own. Nice radio and CarPlay integration. Quick touch screen so they finally fixed that. A couple infotainment freezes and glitches. Relays clicked when they got hot. Mysterious clunk sometimes from the rear. Nice seats but no lumbar so they hurt after some time. Decently quiet on the highway. Motor sounds like a washing machine.

I dunno. Typical VW. Wasn’t terrible to drive but I don’t exactly care about the car. I do think it was a nice overall size, what the Golf used to be. Like MK4 size. GTI model could be fun if it had like 160-180 HP. Boring looking thing compared to the Renault’s and such out here.

I'd definitely agree with Renault's, even the 2004 Megane that I used to borrow beats the mk4/mk5 interior design out of the water. Driving it doesn't feel as far off from an MQB platform, but with soft suspension and bigger tires of course. It's too bad we couldn't get them here.

Also I once rode in a mk5 Polo that had 170k km's so tad over 100k, and it was falling apart.

[Swedish Chef]

VW Polo. Brand new. No balls from the 1.0T. 7DCT loves to lug the motor and keeps it at 1200-1500 RPM. Tiny nugget of power from 2500-4K and then it’s done. Turbo lag. DCT combined with start stop is hilariously poorly tuned.

This car rattled and buzzed just like my GTI used to and it has 7k km on it on smooth well maintained roads.

Ride quality was acceptable. Turn in was good. You can tell it’s a beam axle. Handling generally good but I didn’t push it. Doesn’t get upset or knocked off line in a turn if you hit a bump. 1 wheel peel everywhere.

Cargo space was alright held 2 carry ons and a backpack hidden in the trunk easily.

Visibility is horrible. Wipers had a mind of their own. Nice radio and CarPlay integration. Quick touch screen so they finally fixed that. A couple infotainment freezes and glitches. Relays clicked when they got hot. Mysterious clunk sometimes from the rear. Nice seats but no lumbar so they hurt after some time. Decently quiet on the highway. Motor sounds like a washing machine.

I dunno. Typical VW. Wasn’t terrible to drive but I don’t exactly care about the car. I do think it was a nice overall size, what the Golf used to be. Like MK4 size. GTI model could be fun if it had like 160-180 HP. Boring looking thing compared to the Renault’s and such out here.

I'd definitely agree with Renault's, even the 2004 Megane that I used to borrow beats the mk4/mk5 interior design out of the water. Driving it doesn't feel as far off from an MQB platform, but with soft suspension and bigger tires of course. It's too bad we couldn't get them here.

Also I once rode in a mk5 Polo that had 170k km's so tad over 100k, and it was falling apart.

[MexicanYarisTK]

I'd definitely agree with Renault's, even the 2004 Megane that I used to borrow beats the mk4/mk5 interior design out of the water. Driving it doesn't feel as far off from an MQB platform, but with soft suspension and bigger tires of course. It's too bad we couldn't get them here.

Also I once rode in a mk5 Polo that had 170k km's so tad over 100k, and it was falling apart.

the megane's interior is ahead of time compared the mk4, but the mk4's design is clean yes.

[max225]

The regnault megane cup 265 that i had, had a FAR worse interior than a mk6, let alone a mk7.5. it drove way better than either tho... so choose your poison.

[troyguitar]

So what's the best way to handle a collision when you own both cars involved and they're on the same policy? Wife's car has a big ole camry dent in the RR bumper cover and mine looks like this:

Both have collision+comp but with $1000 deductibles. I've never made an insurance claim before and am reluctant to do so if it means rates for 10 years...

[MexicanYarisTK]

so today, I spotted a Jetta TDI with an LED Light bar attached to the sunroof with West VA places just weaving around rush hour traffic this morning and it was a really ghetto installation too.

[max225]

So what's the best way to handle a collision when you own both cars involved and they're on the same policy? Wife's car has a big ole camry dent in the RR bumper cover and mine looks like this:

Both have collision+comp but with $1000 deductibles. I've never made an insurance claim before and am reluctant to do so if it means rates for 10 years...

Why would you make a claim on a $1500 repair? Pay out of pocket and call it a day. Or better yet just roll like that this car was supposed to be disposable to begin with.

[CaleDeRoo]

Try the hot water trick on the Camry dent? Too bad you're decently far away that looks like something my uncle would probably take care of on both cars for less than the deductible.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

So what's the best way to handle a collision when you own both cars involved and they're on the same policy? Wife's car has a big ole camry dent in the RR bumper cover and mine looks like this:

Both have collision+comp but with $1000 deductibles. I've never made an insurance claim before and am reluctant to do so if it means rates for 10 years...

Why would you make a claim on a $1500 repair? Pay out of pocket and call it a day. Or better yet just roll like that this car was supposed to be disposable to begin with.

If it bothers you enough, start trolling junkyards.

[CaleDeRoo]

So what's the best way to handle a collision when you own both cars involved and they're on the same policy? Wife's car has a big ole camry dent in the RR bumper cover and mine looks like this:

Both have collision+comp but with $1000 deductibles. I've never made an insurance claim before and am reluctant to do so if it means rates for 10 years...

Why would you make a claim on a $1500 repair? Pay out of pocket and call it a day. Or better yet just roll like that this car was supposed to be disposable to begin with.

He fell in love with it

[troyguitar]

Why would you make a claim on a $1500 repair? Pay out of pocket and call it a day. Or better yet just roll like that this car was supposed to be disposable to begin with.

If it bothers you enough, start trolling junkyards.

Her car is worse. Again, I have never used insurance and never dealt with anything remotely like this - how do you know a $500 repair from a $5000 repair? Do you have to decide for each car whether to make individual claims or can they both be done together? Can plastic bumpers be PDR'ed and touched up or is it cheaper to replace them? Etc.

Pretend I'm here...

[Tar]

If it bothers you enough, start trolling junkyards.

Her car is worse. Again, I have never used insurance and never dealt with anything remotely like this - how do you know a $500 repair from a $5000 repair? Do you have to decide for each car whether to make individual claims or can they both be done together? Can plastic bumpers be PDR'ed and touched up or is it cheaper to replace them? Etc.

Pretend I'm here...

Work from cheapest to most pricey.. I would push whatever dents out by removing the panel or getting under the car and using a shortened broom stick or whatever...

Buff/polish the damaged area...

Add touch up paint to damaged areas, then lightly sand with really high grit sand paper, 200, 500 then 1000... try to focus on the high spots only.

Use a second cost of touch up pain in local spots and sand again...

Once everything is covered buff using a higher abrasion compound and finish with a polishing compound...

If you still dont like it get the skin repainted, there likely wont be any damage underneath since it was a slow speed light graze.

[max225]

If it bothers you enough, start trolling junkyards.

Her car is worse. Again, I have never used insurance and never dealt with anything remotely like this - how do you know a $500 repair from a $5000 repair? Do you have to decide for each car whether to make individual claims or can they both be done together? Can plastic bumpers be PDR'ed and touched up or is it cheaper to replace them? Etc.

Pretend I'm here...

Plastic bumpers, usually get replaced. A bumper plus repaint is about 400-700.

$5000 repair means full repaint of bumper, possibly a new fender and a light. You have scratches and at full retail it’s probably close to $2000. But why waste that time and money on a car that you don’t care about

[ChrisoftheNorth]

If it bothers you enough, start trolling junkyards.

Her car is worse. Again, I have never used insurance and never dealt with anything remotely like this - how do you know a $500 repair from a $5000 repair? Do you have to decide for each car whether to make individual claims or can they both be done together? Can plastic bumpers be PDR'ed and touched up or is it cheaper to replace them? Etc.

Pretend I'm here...

I've never used insurance either. I only have one experience with this.

When my wife got rear ended in the Volt a few years ago, I took the car to a few body shops to get quotes to decide if I wanted to do one of three things:

1.) Have insurance cover the repair...$1k deductible and I assumed I'd be paying for the portion insurance covered for a few years of increased premiums
2.) Pay out of pocket to have the body shop repair...I was willing to do so if the cost was under $1,500
3.) Fix it all myself

Body shops seemed to be afraid of the Volt and the batteries and as such wanted between $2k and $5k to repair. That seemed excessive, so I was down to option 1 or 3.

I took the car apart to determine how much work really needed to be done and put together a parts list. I found out at the time that a local offered GM employees deals on parts, so when I took my parts list to them the cost was $350 for everything. One of the body shops I got a quote from offered to paint the bumper off the car for $200, so I was looking at a $550 bill to just repair it myself.

That became a no brainer to me, so I ordered the parts and took on the work myself. It really wasn't that hard and the final result was perfect.

The only downside is there was a mark on the carfax when the state reported the accident. So the carfax noted a "minor accident" or something like that and there was no record of a fix that would have been there if a big shop fixed it. I figured I saved myself at minimum $450 (ignoring the increase in premiums) so it offset whatever the hit to residual it could have been.

To make a long story longer, I was with Progressive at the time, and they somehow found out the car was in an accident. I NEVER REPORTED IT OR TOLD THEM. They sent my insurance renewal with a premium for the Volt 50% higher because of the crash (of which my wife was noted on the police report 100% NOT AT FAULT)...which was an increase of $300 over where it was prior. I switched insurance companies, which dropped the rate back to normal. Insurance is such a fucking scam, it's incredible.

[CaleDeRoo]

Her car is worse. Again, I have never used insurance and never dealt with anything remotely like this - how do you know a $500 repair from a $5000 repair? Do you have to decide for each car whether to make individual claims or can they both be done together? Can plastic bumpers be PDR'ed and touched up or is it cheaper to replace them? Etc.

Pretend I'm here...

I've never used insurance either. I only have one experience with this.

When my wife got rear ended in the Volt a few years ago, I took the car to a few body shops to get quotes to decide if I wanted to do one of three things:

1.) Have insurance cover the repair...$1k deductible and I assumed I'd be paying for the portion insurance covered for a few years of increased premiums
2.) Pay out of pocket to have the body shop repair...I was willing to do so if the cost was under $1,500
3.) Fix it all myself

Body shops seemed to be afraid of the Volt and the batteries and as such wanted between $2k and $5k to repair. That seemed excessive, so I was down to option 1 or 3.

I took the car apart to determine how much work really needed to be done and put together a parts list. I found out at the time that a local offered GM employees deals on parts, so when I took my parts list to them the cost was $350 for everything. One of the body shops I got a quote from offered to paint the bumper off the car for $200, so I was looking at a $550 bill to just repair it myself.

That became a no brainer to me, so I ordered the parts and took on the work myself. It really wasn't that hard and the final result was perfect.

The only downside is there was a mark on the carfax when the state reported the accident. So the carfax noted a "minor accident" or something like that and there was no record of a fix that would have been there if a big shop fixed it. I figured I saved myself at minimum $450 (ignoring the increase in premiums) so it offset whatever the hit to residual it could have been.

To make a long story longer, I was with Progressive at the time, and they somehow found out the car was in an accident. I NEVER REPORTED IT OR TOLD THEM. They sent my insurance renewal with a premium for the Volt 50% higher because of the crash (of which my wife was noted on the police report 100% NOT AT FAULT)...which was an increase of $300 over where it was prior. I switched insurance companies, which dropped the rate back to normal. Insurance is such a fucking scam, it's incredible.

My buddy is battling progressive in Court. He was one of three cars in an accident, two of which had progressive. Home and the car determined to be at fault by the police. The car at fault had 100k of liability coverage, and my friend had 20k so progressive behind the scene has been working to put the fault on my friend so they have to pay out only 20k on 3 totalled cars. Luckily we have a mutual friend that works at progressive and looked into the case for him or he would have never known.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

I've never used insurance either. I only have one experience with this.

When my wife got rear ended in the Volt a few years ago, I took the car to a few body shops to get quotes to decide if I wanted to do one of three things:

1.) Have insurance cover the repair...$1k deductible and I assumed I'd be paying for the portion insurance covered for a few years of increased premiums
2.) Pay out of pocket to have the body shop repair...I was willing to do so if the cost was under $1,500
3.) Fix it all myself

Body shops seemed to be afraid of the Volt and the batteries and as such wanted between $2k and $5k to repair. That seemed excessive, so I was down to option 1 or 3.

I took the car apart to determine how much work really needed to be done and put together a parts list. I found out at the time that a local offered GM employees deals on parts, so when I took my parts list to them the cost was $350 for everything. One of the body shops I got a quote from offered to paint the bumper off the car for $200, so I was looking at a $550 bill to just repair it myself.

That became a no brainer to me, so I ordered the parts and took on the work myself. It really wasn't that hard and the final result was perfect.

The only downside is there was a mark on the carfax when the state reported the accident. So the carfax noted a "minor accident" or something like that and there was no record of a fix that would have been there if a big shop fixed it. I figured I saved myself at minimum $450 (ignoring the increase in premiums) so it offset whatever the hit to residual it could have been.

To make a long story longer, I was with Progressive at the time, and they somehow found out the car was in an accident. I NEVER REPORTED IT OR TOLD THEM. They sent my insurance renewal with a premium for the Volt 50% higher because of the crash (of which my wife was noted on the police report 100% NOT AT FAULT)...which was an increase of $300 over where it was prior. I switched insurance companies, which dropped the rate back to normal. Insurance is such a fucking scam, it's incredible.

My buddy is battling progressive in Court. He was one of three cars in an accident, two of which had progressive. Home and the car determined to be at fault by the police. The car at fault had 100k of liability coverage, and my friend had 20k so progressive behind the scene has been working to put the fault on my friend so they have to pay out only 20k on 3 totalled cars. Luckily we have a mutual friend that works at progressive and looked into the case for him or he would have never known.

Doesn't surprise me at all

[troyguitar]

[CaleDeRoo]

Holy fuck


She had no intention of looking behind her, unless the blind spot is yuge. Foot to the floor motherfucker!

[max225]

Was she drunk ?

[troyguitar]

Was she drunk ?

Sometimes I feel like I am the only one on the planet who takes driving as seriously as it deserves to be taken. It is by far the most dangerous thing that most of us ever do... yet most people treat it like vacuuming. I can't wait for autonomy to be mandated.

[Johnny_P]

Was she drunk ?

Sometimes I feel like I am the only one on the planet who takes driving as seriously as it deserves to be taken. It is by far the most dangerous thing that most of us ever do... yet most people treat it like vacuuming. I can't wait for autonomy to be mandated.

I can’t vacuum drunk while forum posting tho