Your most surprisingly unpleasant hired car?

Clive_Woody

I once got a Rover 25 auto as a a hire car, awful car with no power, very noisy inside and miserable driving round the M25. Pulling out was fun desperately hoping that it might pick up speed at some point before the other traffic hits me. Very glad to hand back the keys for that one.

LandyAndy

While my company Golf GTi was having some bodywork attended to I was provided with a Daewoo Matiz.

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

TadleyBaggie

In the 80’s I hired a car in San Fransisco airport, was offered a Sunbird, confused this with a Firebird. Horrible car, used to leave it everywhere unlocked with the keys in it, in the hope that someone would steal it, they didn’t.

pogofish

One of the 1980s Rover/Honda co-production models.

It had a nasty/buzzy drive, clocks that were a law unto themselves and it broke down once a day every day I had it, which at least was sorted by the complementary recovery that came with the car and I eventually trundled-in to Newcastle Station car park with something that had fallen from under it on the road from Sunderland and abandoned the thing - with a note that described every fault and call-out I'd had to prevent them ripping me-off further.

I never heard anything from them again.

Stoke

TadleyBaggie wrote: »

In the 80’s I hired a car in San Fransisco airport, was offered a Sunbird, confused this with a Firebird. Horrible car, used to leave it everywhere unlocked with the keys in it, in the hope that someone would steal it, they didn’t.

As opposed to a Thunderbird

Stoke

pogofish wrote: »

One of the 1980s Rover/Honda co-production models.

It had a nasty/buzzy drive, clocks that were a law unto themselves and it broke down once a day every day I had it, which at least was sorted by the complementary recovery that came with the car and I eventually trundled-in to Newcastle Station car park with something that had fallen from under it on the road from Sunderland and abandoned the thing - with a note that described every fault and call-out I'd had to prevent them ripping me-off further.

I never heard anything from them again.

Would that have been the Rover 400?

Richard53

I (rather foolishly) bought a new Citroen Visa to replace my ailing Dyane. Within a month, the gearbox had totally failed. I was given a courtesy car while the Visa was getting its warranty repair.


A big, old, red ... Moskvitch. Slow, heavy, underpowered, and utterly nasty to be inside. The plastic was grimy, the upholstery grubby, and the interior smelt of wrestler's trunks. It is by far the most unpleasant car I have ever driven (or even looked at) and handing back the keys was a pleasure and a relief.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

That's reminded me of a 1994 hire of a Chrysler LeBaron (or some such). What I do remember is that it had a 3 speed auto with freewheel and tyres with as much grip as the brakes on the Titanic.

I'd been given it to get from San Francisco to Scotts Valley, where the main road was a windy concrete dual carriageway. On the downhill I was vaguely aware of some tyres squealing but as I was doing about 35-40mph thought nothing of it, until all of a sudden I was in a four wheel slide at all of 40mph - Lada handling territory. With no engine braking from the wonderful gearbox that was hairy.

That's when it wasn't trying to strangle me with the automatic seat belt mechanism.

lincroft1710

Not strictly a hire car, but back in the 1980s my Fiat Uno was rear ended and the insurance co provided me with a Nissan Micra courtesy car whilst the Uno was being repaired.

For some reason, the Micra had to be returned before the Uno was ready and the repairer was very apologetic hoping I would find the replacement car acceptable. So what was it? A Yugo? Lada? Skoda Estelle? 10 year old Allegro? No, a 2 month old Ford Orion automatic with electric front windows (which were quite rare on family cars in the mid 1980s). So much better than the Micra!

Robisere

During one leave period from BAOR, 1970 I think, I hired an Austin 1800 from a local hire company at a very cheap rate. Discovered that 'cheap' also meant 'cheap and nasty' when the full tank of fuel I bought, exited from the bottom of the tank. Recovered at their expense, another 1800 given with a full tank, again at their expense. Set off for Stoke from Nottinghamshire late at night, the seat mechanism attempted to kill me by suddenly shooting backwards without my intervention. As I am just 5'7" tall, I only just managed to retain control and stop. I was in the Peak District above and miles from Ashbourne, pitch black, no village therefore no phone box (remember those, they used to work) nearby.

I had insufficient light to be able to carry out a repair and could not get the driver's seat to do anything but slide back and forth without locking into place. So I rolled up on the back seat, locked the doors and slept, to be woken by a huge red faced constable on a motorbike. You can imagine the conversation... Eventually he took pity and ran me to the next village on his pillion, without a helmet "Don't you tell my Sarge!" The 1800 was again recovered and they gave me a Mini, with which I had no problems whatsoever. On my return to BAOR, I bought a car of my own.

I worked out that I must have cost that hire company about 3 times the price of the original rental, all because they did not carry out proper maintenance on the sheds that they advertised as hire cars.

In the early 80's I hired a gorgeous 3 litre Granada Gia for a holiday, after a particularly good win on the donkeys. It was so good that I eventually bought a second hand Fastback 2-door coupe, which I loved.