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Shite Hire Cars.


Spurious

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Anyone else have some awfully shite Hire car experience?

 

Holidaying on the Croatian island of Hvar. The car we were meant to borrow fell through so as we'd not planned on renting anything it was a bit awkward.

 

Lo an behold the local eurocamp type campsite rents cars too...

 

Not used to the Croatian rural life I expected lots of paperwork and credit cards like the usual big operations.

 

Nope. Hand over 400kn (£50 or thereabouts) get the cars registration book and away you go.

 

It was a 2nd gen A Class with an alright 2l diesel, 110bhp. And on driving it initially it felt a bit loose but with 270,000km on the clock hey ho it was alright. Or so I thought.

 

Got it back to the apartment and it brightened up. Thing is full of dents, scratches and knocks on the bumpers. Two of the seat belt buckles are missing.

 

As we'd only three people in the car we thought, fuck it, let's go.

 

But I should have been wiser if that's the attitude to the cars upkeep what other secrets it's holding.

 

Driving back from Hvar to the other end of the island you encounter D116. It's an interesting road. There's no verge for 95% of the road. It's a sheer drop ranging from 10 feet or 100+. The roads barely wider than two cars passing, like just. If someone's straddling or crossed the line you've genuinely no room. Despite the road having a 40km/h (!!) speed limit for about 40km no one obeyed it. But it was the car that made it dodgy as fook. A horrible vagueness developed in the steering and it felt like the F Left wishbone was shifting on the subframe. It left the steering wooly and exaclty what you didn't want on a mountain pass with no room to spare. I was praying we didn't meet anything bigger than a transit van let alone a coach coming off the ferry. It also rained and the Chinese tyres which coped in the dry were hopeless in the wet.

 

I think we've all limped cars back to base that aren't well. And we've all driven bad roads where it's a bit dodgy. But the two together weren't pleasant and I couldn't wait to be rid of the car. Fortunately as it was a cash operation I threw the keys back and walked away from it.

 

4a281b74e19051fd60bc391ca293f649.jpg6b9551f1f2a680831d436da0eb54cec1.jpg

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Oh. Hello Tbilisi Honda CR-V!

IMG_20180530_203920.thumb.jpg.ad66525966c4115304d5cbed2f46dc5e.jpg

Yes, the rear suspension had collapsed. 

And the brake pads were down to the metal. 

And here's the battery:

IMG_20180601_160030.thumb.jpg.d50a901da3411ff41594292c8f67709c.jpg

Here it is when I decided paying £40 for a new battery was better value than £5 to a taxi driver for a jump start twice a day:

IMG_20180602_130209.thumb.jpg.3209eb0f85e0db77be5f7c6ee54f76b6.jpg

Still, the aircon worked and an awful lot of cars in Georgia look like this, so you know...

1226951683_IMG_20180601_170823(2).thumb.jpg.32ada6515d7b8a51a2a01406e0062373.jpg

(I rented a 50cc scooter on Hvar, it was terrifying) 

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I remember back in the day I had loads of hire cars for work, mostly virtually brand new with minimal mileage. However one day they cocked up and I ended up with one of the last Ford Escorts, some special edition or other. When they dropped the car off there was always the hire sheet which had a section for observed defects that the car already had, mostly the odd one or often none. This Escort had 29 defects and I managed to find several that they had missed, what a heap, it had certainly had a hard life and really looked like a typical hire car. It did get me there and back though, but I was glad to get rid of it.

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Oh. Hello Tbilisi Honda CR-V!
IMG_20180530_203920.thumb.jpg.ad66525966c4115304d5cbed2f46dc5e.jpg
Yes, the rear suspension had collapsed. 
And the brake pads were down to the metal. 
And here's the battery:
IMG_20180601_160030.thumb.jpg.d50a901da3411ff41594292c8f67709c.jpg
Here it is when I decided paying £40 for a new battery was better value than £5 to a taxi driver for a jump start twice a day:
IMG_20180602_130209.thumb.jpg.3209eb0f85e0db77be5f7c6ee54f76b6.jpg
Still, the aircon worked and an awful lot of cars in Georgia look like this, so you know...
1226951683_IMG_20180601_170823(2).thumb.jpg.32ada6515d7b8a51a2a01406e0062373.jpg
(I rented a 50cc scooter on Hvar, it was terrifying) 
Jesus the bodgery on the battery
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Year 2000.  We go on a family holiday to Orkney.  Stromness car hire promise my Dad a ‘brand new renault’.  We get there and what did we get?  A 9-year old, red Maestro. 

My brother and I wrote it a song.

’Looks like a brick,

Steers like a cow

Handbrake that doesn’t brake.

Farts on warm-up (boop boop boop boop),

It must be the Austin Maestro’.

 

Dad reversed it into a bollard.  He got out, looked at the back, shrugged and simply remarked that it might be worth more now he’s knocked some of the rust off.

I grew quite fond of it.  I was 12.

One day I’ll turn up at my parents’ house with a red Maestro, just for the look on his face.

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Went on holiday back in 2001 to Kos in Greece because a mate was working as a tennis coach at a posh resort out there and got me free accomodation. I asked him to sort out a cheap hire car for a few days but didn't expect him to go really budget!

Turned up in a Maruti 800 with a full canvas slide roof which was about 3 years old. Haven't got any pics of it at the time but it looked exactly like and drove every bit as comprehensively fucked as this one. Everything rattled and the only functional instrument was the radio.

 

1186622_Wallpaper2.jpg

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1 hour ago, Steve79 said:

Went on holiday back in 2001 to Kos in Greece because a mate was working as a tennis coach at a posh resort out there and got me free accomodation. I asked him to sort out a cheap hire car for a few days but didn't expect him to go really budget!

Turned up in a Maruti 800 with a full canvas slide roof which was about 3 years old. Haven't got any pics of it at the time but it looked exactly like and drove every bit as comprehensively fucked as this one. Everything rattled and the only functional instrument was the radio.

 

1186622_Wallpaper2.jpg

It's probably still there and still being driven.

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4 hours ago, Robson3022 said:

Not a hire but was given a brand new Jazz last week as a courtesy car. 7 speed auto gear box, was the most dangerous car I have driven. Accelerator pedal just made things louder not faster! Had a manual from them previously which was ok. This was awful!

 

I once got lumbered with  a Ford Fiesta as a loan car for a couple of days and 3rd, 4th and 5th were all useable but none of them made any increase in speed, louder but no speed, undoubtedly the worst Fiesta I have even driven. It eventually maxed at 55mph, very useful.

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When I went to NZ I managed to find a discount car rental company (public transport there is largely non-existent) and got this bad boy for only £15 a day. Corolla full time 4*4. 1.5 auto so a bit slow but averaged 40 mpg so not too bad. 100% solid car though and drove brilliantly for something with 200k on it!

10830066_490098344462145_906524643613458

 

Also RE post above I am pretty sure Georgia is the most dodgy/dangerous country in the world for driving. Blind overtakes at 1,000 mph on any bend, bumpers seem to be an optional extra, everything is an import (a lot of RHD Japanese stuff, black SUVs rule the road and you even get US 18 wheelers out there! Even being a pedestrian is largely terrifying.

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