The Citroen DS3 I had (it was the Sport model) is nothing like the the tinny little C3... it was a very nippy little hooligan!

Rental car roulette on my recent trip to UK and Holland came up trumps this time. Audi A4 Avant in Holland and BMW 120 M Sport in the UK. OK, so the Audi had German plates & german sat nav which was a bit of a pain in Holland, but hooning the beamer around the Peak District for a weekend was fun. And infinitely better than the last rental car I got on business which was a Crown Victoria in Louisiana.

Rental car roulette, I like that!

I'm in Calgary this weekend, and am renting a Fiat 500. I haven't driven one before, but it will be interesting to see how it drives. I'm hoping the handling will be better than domestic cars, but there aren't really many bends to give it some beans on in Calgary.

I had a Crown Vic somewhere. I stopped at a motel and was offered the AARP discount.

Our rental car in Ontario was a Kia Forte. We tried to upgrade to the Challenger sat next to it - too expensive (another $200 for 4 days), then we tried to downgrade to a Fiat 500.

It was a truly awful car apart from fuel consumption, the thing ran on fresh air.

OH has said we need to request a Ford for when we go back to the UK for Christmas, as he doesn't want any Renault gas guzzlers

Indeed. I felt I had aged 40 years and moved to Florida.

Which, the Kia Forte or the Fiat 500?

I park nose in and then back out, but for safety the UK busybodies are perfectly correct and the lot at Jinks employer smoking crack.

The reasoning is that everyone tends to arrive over a wide time window, but all leave at more or less the same time when the work day ends, so its safer to be looking where you are going as you leave, when there is lots of pedestrian traffic around. Maybe someone should explain that to them if it applies in that particular situation.

As you may know, Im a safety git on the JHSC here...

Sorry the Forte, the Fiat had just been rented 5 minutes before, so had we asked for that before the challenger, we could have probably had something fun.

I spotted this yesterday, outside the restaurant window and quickly/secretly took the photo with the cell phone.

It's just a typical example of the lazy and unskilled car parking that takes place in Canada. No effort made to centre the car, the right wheels are on the line and rear end of the car isn't even in the parking spot.

I'm assuming the driver was half blind, simply no excuses for this type of bad parking, ever.

Our travel agency seems to apply no logic or consistency in car bookings. A request to get a car with the sat nav option in Holland ended up with the Audi with Sat Nav built in. (albeit in German & with no language CD to change) it. Normally one rents a car and gets a garmin or tom tom unit to plug into the ciggie lighter and stick to the windscreen. Last time I rented in Holland (with the same request for Sat Nav) I got a Kia Rondo. Go, as they say, figure.


The Beemer actually was actually booked as a Fiat Punto at London City Airport. A request for something a little bigger, resulted in a complicated recalculating of rates which ended up with a price the same as the Punto for the Beemer. So I took the bmw.

The Mrs has a Kia Soul. I think it's a rather good little car. Roomy, well equipped, OK to drive and for the money well screwed together.

I've been using Avis out of Heathrow this year, because I believe it's the only hire company that you can choose a specific car in advance. The choice isn't huge - I've had the DS3 , an Alfa Giulietta , a Vauxhaull Corsa , and the other choices available are either a bit more mundane - Golfs, Passats, or unjustifiably expensive - Audis, Jags etc. I had the Passat TD estate once which was very nice, if a bit dull looking.

Last trip the DS3 cost me 352 quid for 12 days hire, which I thought was an absolute bargain. I can't think of a much cheaper or easier way to get to Norfolk from Heathrow and back again - having the car for the 12 days in between is a bonus.

For my summer trip back, I hired a VW Passat Bluemotion through Hertz. Cost me 342 quid for 17 days. I used a gold card membership number that another poster found on the web for me.

Not to spoil the fun of renting a whizzy car for a short while, but surely a local taxi company from Norfolk would come and collect you, take you home and then do the reverse journey 12 days later for a damn sight less than 252 quid?!

Ah well, if the ICBC is your ultimate reference guide to driving, so be it. Not exactly aimed at advanced driving though, is it?