Just a little whinge

[woofy]

If you don't give a s#%t what compelled you to post .

[aware]

Interesting to see that Europcar doesn't use Skodas anymore. Dad and I had to go to Melbourne in late August and needed a rental car (only went for 2.5 days, not enough time to drive) and needed a rental car. I went straight to Europcar and saw that they had Octavias listed - but if there was no Octavia it would be a Cruze or Lancer (probably even a Hyundai of some sort) - because there was no guarantee of an Octavia we ended up hiring a full size from Avis - got a Falcon XR6, which was quite a surprising car. Of course, because I didn't try for the Octavia, there were 2 Octavias in Europcar's space when we left (but they may have already been booked)

Normally I don't care about rentals, but I certainly would have liked an Octavia.

[pologti18t]

Probably a pretty obvious reason why the Octavia is off the books. They are all turbocharged now. This could have implications, in certain states, as to who could rent them and other issues with refueling. Far easier to stock cars that run a normally aspirated engine, a torque converter auto and run on 91RON.

I get a corp discount through work for rental cars. XR6/SV6 for the same money as a povo Corolla/Lancer.

[VRS147]

We had the similar experience with Europcar back in March. Booked Octavia but got a Cruze. I was pretty happy at first since the car had only 18Km on the clock, we are the first customer. After we arrived at Gold Coast from Brisbane Airport, I went to their local branch and made complaint about this powerless car with strong plastic smell (headache). They didn't have anything to swap and offered me some allowance for compensation.Lucky we didn't use the car much over three days, otherwise I will be so pissed off.

I used Europcar rental in NZ twice before, they have Suzuki Kizashi now. Definitely my next pick if they still got it.

aware: we had a XR6 in NZ for 14 days, traveled about 3000Km. Its a comfortable car for log-drive, fuel economy is about 10L though.

[woofy]

After putting in a pref for the superb today, I got the sv6. I've been curious to drive one, but there are odd things with it, on being no height adjustment on th seatbelt. Have commodores always had that, our mid 90s falcon even had that. The other ie that the car seat loop, there is only one that you move between spots. Again I've only seen that in a Honda integra and my parents maxima. For a family car it's odd it's not very baby friendly, maybe the wagon has more?

I didn't see any superbs there today nor on the roads, maybe they are gone now? I saw quite a few in early Aug though....

[woofy]

I should add the big deal was in March, I expected a Skoda, and almost couldn't fit my work boxes in the Cruzes tiny boot. Had the same issue in July and struggled to fit two adult bags and a slim foldup stroller, even our 323 could fit that. I have to park a lot of painful places when working interstate. I don't mind the hyundais, just need more boot space. A falcon or commodore is always harder to get into some spots. There really is nothing like a Skoda in the market with the interior room in that size with a hatch either. Noone rents mondeos or 6s which would also work.