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so sick of crappy rental cars... we did: Mazda5, Subaru Legacy Wagon, Subaru Forester, GMC Acadia, all on extended (4-5 week) terms, with unlimited miles. I looked at them as long-term test drives which was illuminating wrt Subaru which I would have thought was a good runner up for Saab: nope! Never could get a Volvo, or Audi, or anything else I wanted to drive from the rental shop. That said, it was more practical than hauling the family cross country in a c900. BTW, the only one that hauled more stuff than a c900 was the Acadia. We load up big time on these trips (bikes etc)...
So we bought a used 9-5. The car is brilliant. The best highway car I have ever driven. Fast, good fuel economy + so much more comfortable than any of those rentals.
I will say though, the rental that started it all was a Ford Freestyle. We rented it for a week while the c900 was in the shop on vacation a number of years ago. It was pretty good, with roof rails, and while not as nimble and fun as our saabs, it was pretty comfortable + functional with similar space as a V70 or 9-5 wagon, and had no really annoying behaviours from a driving perspective (was nimble enough to avoid a deer). Ford Flex is the closest Ford vehicle to that, although I think it is probably less wagon than the Freestyle (freestyle= equal parts wagon, van, suv)...
I'm probably overly picky: I really disliked the Mazda5's gearing, dynamics, ergonomics/comfort etc - imho combined all the worst features of an econobox + minivan (though fuel economy was good)... Acadia was gargantuan + fuel sucking... the Legacy wagon was ok around town, but lousy gearing + comfort on the long drive (bad fuel economy also)... forester waay worse (gearing, awful driving dynamics/handling, sight-lines, fuel economy): wife hated it in 5 minutes + drove it for 1 hour total in a 4+ week trip... so it's not *just* me! It is tough to get the car you want from a rental company since they go by car class... but I was able to sometimes get what I wanted by booking early through the local office + developing a relationship with the owner.
On less long term drives, we rented an array of other very mediocre vehicles (Yaris, G5, Montana, Impala)... the pontiac was surprisingly less bad than I expected, but still not great...
All I can say is, last year in the 9-5, it was a dream in comparison... I don't understand why Saab didn't sell millions of those cars a year...
James...
posted by 67.158.66...
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