Post by ChrisM on Jun 30, 2017 7:24:09 GMT
Long day on Wednesday, up at 4am to fly to Paris CDG. The hire car was booked by the company travel agency months ago, a Citroen C4 Picasso auto (or equivalent).
As has happened to me before, on arrival there is a puzzled look of "you want an automatic?" that seems to take the staff by surprise.
"Yes I do, it was booked many weeks ago". "We have an Audi A3 manual or I have to give you something bigger"..... which turned out to be an X-Trail 7-seat diesel auto, certainly a bit bigger than an A3, and in need of a wash - I've never had a dirty hire car on collection before.
Not sure what engine it had (I suspect 1.5 or 1.6 rather than the new 2.0, although it had under 1000km on the clock when we picked it up) and if the auto was dual-clutch, conventional or Nissan's CVT with artificial stepped gears, but it was H U G E. If I thought that the Kuga was big when I first drove it, the X-Trail is on another dimension, seemingly filling the space between the lane markings. I took my time extracting it from the rental car park but once out onto the dual carrigeways and autoroutes north of Paris, it was manageable. Ride was a bit bouncy and less confortable than the Kuga's, steering also not as good with little feel. It was quieter than my old C-Max but not quite as refined as the Kuga, with the transmission making a sound-deadened racket when on the move at any speed (hence my suspicions that it was CVT). The seats were as good as the Kuga's. No photos due to time constraints and lack of suitable place to stop anyway, 2 of us drove about an hour to a supplier, then back to the airport in the late afternoon via a very interesting shopping mall just outside CDG that had a huge underground car park with mercifully wide lanes and parking bays, so it wasn't too much of a torture driving the X-Trail in it.
There were plenty of toys on-board including power windows F&R, electric moon roof, rear camera, parking sensors front and rear, electric handbrake with a switch that was too far forward on the centre console to reach easily (but it released automatically when you moved off) and power folding mirrors (but they didn't fold automatically when the vehicle was locked).
Unremarkable apart from its size and the fuel consumption; OK The gauge was slightly over the full mark on collection, but after driving for well over 2 hours in total and around 120km, the gauge was still on "full" on return so we didn't stick any diesel in it and it was checked back in as "full".
As has happened to me before, on arrival there is a puzzled look of "you want an automatic?" that seems to take the staff by surprise.
"Yes I do, it was booked many weeks ago". "We have an Audi A3 manual or I have to give you something bigger"..... which turned out to be an X-Trail 7-seat diesel auto, certainly a bit bigger than an A3, and in need of a wash - I've never had a dirty hire car on collection before.
Not sure what engine it had (I suspect 1.5 or 1.6 rather than the new 2.0, although it had under 1000km on the clock when we picked it up) and if the auto was dual-clutch, conventional or Nissan's CVT with artificial stepped gears, but it was H U G E. If I thought that the Kuga was big when I first drove it, the X-Trail is on another dimension, seemingly filling the space between the lane markings. I took my time extracting it from the rental car park but once out onto the dual carrigeways and autoroutes north of Paris, it was manageable. Ride was a bit bouncy and less confortable than the Kuga's, steering also not as good with little feel. It was quieter than my old C-Max but not quite as refined as the Kuga, with the transmission making a sound-deadened racket when on the move at any speed (hence my suspicions that it was CVT). The seats were as good as the Kuga's. No photos due to time constraints and lack of suitable place to stop anyway, 2 of us drove about an hour to a supplier, then back to the airport in the late afternoon via a very interesting shopping mall just outside CDG that had a huge underground car park with mercifully wide lanes and parking bays, so it wasn't too much of a torture driving the X-Trail in it.
There were plenty of toys on-board including power windows F&R, electric moon roof, rear camera, parking sensors front and rear, electric handbrake with a switch that was too far forward on the centre console to reach easily (but it released automatically when you moved off) and power folding mirrors (but they didn't fold automatically when the vehicle was locked).
Unremarkable apart from its size and the fuel consumption; OK The gauge was slightly over the full mark on collection, but after driving for well over 2 hours in total and around 120km, the gauge was still on "full" on return so we didn't stick any diesel in it and it was checked back in as "full".