The EspadaIII car rental thread

....I suspect that, with what the BBC is paying you, you can afford a few of those.......

;-)

My Alloa trip did go ahead today thanks to Flybe. Planes to and from Edinburgh arrived on time - thank you.

Rented a car from a division of Europcar called Inter Rent. They demanded my passport, which given I was on Scotland and they have not yet declared independence, I did not have. Stalemate, until the desk jockey says 'can you access your bank statements online?'. Yes I can, so all sorted. Gave me a Fiat 500. I really want to like these, but the steering wheel is too big, there is not enough 'sparkiness' and the Italian gorilla was clearly in the studio when the driving position was designed.....

Mainly open road driving which gave about 54 mpg over 70 miles. Happy to hand it back. The two best small cars I have driven recently have been the 2012 i10 in our fleet (vastly superior to last weeks Corsa and today's 500 in terms of all round function) and a two Mk1 107/C1 clones which were fun and sparky.

Main complaint today was the fuel situation. The electronic fuel gauge has eight segments. After five miles I lost one segment and then only lost one more the rest of the day. After 70 miles, I filled up (properly) and put in 11 litres which equals 29 mpg. So someone has been fiddling the fuel as the on board trip said 59mpg and they are usually 10% optimistic. No way a Fiat 500 is doing 29mpg over 70 miles of open road driving in top gear at no more than 60mph.

Anyway glad to be home; feels like a hard day even though I haven't really done much - mainly because I got up early. I think next time I'll drive. The total return journey time today was about nine hours plus about 90 minutes of hanging around for the flight home. By car it would have been about eight hours in total. And driving up to Scotland is such a pleasure compared to going anywhere south.

One of the guys I met today, holidays every year by St Ives. He lives in Glasgow and drives down. That's a road trip I wouldn't fancy. Must be a ten hour drive.

We had a similar vehicle a few years ago in California. Similar problems and the rear most seats were definitely weird. You sat in a jack knifed position with knees by your ears. Kids hated it.

Yes - first time I have flown, usually drive.  Think I will revert to my usual mode in the future.  Flying there probably saved no time at all, as if I had left home at 6:30 and driven I would have arrived in Alloa at the same time as I did yesterday.  However, when I was ready to come home, I had a lot of time spare before my flight took off, whereas, had I simply turned south in the car, I would have been well into Lancashire before the flight was boarding and probably home before the flight landed, leaving me with at least another hour to get home.  

Oh yes. Whilst on a 'business flight' like to Edinburgh, most people are decent, walking through Manchester Airport and even Edinburgh last afternoon, was really yucky.

The safety of your own car is an oasis of calm.

Oh Lord, save me from the great unwashed.... Literally.

Daughter has been visiting Grandma in London. Espadrille took her down by train on Wednesday last week and I was tasked with retrieving her today by meeting her at Milton Keynes today. Got the train down and went First Class (only an extra £6). Train home did not have seats reserved so on we get onto a fairly busy standard class carriage.

Ugh..

Firstly, lots of people think it acceptable to take up two seats, by piling bags on the empty one, or sprawling over two and going to sleep.

Secondly, people who have clearly been up all night, wearing party gear, coughing, snorting, sniffing, picking their nose (and that's the women). The smell of the unwashed is revolting.

Sorry, I know I'm almost as much of a snob as Espadrille (at least I would drive a Skoda), but the only reason for not driving is that the traffic going south from Manchester is so heavy that it is never a quick journey, especially with long stretches of the M6 reduced to 50mph.

Right, as you were. Rant over. Pity this train journey isn't.