2010 Mercury Mariner from Avis
Aug. 23rd, 2011 12:58 pmThe car we rented on the trip was a Mercury Mariner. It was a fairly nice SUV, with all the usual SUVish luxuries. It was also about as big as our Forester back home, but with an automatic transmission and a smart cruise control. It lacked the iPod interface, but we had the old FM-based interface from the Escort with us and that worked fine.
I liked the car. Not enough to give up the Forestor, mind you, or manual transmissions, but it was still a comfortable ride. The transmission was very smooth and reasonably responsive, so kudos to the developers for that.
I did like some of the ambient knowledge features, like the way the parking lights didn't dim until you locked the doors, thus using the familiar habit of "did I turn off the lights?" to cue the driver that the doors were unlocked. I didn't like the way it chose to lock the doors for you when you drove above 10MPH. The fuel gauge includes a "miles until empty" measure that the Forester doesn't have, but the trip reset button was difficult to find.
The interior dimmer was even harder to find. It was hidden way under the steering wheel. Like all such controls, it didn't dim the highbeams indicator. Equally hard to puzzle out was the rear window wiper controls. And the electronics and comfort control panel was a maze of buttons, most of which Omaha and I still don't know what they do.
There was a button that allowed you to light up the space under your feet, so you could see what was in the footwell. That was smart, but I fail to understand why the designer felt it necessary that the light control button wasn't just on/off, but cycled through eight different colors of light before reaching "off."
The woman at Avis tried to upsell us everything, and she worded her questions negatively. "So, you don't want this?" As if I should feel guilty, or something was wrong, by my not buying extra insurance above the coverage I already had. "This car is really small," she insisted, "A family of four should have a bigger car. Please sign here to decline this upgrade." It was very frustrating, and I'm sure she hates having to do it as much as Avis loves being able to sucker people into using the various features.
Reminds me of this quote:
I liked the car. Not enough to give up the Forestor, mind you, or manual transmissions, but it was still a comfortable ride. The transmission was very smooth and reasonably responsive, so kudos to the developers for that.
I did like some of the ambient knowledge features, like the way the parking lights didn't dim until you locked the doors, thus using the familiar habit of "did I turn off the lights?" to cue the driver that the doors were unlocked. I didn't like the way it chose to lock the doors for you when you drove above 10MPH. The fuel gauge includes a "miles until empty" measure that the Forester doesn't have, but the trip reset button was difficult to find.
The interior dimmer was even harder to find. It was hidden way under the steering wheel. Like all such controls, it didn't dim the highbeams indicator. Equally hard to puzzle out was the rear window wiper controls. And the electronics and comfort control panel was a maze of buttons, most of which Omaha and I still don't know what they do.
There was a button that allowed you to light up the space under your feet, so you could see what was in the footwell. That was smart, but I fail to understand why the designer felt it necessary that the light control button wasn't just on/off, but cycled through eight different colors of light before reaching "off."
The woman at Avis tried to upsell us everything, and she worded her questions negatively. "So, you don't want this?" As if I should feel guilty, or something was wrong, by my not buying extra insurance above the coverage I already had. "This car is really small," she insisted, "A family of four should have a bigger car. Please sign here to decline this upgrade." It was very frustrating, and I'm sure she hates having to do it as much as Avis loves being able to sucker people into using the various features.
Reminds me of this quote:
"Damned if I know. And that's the last fucking time I ever hire a car from Avis." — Herbie "French Connection" Sperling, when asked about the two pistols and a bloodied axe used in three murders being found in the trunk of his rented car.
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