3 Differnt Hire Cars in a week. FG, VE and Jetta

[Falcon_Crazy]

The V8s are boring so thought id pen the below.

Spent last week in FNQ and had the opportunity to hire 3 hire cars. Our company has a great deal with Hertz which provided me with cars in Mackay and Townsville. In Cairns, Hertz were fully booked so I opted for Europcar.


Each time I requested a full size car – Hertz offer Aurion on the website and Europcar the Falcon. The result was three different cars


FG XR6 in Mackay with 9,800km

VE Omega in Townsville with 48,000km

VM Jetta Diesel in Cairns with 21,000km


Distance Travelled

In Mackay in clocked up 190km over two days in a mix of highway and stop start driving ( I was undertaking some testing for work).

In townsville, I clocked up the same 190km in a similar mix of driving as I had done in Mackay.

In Cairns, I clocked over 360km which included a 170km return pure highway trip to Innisfail. Balance of Km were stop start in urban stuff in Cairns.


Air Conditioning

I love the hot weather and rarely use the air con in my utes. Air Con was used sparingly in the XR6 and the Omega – only time it was used was when I was on the phone and driving to remove wind noise. I couldn't use the air con in the Jetta because of the foul foot odour smell it emitted – as I was on the phone for 90% of the day, meant I lost a few kilos sweating!


Outside

XR6 – I love the look of the XR6 – the front is very 'fat' in all the right places, and the look form the back is on the hon in my book – always happy following an FG sedan! It was finished in a graphite colour and paint finish was excellent. All plastic panels sharing same paint finish. Would have preferred the lok from the side if it had the 18”, but even the standard wheels suffice.


The poor old Omega – it is dating in a big way. It was silver, the front and rear bumpers noticeably different shades of silver – im yet to see a Commodore have panels and plastic sharing same shade of colour. Even the HSVs show up different. The guards are so big – it looks plain silly on base models and the stubby nose not to my liking.


The Blue Jetta looks dated from the front – I think there are newer looking VW out there. Not a fan of the circular lights at the rear. I really didn't do much for me from any angle.


Inside

I obviously have a preference for the Interior on the FG as Ive spent 50,000km driving one. The seats are great, the driving positin is nice and the switch gear is logical. Ive never opened the owners manual. Whilst I like the blue instrument cluster, I am not however a fan of the blue on the ICC – at night or morning, I find it harder to pick up the buttons. I much prefer the green/white of my BA RTV.


The interior of the Dunnydore is, like the outside, so dated. It looks cheap and not all that different from the previous model which stood out as dated against the BA. Im not a fan of the window switches being in the centre console which is basically 'flat'. The handbrake is a joke – enough said. The gear lever was not aligned with the shift position but it is a hire car!


The green back dash and centre trip computer area was very easy to read at night. The Cruise switchgear is hidden behind the steering wheel.

The seats were not at all comfortable. I know this is the base model so rather than compare to the FG, I will compare to my BA RTV which shared seats with an XT. Having travelled 223,000km in my RTV, I know which I prefer!


The Jetta – where to start. The seats were the most uncomfortable things I have ever sat in – I could not find a comfy position or lumbar position. The radio required a bit of thought and I gave up working out the fader etc – no way I was getting the manual out. It did have auto up and down windows for all 4 – was a lifesaver given I had no air con!


The switchgear was appalling. Cruise control was on the indicator stalk (on left hand side) and, like the dunnydoor, partially obscured by the wheel. The wiper lever (on the right) had a shocking feel to it when moved (Which was often as I I got used to them being on “wrong” side of wheel). The trip computer was red – it was a real distraction. I associate red lights in a dashboard with an issue.


The Drive

Most here know how good the FG is to drive. My XR6 was fitted with the 5spd auto which, is up there, but nothing like the ZF 6 Spd. Im a real fan of the mapping of the FG fly by wire throttle. Some find it too sensitive – I jump between my BA and FG and have no issue. Its always good to get behind the wheel of a sedan compared to my Ute.


The I6 is such a sweet motor and even NA motors are such a joy to drive. Dump the loud pedal and hold on as you are forced into the back of the seat. Im not going to say much only that it was my choice of all three.


The Omega – wow what a let down. Rubbish traction control, a lifeless engine and shocking auto which never new how to kick down. It was like stepping back in time compared to the FG and I would struggle to live with it if I had one as a work car. The engine needs to rev, but offers little. I just could not find a sweet spot in the thing on highway or around town. If this is Australia's number one car, a lot of fellow country men settle for rubbish – a worry!


The Jetta was my first experience with a non 4WD diesel. First thing to note was how loud it wa – seemed very unrefined compared to newer oil burners. Its 6 spd auto in non 'sports' mode took a bit to get used to. There was MASSIVE turbo lag in non sports mode from rest or say, 40km/h booting it to 60km/h. IN sports mode, it held lower gears and kept revs up – much beter car, but the noise was too much for me.


Give me a manual – may have made it better. ON highway or when over 60km/h, this motor did have some kick and I reckon it would be quicker than the Omega – it had some nice pulling power when allowed to rev out.


The auto had some good smarts, decelerating down thru gears when slowing for lights etc BUT when not in sports mode, would nto kick down when foot to the floor – simply hear the turbo wind up and then sometime later, it gets up a bit – not great for trying to get on/through busy roundabouts like there are up at Cairns – so used to instant torque of the I6 (in manual or auto form)


Fuel Use

The Omega and the FG were driven in similar conditions and over similar distance. The Falcon used 12l/100km. The Omega....15l/100km. Thats a significant difference if you ask me. The Jetta used 6.0l/100km which is remarkable. Not sure how much more it may have used if I had Air con available and there was 180km of pure highway. I did however give it the boot heaps – I was surprised at the result.


My obvious favourite was the XR6 but I am biased. That said, it kicked backside on engine, fuel use, transmission feel – you name it, it was all over the Omega. The Jetta is not a true competitor, but Euro cars (smaller sedans) are certainly an option for some 'Coon and Dunnydore drivers. It was not a bad package, but for my mind, needed a manual box to make most our of the clacker under the bonnet. It had a huge boot I might ad.


It still staggers me, that those who are not biased to Ford or Holden, would choose the VE over an FG if they drove them back to back.....

[Pinch]

Great comparo there.

I will get around to doing my experiences over the last 12 months, which included an Aurion Prodigy, Aurion Presara, VE Calais, G6E (Great Ocean Road trip - yeah!), and a VE Statesman.

Absolute fav was the G6E (and I am not an absolute loyalist, just calling it as it is). THAT gearbox is phenominal. Love a ZF! Rest of the car was just as much a delight, especially round the GOR and the highway. Easy to manouvre in an absolute rotter of a carpark in a Melbourne CBD hotel. Only let down is no electric adjustment on the passenger seat. Steering, ride, handling - all superb (and I don't use the superlative lightly). It is now my default Thrifty Blue Chip car.

Next down was the Statesman, excellent cruisy car for a quick, long-distance haul (it was much cheaper than flying at the time). Highlight was everone getting out of it's way (black), lowlights was the 5 speed auto (same as the Omega and Calais I think). New Statesmans and high series Commodores have a 6 speed which I am yet to try so judgement reserved on the absolutle newbies (I think came on from October last year). Seats not as good as G6E (or my old BA XR6 for that matter). Leather a bit vinyl looking.

Next were the two Aurions, especially the Presara. A little torque steer, but nothing outrageous. Nice handling and riding with plenty of power. Nice controls, leather and seats. Wouldn't be a permanent car for me due to lack of heavy towing ability but I wouldn't throw a hissy fit at the rental counter if handed the keys to these again (actually would be quite pleased).

Then the VE Calais. No real redeeming features. White, it looked very plain and much too Omega like. Maybe a VT-like cursive 'Calais' on the bottom of the rear doors or something??? Anything. There were dual pipes and slightly different rear lights for the trainspotters, but that was it. The 5 speed box was horrible. I almost had time to write Holden a letter of complaint before the box would change down in manual mode. Car only had 9000 Kms on it, which was the newest of all I rented. Ride was too hard for the base 'luxury' Calais, but would probably be ok in something like the more 'sport' oriented Calais V. Handled well though. NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) was the worst of the lot, with the exception of the Sierra!

Also rented a Suzuki Sierra Carribean in Thailand. Felt like I was Jason Bourne. It was awesome with big wide chromey's and a polished roll bar (and air con). Took it on the beach too, and it handled the big hills of Phuket pretty well.

Happy renting!

[nthnbeachesguy]

Have had an XR6 hire car several times, not going to comment on the engine, I don't drive 6 cylinders enough to try. The interior was fairly plain for me and found the driving position wasn't great nor were the seats. Are the XR8 seats the same?

I do like over and above Holden offerings the bluetooth and it's operation with the stereo. Threw me a bit to start with when you make a call and the music still plays until such time as it's picked up. Once I got used to it I found it a lot better, less intrusive than the VE which just shuts everything off as soon as the phone is touched.

Not to sure on the gearbox, I drive a manual but had heard good things about the Ford box. I can't compare it to much other than Camry's and a Nissan Tiida I drove recently but they aren't really in the same car class. Anyway the auto didn't astound me but it did a reasonable job of selecting gears without weird kickdowns or changing up to soon which is something I hate si I guess you could use the term "intuitive" to describe the auto.

Overall a decent car, just missing two cylinders or a turbo it would need to get on my desireable cars list.

[galaxy xr8]

Nice write up mate, I have had the oppourtunity aswell to test the Aurion/VE SV6 and FG XR6 my chioce by far is the FG, there's no comparison.
The handbrake lever on the VE is like you say a joke and feel's very flimsy and bites you hard when you realise it, I don't know how many times I caught my skin on it, and the cruise on the VE and Aurion is not user friendly like the FG is,
Overall the FG is miles ahead of both but the VE comes in last, I would have the Aurion anyday over the VE.
I actually have a FG XR6 right now as a hire car.

[nthnbeachesguy]

Hving owned a VE for 2 years I'm really not sure how you manage to hurt yourself on the handbrake, I just don't kow how you would manage it to be honest.

[galaxy xr8]

Originally Posted by nthnbeachesguy

Hving owned a VE for 2 years I'm really not sure how you manage to hurt yourself on the handbrake, I just don't kow how you would manage it to be honest.

Quite easy actually, look how and where the button is to release it and then look how it fold's down into the cavity to become flush with the console area, where I am used to a normal handbrake that doesn't sit flush with any component's when released,
When you grab the lever up the end to also release the button your hand is allready posistioned up high and follows the lever down into place grabing the skin in the process.

[azzss]

Originally Posted by nthnbeachesguy

Hving owned a VE for 2 years I'm really not sure how you manage to hurt yourself on the handbrake, I just don't kow how you would manage it to be honest.

Yeah, i agree i have a VE (SSV Sportswagon) and i dont have a problem with the handbrake. Its a manual aswell so i use it all the time. We had a VZ SS before this and a family member has a BFII XR6 and only for the VE one looks abit different, I carn't say any of them is better than the other.
Cheers.

[Pinch]

Havent hurt myself on the VE handbrakes, but I can see how it could happen. The box in the Calais also did not hold the car on hills. It was like I was driving a manual on anything but a flat gradient, had to do hillstarts everywhere! Not a prob in the same box'd Stateso though so might have been a fault with the Calais.

Bluetooth integration was about 6 of one, half dozen of the other on the Fords and Holdens - although needed the handbook the first time I did a VE.

Agree, Ford cruise so much better. Even my 1993 NC has steering wheel buttons! as does Mini, but Forester has stalk control (rhs).

[Mr Hardware]

Havent hurt myself on the VE handbrakes, but I can see how it could happen.

I have. I'm very lazy with in car controls and i more or less slide my hand off the front of the handbrake as it drops, and is ouch in a VE.

Great writeup Falcon Crazy.

[nthnbeachesguy]

I think cruise is something that you get used to. I hated the fact it was in a different spot on the Ford and really didn't like it, when I got used to it I found it ok but preferred what I was used to. Push button in cruise is on, flick down when at required speed, flick up to resume or accelerate, each flick up or down seems to increase or decrease speed by 1kmh which is nice for fine tuning.

[Burnout]

Good write up there FC, interesting the VE was beaten so easy by the FG, it never turns out that way in the motoring press.

[TUF_302]

Excellent write up there mate, im suprised how much you disliked the Jetta, you would expect it to be alot better since its a European car

Its no suprise the VE was beaten easily by the FG, the FG is a far better car in all areas!

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by TUF_302

Excellent write up there mate, im suprised how much you disliked the Jetta, you would expect it to be alot better since its a European car

Its no suprise the VE was beaten easily by the FG, the FG is a far better car in all areas!

I have been inside a base model Diesel Jetta, looked very cheap and outdated.

[Wardo]

Have only driven the VE at work a couple of times.

Nothing seems to be quite the right shape or comfortable to use. Really hate the 70's hand brake. The most jarring thing I found was that it feels big and chunky on the inside but the door handles are tiny, really out of place

[phillyc]

Originally Posted by Wardo

Have only driven the VE at work a couple of times.

Nothing seems to be quite the right shape or comfortable to use. Really hate the 70's hand brake. The most jarring thing I found was that it feels big and chunky on the inside but the door handles are tiny, really out of place

Apart from the dodgy handbrake design, the so-so interior I found the really disconcerting part of driving the VE's at work is the A-Pillar.

I noticed myself moving my head about trying to 'look around' the A-pillar. There is quite a dangerous round about at the exit of my workplace and I dreaded driving through it in the VE. It's easy to see why so many VE's have been T-Boned (there is 2 very large smash repairers on the way to work) and they almost always have a VE with side-damage (which doesn't look to be a loss of control). Guess it's a good way to write them off and increase sales!