rogers2

Off topic:
I picked up a rental car this morning. I ask for the cheapest vehicle to rent. They gave me a mini cooper..

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

[QUOTE=Sulu;8405863] But the new Ford Fusion I drove recently (with the 2.5-litre engine, I believe, not an EcoBoost engine) was so smooth and refined that it changed my mind about the Ford Fusion -- perhaps the hype I have read about it is at least partially true.QUOTE]

Yes, the 2.5L unit is much smoother than the coarser 2.3L it replaced

What company was this?

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

I got to believe the Mini may have been the cheapest rental they had left on the lot..

mmarshall

The Tempo/Topaz twins were actually fairly well built, overall....certainly better than their defect-ridden GM and Chrysler X-Body/K-Body competition, which were both awful. Their only real problem (as I remember from test-driving them) were the balky carburators which usually ran too lean and caused drivability problems. But that was typical with many carburators (emission-controlled ones)...and a prime reason the industry switched to EFI. In fact, IMO, the switch to EFI took too long. It should have come in the 1970s, not the late 1980s when it actually did. Too many poor-running new cars were built in those years as a result.

mmarshall

One reason rental car agencies like the American-badged vehicles is that, on the average, parts and service for domestically-designed vehicles are generally cheaper. This lowers the amount of money that the firms have to spend on them to keep them maintained, especially after they rent them out to careless drivers who are hard on them.

I say domestically designed, of course, because so much of today's auto industry is global, and some "American" vehicles are actually rebadged European or Asian-designs.