by "E90M3" (e90m3)
Published 03/06/2017 at 13:00
by "E90M3" (e90m3)
Published 03/06/2017 at 13:00
Tags: E90M3 Rents
STARS: 8
So as many of you know, got a new job. This job is around 250 miles away from my parents house, where I unfortunately currently reside. All of this means that I would have to go on a house hunting trip to find my next place of residence. No problem, another trip to the coast of Georgia means a rental car. So I called up the HR person who is working on my on-boarding stuff and tell him I’d like to make a trip down there. He says that the company will get me a hotel and to save my receipts and they’ll reimburse me for miles. I say I was going to get a rental as this would be cheaper for both of us and he’s like no problem. We’ll rent that for you too.
Normally I rent from Avis. However the travel agent I set up the rental car with said my company preferred to use enterprise. Not a problem, there is one close to my parents house. So I have them schedule a rental and on the reservation it says Hyundai Elantra or similar:
Great, I’m getting another Hyundai. However, when I get there and the guy getting me the car asks if a Toyota Corolla would be fine, I say yes. I didn’t want another Sentra or a Hyundai.
About a mile into the trip, I look down at the fuel gauge and it’s on half a tank. Really? Hopefully it’s not an omen of how this trip is going to go. The only good news here is I get to fill up and I know the tank is full so I can get an accurate reading on fuel economy, knowing that the tank was topped up.
So I guess that’s where I should start my review, fuel economy. For the first fill up, I went 269.7 miles on 7.670 gallons, and for those of you who still don’t have your TI-84 handy, that works out to 35.2 MPG. I filled up the next morning, and on that tank managed to go 246.5 miles on 7.854 gallons; that tank returned 31.4 MPG. The combined trips netted me 33.3 MPGs. That’s 0.1 MPG better than the Sentra returned. Pretty much all of the first tank was highway driving and the second tank was a mix of highway and city driving, probably about a 50/50 split. I was satisfied with the fuel economy given it’s the best I’ve gotten and I was driving it hard. Now, while I filled up again, I don’t have info for that because I got the car half full and wasn’t going to fill it up to return it, I wasn’t very happy about having a car without a full tank. I know it’s my fault for not checking the fuel level before I set off, but come on.
Anyways, before this turns into a rant about enterprise, let’s get back to the Corolla and talk about power. The model I had was the LE, and apparently it’s got the 2ZR-FE in it, which is a 1.8L 4 cylinder with variable valve timing. This engine produces 132 hp at 6000 RPM and 127 ft-lbs of torque at 4400 RPM. It’s mated to a CVT. Apparently this combination will propel a 2014 Corolla S from 0 to 60 in 9.7 , which apparently is the same time they got out of a Sentra. I should note the Corolla S they tested has the same engine as my rental. That’s odd, I felt like the Corolla was much quicker than the Sentra. Maybe that’s because you didn’t have to floor the Corolla to get it to move. I feel like anytime I wanted to actually get up to speed, I had to floor the Sentra, whereas in the Corolla I could drive it like a normal car. The CVT in the Nissan was shit, I thought it was completely find in the Toyota. Yes, while these cars are not about performance, they still need to be able to get out of their own way. I thought the Corolla did a lot better job at this than the Sentra, while returning the same fuel economy.
My first annoyance with the Corolla was noticed a few miles south of Atlanta: cruise control. On flat land it works just fine, you set it at 78, you’re going to do 78. Once you get to a hill, you’re doing 78, then 77, now 76, now 75, then 74 before the computer is like I know I the cruise is set at 78, this mean I need to do something. Oh right, let’s dial up a lower ratio on that CVT and get back up to speed. It did this on every hill. The Sentra didn’t have the problem at all. It’d get to a hill and immediately would do what it needed to do to maintain speed. The Toyota? No. We’re gonna be varying speeds a lot. The simple solution would be to disengage cruise and use your foot; however, I shouldn’t have to. I know this is probably the car trying to be eco or whatever that means, but if I want to say to hell with the economy and do 78, then I want to do 78, the computer should abide. Now I did get tried of it slowing down on the hill, so I massed the accelerator to the floor and the computer seemed to realize that I wasn’t on an economy run and there was much less lag between reduction of cruising speed and set speed after that.
While we’re on the subject of cruise control, let’s talk about the actual cruise control interface. I actually really liked the cruise control stalk. It’s one of the better interfaces I’ve come across, and very easy to use. It’s about the best one, aside from the one in my M3, I’ve come across. They’ve very similar, I just think BMWs does it slightly better. That said this would be a very close second, good job Toyota.
While we’re talking about the interior features, let’s focus on the stereo next. I’ll be honest, it’s not very good. While it’s what were you expecting it’s a rental car, the stereo in the Malibu was actually pretty good. I was actually really surprised how good the stereo in the Malibu was. That said, this would still rattle the rear view mirror, with any song. Without any real quality, the rear view was shaking all the time, it was actually really annoying. It was hard to focus on what was happening what was going on behind me. Maybe I was just listening to my music too loud, or I’ve been spoiled by the M3, but I didn’t like the mirror rattling, maybe if there were some 12s in the trunk, but there weren’t.
Something else I noticed in interior was how scratched up the column was. Maybe it’s cause they still use an actual key like it’s 2007, or all the people who put the 37,633 miles on the car before I got it can’t find the hole. I was just surprised how scratched up this was.
The rest of the interior was just standard Toyota. Nothing really to write home about. The seats weren’t as comfortable as in the Nissan or the Chevy.
I didn’t find the styling to be that appealing. I find a lot of modern Toyotas/Lexuses to be over styled. It’s almost like they’re trying too hard to make their cheap cars interesting and it’s not really doing it for me.
So you said you were going to tell us if it was “grounded to the ground,” is it? Well, I found the steering to be among the better of the cars with electric power steering I’ve driven recently. There wasn’t really a dead spot and it was pretty communicative. I was able to chuck it into a couple corners and it responded pretty well. I was also able to push it to the limit on some of the interstate interchanges without understeering off of the cloverleaf. It’s no M3, but it handles well for what it is. It didn’t take off like a 737, so yeah it’s grounded to the ground, whatever the hell that means.
So should you get one? Between this and the Chevy, it’s a tough call. I’d have to test them back to back to recommend one. I think I’d lean slightly toward the Chevy because of its better stereo, seats, power, and auto gear box. However, if it’s this or a Sentra, get this.
I’m not sure how I should talk about this, but somehow I got a massive dent in the hood. I’m not sure if I missed it because it was overcast when I picked it up, but there was a dent like someone had jumped on the hood. I was worried it happened when I parked like a true BMW driver at my hotel, but looking at that picture, it looks like it was there when I did that. I was also only there for like 15 minutes and the parking lot was basically empty. I have literally no idea what happened, I think someone jumped on it to be honest. I sure didn’t hit anything. No idea when it happened; however, because I had it booked for me, the company had purchased the damage waiver. So the one time I need a damage waiver, I have it. Better to be lucky than good.
If you want to read the other installments of “E90M3 Rents:”
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"Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap" (ddadragon)
03/06/2017 at 13:07, STARS: 0
I think Toyota has used the exact same cruise control for quite a while.
"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck)
03/06/2017 at 13:08, STARS: 0
“I’m not sure how I should talk about this, but somehow I got a massive dent in the hood. I’m not sure if I missed it because it was overcast when I picked it up, but there was a dent like someone had jumped on the hood.”
This is why I always take pictures of my rentals on delivery. The insurance is also a fantastic thing to have. Someone backed into one of my rentals in a parking garage. I didn’t have to pay a dime, although there was much fighting between the rental company and American Express before the bill was paid.
"boredalways" (boredalway666)
03/06/2017 at 13:08, STARS: 1
I thought Camrys could only be grounded to the ground? Guess I learned something new today.
"TheTurbochargedSquirrel" (thatsquirrel)
03/06/2017 at 13:12, STARS: 0
Is it still designed for people with short legs? My 2006 was awful in that I either had to have my arms fully outstreched to reach the wheel or have my knees rammed into the dash.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
03/06/2017 at 13:19, STARS: 0
I had the insurance, so I was fine. I was really happy that the place that booked the car for me had gotten that option.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
03/06/2017 at 13:20, STARS: 0
Think you’re right. It was the same on the 2014 IS250 I test drove.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
03/06/2017 at 13:23, STARS: 0
I’m 5'9" and I didn’t feel like I was cramped.
"BlueMazda2 - Blesses the rains down in Africa, Purveyor of BMW Individual Arctic Metallic, Merci Twingo" (bluemazda2)
03/06/2017 at 13:26, STARS: 0
How many Corolla dents did this Corolla have?
"dtg11 - is probably on an adventure with Clifford" (dtg11)
03/06/2017 at 13:28, STARS: 0
That cruise control stalk is the same one as in my 19 year old Lexus and our old 2001 Toyota Corolla. They’ve been using it for decades, but why fix what’s not broken, right?
"avalonian" (avalonain19)
03/06/2017 at 13:35, STARS: 0
Yep, and also on my avalon, but mine will pull going up a hill with cruise control.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
03/06/2017 at 13:38, STARS: 1
This was the first time I’ve had more than a 5 minute drive in a Toyota product, so it’s the first time I’ve gotten to use it. You’re right about not changing it if it works good.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
03/06/2017 at 13:39, STARS: 1
None, surprsogly. I could have put one in there since I had the insurance, but I didn’t realize I had the insurance until I brought it back.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
03/06/2017 at 13:40, STARS: 0
I found it not pulling up a hill to be infuriating.
"CompactLuxuryFan" (compactluxury)
03/06/2017 at 13:56, STARS: 0
That’s a decent amount of miles for a rental. The fact that it’s not an absolute piece of junk at this point (*cough cough* Ford Focus Zipcars) tells you why so many people buy this thing. It was never particularly good, but it’ll still be equally fine in 15 years.
"DC3 LS, will be perpetually replacing cars until the end of time" (dc3ls-)
03/06/2017 at 14:13, STARS: 1
Yey! I’m glad it has decent handling, because TBH I like how these look.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
03/06/2017 at 14:27, STARS: 0
Yeah I get why people buy these, I actually saw a girl while I was down there, she is not a car person like at all, she drives a Corolla.
"Tazio, Count Fouroff" (tazio0625)
03/06/2017 at 14:29, STARS: 0
Thanks for the review
It’s actually kinda pitiful if the default Cruise setting can’t hold hills
ON I-FREAKING-16!
!!
Hahaha *smh*
Avoiding hijacking the thread, these events provide (at last!) an idea for a 1st Oppo post, about once when no damage waiver and I wished there was; and once when — thank the Lord — the waiver was there. Now to try to recover the images from my just-crashed Dell hard drive... :(
Best wishes for successful trip and safe arrival back home!
"E90M3" (e90m3)
03/06/2017 at 14:42, STARS: 1
The cruise flat out sucked.
Don’t overthink posting on oppo, just write something up.
"Probenja" (probenja)
03/06/2017 at 15:02, STARS: 0
The US Corolla’s didn’t have an reach adjustment on the steering? I know for a fact the Japanese ones do.
"TheTurbochargedSquirrel" (thatsquirrel)
03/06/2017 at 15:03, STARS: 0
My 2006 LE didn’t. Then again it also didn’t have ABS. I’m pretty sure the only option it was equipped with was the automatic.
"Tazio, Count Fouroff" (tazio0625)
03/06/2017 at 15:04, STARS: 0
Haha guessing that “flat out” is relative?
"E90M3" (e90m3)
03/06/2017 at 15:09, STARS: 0
Yup.
"Vimto" (smudgey)
03/07/2017 at 16:43, STARS: 0
Your fuel economy in these articles always impresses me. I had a ‘15 Sentra (manual, however) for a while and never averaged less than 38 MPG or so. I bought a 2017 Elantra SE (non-ECO) 3 months ago and haven’t had a tank under 40 MPG yet.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
03/07/2017 at 17:52, STARS: 0
Do you do it manually or do you just believe the computer. I calculated it each time, and those were my numbers. It actually made for a good comparison since I drove the cars in the same manor on the same roads in the same traffic. I’m surprised I didn’t get near what the EPA said. So far, I get the expected mileage for the M3, the 128i and Explorer I had also got what they were supposed to get, I don’t know if I’m driving the cars too hard or something.
"Vimto" (smudgey)
03/08/2017 at 08:04, STARS: 1
I didn’t calculate manually for the Sentra but I do for my Elantra. The trip computer typically reads roughly 3 MPG above what I’m actually getting, so if it reads 45 MPG I’m actually getting 42. If I’ve had 11 vehicles from a Grand Marquis to a Toyota Tacoma, two Volvos to my compacts, and all of them have exceeded their EPA ratings except my 2.0T Fusion. Best I could do was 2 below the EPA rating.