The base Cobalt is a craptastic straight to rental car company mobile that you can get for a really good price.
It offers decent enough pep (as long as you ignore the sound and feel coming from the vibration) and it is not the worst thing to drive.

The interior is pleasant from a distance until you make physical contact with the plastic.

The exterior design seems like they started off with a block of plastic and never quite finished.

The Cobalt SS is same plastic nonsense tossed on to an excellent drivetrain and suspension set-up.

Delete the spoiler option and it is king of the sleeper mobiles. Especially the painful to look at 4 dr.

The bigger the better, so you can use it as a hand rest. I don't like pistol-grip or penis shaped shifters, I like T-shaped ones because they are good hand rests and you can pretend it's a jet throttle.

Rented a Hummer H3 while in Vegas.


Unless you're completely going to take the damn thing off-roading... what a fucking waste. I personally would not buy one, I don't like the complete lack of POV around the vehicle, it's like driving a school bus with all the windows blacked out except for a tiny little strip.

Interior seemed quite cheap.

Had no get-up-n-go, but that's not why you really need this vehicle. I could see the usefulness if you took it off road, now, hopefully then that lil' 5 cyl. would have enough torque to get you up and over stuff.

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Pontiac Grand Prix (they still make these things??). It had the 3.8 which is smooth and very torquey, in fact too torquey for a FWD car imo. It didn't have the sport suspension, so the shock valving was very soft and allowed it to float and wander too much on the highway. Poor straight-line tracking. The visibility out the driver door is very good because of the low window sill, but at the rear of the car there is a big blind spot caused by the stylish C-pillar.



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The dashboard is slanted towards the driver, which is the correct design principle, however the plastic is very hard and brittle feeling. Steering wheel is too big for my taste, and the spokes were too low.



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Cool information display on top of the dash. Tranny temp ranged from ambient temp up to about 208 F. Also shows compass, tire pressure, oil life, voltage, odometer, trip distance, and MPG.



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When the car is started, the letters "GP" flash on the screen, which personally I thought was kind of chintzy, but I suppose it appeals to Pontiac's target market (guidos).



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The ignition is poorly placed, because it allows your keys to bang against the hard plastic.
Overall this is a good car for the price considering how low you can get them, but don't bother unless you get the sport model.

Rented a Chevy Malibu and a Chevy Impala recently.

I have a disclaimer, I am a big dude.

The Malibu, I liked, it drove very well and was very responsive. Good acceleration, very good handling, and surprisingly good mileage too. Very well laid out interior, excellent storage, and excellent fit/finish quality and appearance on the gauges. My only gripes were the seat, which was nicely bolstered, was a bit too narrow for my wide american ass and the door area was a little small for me. It made ingress and egress a little annoying. Really liked the car overall, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a four-door grocery getter that's also fun to drive.

The Impala? Too big, too soft. Seats weren't very comfortable, no bolstering at all. Handled predictably, but boringly, with almost no feedback. Anemic motor, car struggled at highway passing. Interior was well laid out, and the car was roomy. Also got very good mileage (both cars got in the low 30's while rolling on the highway with an average around 27). Upside is it's larger than the Malibu, thus more roomy.

Rented a Ford Taurus Limited.


Surprisingly strong motor. Transmission was fairly smooth although it felt as though it didn't have an overdrive grear. Cruised at an RPM higher than I would have expected.

Seat was comfortable but VERY firm. Interior was well crafted and layed out although the buttons were busy and not very intuitive. The radio didn't have a tune knob and it was VERY annoying to tune stations. There was NO volume control on the steering wheel. Dumb.

The exterior styling looked like a giant passat added to the chassis of an F150. Not very attractive.

Couple of things I thought were cool. First, when you turned the key off, the seat scooted back to make it easier to get out and get back in. When you got back in, the seat returned to your preset position. Second, you could raise and lower the brake pedal. I HATE cars where the pedal is too low or too high.

So, I decided to give a Hyundai a try........Or rather, I was forced to, since I arrived late and was given a crap car instead of the one I requested.

Anyway it was an Elantra with the standard 2.0........The engine was shit, no power at all, and it was very boomy from as low as 3000 rpm. Brakes were powerful, but came on WAY too abruptly, making it difficult to drive smoothly.

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Inside, the dash followed today's "pregnant" styling custom, where the center stack bulges out like a pregnant tummy in the middle and then recedes towards the bottom...........personally I think this styling tactic is ugly, I don't like rounded bulges.....I would rather have the center stack go in one straight plane towards the shifter.

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Two thumbs up for the climate control knobs, they were very simple and easy to understand, unlike a lot of other cars.


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Gauges were good, I like blue better than red or green. Steering wheel was a proper 3-spoke, but the spokes could have been higher because I like my thumbs to be up higher at 10 and 2.

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Rented a '08 Jeep Wrangler (4cyl, 4x4, soft-top) in Cozumel last week.

It's basically an Island turd. The clutch and brakes were sacked. The ride was typical Jeep Wrangler, but it was fun to drive around the island in it anyway. We had the top down, and the wind inside was fine.

2009 Sebring- Gas hog, not much to speak for in acceleration, but looks good and the interior is nice.

2009 PT Cruiser- Crap. Enough said.

2009 Accent- Cheap- drove cheap, looked cheap, all-around cheap. Nice on gas.

2009 Yaris- Surprising acceleration and great gas milage, ugly as hell and the gauge cluster was in the middle of the car. I felt like I was practically asking the passenger how fast I was going each time I wanted to know. The acceleration was good, but the handling was a bit scary, so off-ramps have to be taken easily. The hood is short, so it was strange parking and driving (and I even own a compact).

2009 Mazda 3- Great car, interior is the better of the cheap cars, I actually would consider buying the car if it wasn't for the fact the wind shield slopes very far forward toward the hood and almost gives that minivan feeling.

2009 G6- For a cheap car, it's great. I like the looks and impressive gas milage for a GM, but my only issue is with the back window. It's so sloped that if you have dew or frost, it won't bead off with the wind. For 3 mornings, I couldn't see out my rear window trying to drive through Houston's rush hour, irritating.

2009 Cobalt- Not too bad for a cheap little GM car. Might not be everyone's favorite, but one of my favorites to rent. It's smaller, so easier to park, but yet my lanky butt fits in it, good on gas, and pretty comfortable inside.

I rent a car each week while I work in Houston, I'm sure I'll have more to update this thread.

My newest rental was a complete surprise. I needed a car to go up to Orlando for the day with my mom and my Toyota got a check engine light....so we rented a car from Enterprise.

It was a 2009 Chevy Aveo, 4 door, auto, a/c and an AM/FM radio, no other bells or whistles. We drove that little car 95+ mph the entire way to Orlando and back and still got amazing gas mileage as well we were able to hold a conversation without shouting over the high revving engine.

I am not one to promote little rollerskate cars but if I was forced into a commuting situation, I would certainly think twice about buying this car for the drive. They are made in Korea but at high speeds, it felt like a car made in Germany.