Renaut - Human Factors
I didn't get to the Hertz lot to pick-up my rental car until nearly midnight, there was already a line inside and so I was pleased I had a Hertz No.1 Gold Club reservation, I could just jump in my allocated car and drive off.
And yes, as a Presidents Circle member, I got an upgrade from the "cheap as chips" car I booked to some wagon or other. To my surprise, possibly because my profile has a US address, I got an automatic as well. Wahoo....
Hold on just a minute though. When I got in the Renault Scenic I felt like a delivery driver. I spent 5-mins working out how to adjust the seat and steering wheel, it wasn't easy or worth it. I still feel like I'm a driver for "brown" and should have the door open for my next delivery.
Still, the doors were about the only things that seemed to work as you'd expect, the rest of the car was a human factors disaster. As far as I could tell the bulk of the front of the dashboard was set-up for a left hand drive car, only in this one, the steering wheel was on the right. There seemed to be a zillion controls, duplicates for everything, the instruments were over on the left... I really struggled working out how to do basic things. Which is all so weird, since I've been driving hire cars only for the 3-years, so I should be able to adjust easily - not this one though.
To cap it off, on the drive into London, now after midnight, it started raining. Trust me when I say I could NOT work out how to switch on the wipers, I could do the rear ones, including wash, but just could get the front ones to work. Eventually I couldn't see on of the front windscreen for the rain and decided to pull over and read the manual. Of course the answer was obvious, this car is going back for a swap when I go to my parents on Saturday.
I bailed on driving to Manchester and back tomorrow for work, I can't stand the thought of 6-hours in a day in this. The train fare was £119 roundtrip, call it $240 US Dollars, I won't even get started on a post about that, so much for Europeans being more environmental than Americans.
And yes, as a Presidents Circle member, I got an upgrade from the "cheap as chips" car I booked to some wagon or other. To my surprise, possibly because my profile has a US address, I got an automatic as well. Wahoo....
Hold on just a minute though. When I got in the Renault Scenic I felt like a delivery driver. I spent 5-mins working out how to adjust the seat and steering wheel, it wasn't easy or worth it. I still feel like I'm a driver for "brown" and should have the door open for my next delivery.
Still, the doors were about the only things that seemed to work as you'd expect, the rest of the car was a human factors disaster. As far as I could tell the bulk of the front of the dashboard was set-up for a left hand drive car, only in this one, the steering wheel was on the right. There seemed to be a zillion controls, duplicates for everything, the instruments were over on the left... I really struggled working out how to do basic things. Which is all so weird, since I've been driving hire cars only for the 3-years, so I should be able to adjust easily - not this one though.
To cap it off, on the drive into London, now after midnight, it started raining. Trust me when I say I could NOT work out how to switch on the wipers, I could do the rear ones, including wash, but just could get the front ones to work. Eventually I couldn't see on of the front windscreen for the rain and decided to pull over and read the manual. Of course the answer was obvious, this car is going back for a swap when I go to my parents on Saturday.
I bailed on driving to Manchester and back tomorrow for work, I can't stand the thought of 6-hours in a day in this. The train fare was £119 roundtrip, call it $240 US Dollars, I won't even get started on a post about that, so much for Europeans being more environmental than Americans.