Fiat Panda Diesel

Trip Summary

Venice -> Rome

Drive

It handles worst than the Jazz, and that's not a good thing. Apparently the turning circle is not crash hot and the engine is on the smaller side. But it is pretty zippy so great for getting around the narrow city streets.

Rating - 3.5

Comfort

There's ok room for a small car, however, the headrests are rock hard and non height adjustable. I had to attach my own cushion on the heat so I don't get a sore head every time we go over some bumps. The seats themselves could be a bit more comfy, and all the gadgets are of the lower-hand variety.

Rating - 1

Service

I think this is where I got the true taste of Italy, but at this stage I wasn't used to the way things work yet. The Avis people were 20 minutes late for our 4pm booking which I totally don't understand, what's the point of BOOKING if they decide to staff the office at whatever time they feel like? Anyway, I found out that the Avis people just decided to go for a coffee so closed the shop. We were left waiting on the sidewalk with our huge suitcases and nowhere to go. What's worst, they worked so slowly once they decided to serve us, and they didn't know what they were doing! Hmmm, actually learning your job instead of taking breaks might help. We didn't get out of there until about 4:40 pm.

Rating - 0

Value

$39 a day is ok for the car you get. It's pretty fuel efficient, using 2.2 L of diesel per 100 km, however the service can't be excused.

Rating - 3

Clean

I was already fuming when I got in the car, but imagine my disbelief when I got in. The car hadn't been cleaned since the last hire, and it was filthy! The outside had mud and dirt all over it, the windows were dirty. I can put up with that, but the inside! There was dirt, food crumbs, bits of biscuits everywhere. And it wasn't just a few things, it was ALL OVER THE CAR! I couldn't stand it and went back to the office to complain, and what do they do? Come out with a hand-held vacuum to get rid of some of the crap. When it comes to cleaning, they sure worked quickly though, less than 1 minute later they returned the car to me. All the obvious dirt was gone, but there was still heaps of food crumbs between the brakes and the gear stick and the harder to reach places. Since I had already been so inconvenienced and was way behind schedule, I decided to not bother complaining further.

Rating - 0

Zoom Points - 7.5

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Fiat Panda

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