Was in Spain recently and after some discussion we rented a car rather than take the the train. Spain is mountainous in parts, and after taking the train from Madrid to Valladolid, we decided there were too many tunnels for our liking; that liking being sightseeing.
This turned out to be the correct decision for us. We drove most of the length of Spain, route was Valladolid-Cordoba-Malaga-Estapona and turned in the car at Algeciras before taking a cab to Tarifa and the hydrofoil over the Strait of Gibraltar to Tangier, Morocco. I highly recommend pretty much every part of this route for driving save for maybe the flatlands directly south of Madrid.
Our rental Peugeot from Hertz was a pretty nice compact CUV, room was good behind the wheel for this 6'7" driver with the seat all the way down. There was room in the rear cargo area for all of our 3 carry on bags and 3 backpacks. Had some sort of turbocharged 4 cylinder and an 8 speed dual clutch transmission with gear readout on the dash, i.e., D1, D2, D3, etc depending on what gear the transmission was in. Leather interior and wired Android Auto/Apple CarPlay, automatic dual climate controls and so forth. 100% manual seats for both the driver and passenger, but very comfortable. Menus were all in Spanish but we went into the "Idioma" section and changed it all to English. Forgot to change it back when we turned it in, whoops!
This transmission had the smoothest takeoff I had ever experienced with a dual clutch, yet still had the traditional super snappy shifts. The engine on the other hand sounded odd and gurgly taking off and driving at lower speeds. It almost seemed quieter at full boil, didn't really sound like a raspy 4 cylinder at all. I had the chance to do mulltiple excursions at the high end of the RPM range in the early part of our drive as we were on a 2 lane for about 100km leaving Valladolid. The tires could have used a bit of balancing, as there was a small shake above 110km/h or so (68mph). The brakes on the other hand were on-point, no vibration whatsoever even when applied at speeds quite a bit above the legal limit.
The cruise control that I used at times was super odd. It was on a stalk below the turn signal stalk and it took at least 50km for me to figure out how to set it. You have to set the speed first and then you can activate it. I kept getting an error trying to activate it until I figured it out. This car has a total of 3 stalks on the steering column, for turns, wipers and cruise. The French are so odd...
This car was a pretty good handler for a French car, took some curves at speeds that my wife commented negatively on but the body remained mostly flat. Going up the mountain passes it wasn't exactly scintilating speed, but yet still you could accelerate up steeper hills on the freeway at 140kmh if you needed to. I'd say the power was adequate for the car's purpose.
I didn't keep real close tabs on the fuel consumption but we used about 100 Euros worth of gas to drive over 900 kilometers at a price varying from 1.45 to 1.56EUR a liter, or a little under USD $6 per gallon if my math is correct on the exchange rate and liters to gallons conversion.
The first day we drove about 380 miles from Valladolid to Cordoba and I must say that Cordoba is a wonderful city. We stayed in the old historical center which was a bit of a challenge driving - I missed the parking lot and had to drive 20 minutes back out of the old town and back in, after dropping my wife and daughter at the hotel. But that was a minor inconvenience as we loved walking around the old city.
The next morning upon starting the car, I got some kind of message about the oil - still in Spanish even though I thought I had changed everything to English. I thought maybe it was low. But when we stopped for gas, I checked the oil and it was overfull! Thusly my reference to "making oil" with this vehicle. I can only assume that being in colder Valladolid in the north of Spain, the direct injection had put quite a bit of fuel in the oil. I had been prepared to buy a quart, err liter, to add, but since it was overfull, I figured that was someone else's problem.
We drove on to Malaga which I must say is a beautiful drive, miles of olive trees, soaring peaks, deep canyons and then a frantic descent down to the coast. The car performed flawlessly and the oil message never recurred, I guess it learned it's lesson. Parking was a bit of a challenge in the old town of Malaga but we got it done, our hotel was not on a road and was only walkable so we pared down the suitcases and then left the car in the garage overnight.
Next day was a short jaunt past Marbella to Estapona, which was a wonderful small coastal town. After 1 toll booth I decided to skip the rest of the toll roads and drive along the coast. When I got to the on-ramp for the non-toll coastal freeway, there was a stop sign at the end of the ramp. I waited for a spot in the traffic and then floored it. For a split second absolutely nothing happened, then it accelerated quickly to freeway speed. That was a bit uncomfortable, but, it never ended up being a safety issue as I had a good amount of space and the speed limit was low, 80 or 90 KMH, I don't remember which. Found a surface parking spot near our AirBnb was was fantastic, I had budgeted another 25EUR for overnight parking. Our AirBnB was right across the walking promenade from the beach, which we enjoyed despite it being slightly cold.
Last day was about a 1 hour jaunt to Algeciras near the Rock of Gibraltar, which my wife got pictures of. We found a gas station in town when we were close to the rental turn in place which was at the train station. They didn't technically open until 9, but, someone was there at 8:30 to take our key. Which helped as it was a longer cab ride to Tarifa than we thought for the ferry to Tangier and our boat was at 10. Everything worked out ok though and we arrived Tangier just before 11 and were able to get on the 12:05 fast train to Rabat, the capital of Morocco.
Overall I liked this vehicle. Would I rent it again? Yes, absolutely. Would I buy it? Probably not, I don't exactly trust the reliability of French vehicles, guess I saw too many broke down Renaults when I was a kid.
This turned out to be the correct decision for us. We drove most of the length of Spain, route was Valladolid-Cordoba-Malaga-Estapona and turned in the car at Algeciras before taking a cab to Tarifa and the hydrofoil over the Strait of Gibraltar to Tangier, Morocco. I highly recommend pretty much every part of this route for driving save for maybe the flatlands directly south of Madrid.
Our rental Peugeot from Hertz was a pretty nice compact CUV, room was good behind the wheel for this 6'7" driver with the seat all the way down. There was room in the rear cargo area for all of our 3 carry on bags and 3 backpacks. Had some sort of turbocharged 4 cylinder and an 8 speed dual clutch transmission with gear readout on the dash, i.e., D1, D2, D3, etc depending on what gear the transmission was in. Leather interior and wired Android Auto/Apple CarPlay, automatic dual climate controls and so forth. 100% manual seats for both the driver and passenger, but very comfortable. Menus were all in Spanish but we went into the "Idioma" section and changed it all to English. Forgot to change it back when we turned it in, whoops!
This transmission had the smoothest takeoff I had ever experienced with a dual clutch, yet still had the traditional super snappy shifts. The engine on the other hand sounded odd and gurgly taking off and driving at lower speeds. It almost seemed quieter at full boil, didn't really sound like a raspy 4 cylinder at all. I had the chance to do mulltiple excursions at the high end of the RPM range in the early part of our drive as we were on a 2 lane for about 100km leaving Valladolid. The tires could have used a bit of balancing, as there was a small shake above 110km/h or so (68mph). The brakes on the other hand were on-point, no vibration whatsoever even when applied at speeds quite a bit above the legal limit.
The cruise control that I used at times was super odd. It was on a stalk below the turn signal stalk and it took at least 50km for me to figure out how to set it. You have to set the speed first and then you can activate it. I kept getting an error trying to activate it until I figured it out. This car has a total of 3 stalks on the steering column, for turns, wipers and cruise. The French are so odd...
This car was a pretty good handler for a French car, took some curves at speeds that my wife commented negatively on but the body remained mostly flat. Going up the mountain passes it wasn't exactly scintilating speed, but yet still you could accelerate up steeper hills on the freeway at 140kmh if you needed to. I'd say the power was adequate for the car's purpose.
I didn't keep real close tabs on the fuel consumption but we used about 100 Euros worth of gas to drive over 900 kilometers at a price varying from 1.45 to 1.56EUR a liter, or a little under USD $6 per gallon if my math is correct on the exchange rate and liters to gallons conversion.
The first day we drove about 380 miles from Valladolid to Cordoba and I must say that Cordoba is a wonderful city. We stayed in the old historical center which was a bit of a challenge driving - I missed the parking lot and had to drive 20 minutes back out of the old town and back in, after dropping my wife and daughter at the hotel. But that was a minor inconvenience as we loved walking around the old city.
The next morning upon starting the car, I got some kind of message about the oil - still in Spanish even though I thought I had changed everything to English. I thought maybe it was low. But when we stopped for gas, I checked the oil and it was overfull! Thusly my reference to "making oil" with this vehicle. I can only assume that being in colder Valladolid in the north of Spain, the direct injection had put quite a bit of fuel in the oil. I had been prepared to buy a quart, err liter, to add, but since it was overfull, I figured that was someone else's problem.
We drove on to Malaga which I must say is a beautiful drive, miles of olive trees, soaring peaks, deep canyons and then a frantic descent down to the coast. The car performed flawlessly and the oil message never recurred, I guess it learned it's lesson. Parking was a bit of a challenge in the old town of Malaga but we got it done, our hotel was not on a road and was only walkable so we pared down the suitcases and then left the car in the garage overnight.
Next day was a short jaunt past Marbella to Estapona, which was a wonderful small coastal town. After 1 toll booth I decided to skip the rest of the toll roads and drive along the coast. When I got to the on-ramp for the non-toll coastal freeway, there was a stop sign at the end of the ramp. I waited for a spot in the traffic and then floored it. For a split second absolutely nothing happened, then it accelerated quickly to freeway speed. That was a bit uncomfortable, but, it never ended up being a safety issue as I had a good amount of space and the speed limit was low, 80 or 90 KMH, I don't remember which. Found a surface parking spot near our AirBnb was was fantastic, I had budgeted another 25EUR for overnight parking. Our AirBnB was right across the walking promenade from the beach, which we enjoyed despite it being slightly cold.
Last day was about a 1 hour jaunt to Algeciras near the Rock of Gibraltar, which my wife got pictures of. We found a gas station in town when we were close to the rental turn in place which was at the train station. They didn't technically open until 9, but, someone was there at 8:30 to take our key. Which helped as it was a longer cab ride to Tarifa than we thought for the ferry to Tangier and our boat was at 10. Everything worked out ok though and we arrived Tangier just before 11 and were able to get on the 12:05 fast train to Rabat, the capital of Morocco.
Overall I liked this vehicle. Would I rent it again? Yes, absolutely. Would I buy it? Probably not, I don't exactly trust the reliability of French vehicles, guess I saw too many broke down Renaults when I was a kid.
