mad_atta

Having abused the Fiat 500X in an earlier post, I've now realised that the Fiat 500 rental car I got was in fact a 500L. I shudder at the memory of it. I've never driven a 500X so I guess they may be different/better? They do at least look a bit better.

mad_atta

OP belatedly chiming back in... have been on holiday in Europe for a month and not reading FT. As it happens, I checked other options much closer to the time (ie about two days before) and discovered that through Hertz I could get a 'guaranteed' Alfa Giulia Veloce (which is one of Hertz's 'Fun' fleet of cars, where you pay to get a specific model of car) for a little less than the Avis quote which was just the regular 'Giulia or similar' (which of course would be the base model diesel Giulia). Back when I first checked, that had been almost double the Avis price.

Based on that discovery, I cancelled the Avis quote and did the Hertz one instead. It's worth noting that I could only get that good Hertz price by not being logged in and not having any CDPs or discount codes added - putting those in bumped the price right up again.

As it happened, when I turned up at Venice Hertz tried to fob me off with the basic Giulia. Of course I pushed back, given that I'd paid for a specific model, and they admitted that the previous renter had extended their rental and 'my' car wasn't back yet. They couldn't give me a good alternative so I opted to wait, which luckily only took an hour or so. I'm glad I did, because the Giulia Veloce was a really, really fun drive. I didn't realise that in Italy the Veloce is in fact a diesel, but it's a very high powered one, and it has all the Veloce extras (trim, 'flappy paddle' gearbox, 4WD etc) and was a hoot to drive, as well as being very economical. It looked just like this one, in silver with red leather seats, just with a diesel engine. Terribly bad turning circle though - maybe because of the 4WD?

All in all, a fun experience, though driving in Italy was marred by far too much traffic (I wasn't expecting non-stop traffic jams in the Alps!) and the fact that so much of the autostrada network now has those awful 'Safety tutor' average speed cameras, which severely limit your ability to cover ground quickly. Very different to how I remember Italian autostradas back in 2000, which is when I was last there, when the prevailing driving philosophy was 'go as fast as your car will allow'...

Redwood839

You should see the top gear episode were Clarkson drives a (Mustang? Bugatti? I forgot) to Milan while May and Hammond take public transport. Non stop average speed cameras everywhere.