All Cars, All the Time

All Cars, All the Time Rents an Audi S4 (almost)









I felt like getting something special this weekend, so I popped onto Hertz’s website and ordered up an S4 cabriolet. Dropped off at the airport, I expected to see my name in lights (literally, my name on the Hertz’s Gold Canopy display board).

My name wasn’t there.

Okay, so on we go to the Gold Lounge (sounds like a strip club, no?). I waited in line only to be told that there was a “problem.” What problem? I don’t know, never did find out in fact. No, rather they pushed me out the door in a Cadillac XLR (too bad that I would never return to Hertz in that car).

The XLR is a sharp looking car. I walk up to it and I say, “That’s a nice car.” I sit down inside and suddenly it isn’t so nice. The car is really marked up for only having 18K miles on it. There are rattles and squeaks and the trim had dents in it. Granted it’s a rental, but it seems the car should hold up better than this. The leather on the steering wheel feels cheap and there is a lot of dirt worked into the grains of the material. In the fabric top, there is a hole, presumably to release the top if the mechanism fails. However, this piece isn’t finished well. The fabric looks ripped and unfinished and the hole just glowers at your from above. A nice plastic finisher would have solved this issue.

The XLR has a heads up display (HUD) and that feature is a winner. That is, once I figured out where to adjust its height and the fact that polarized sunglasses will wash it out. I really liked this feature, especially when playing around with the adaptive cruise control—wish I loved. In moderately thick freeway traffic that was moving at a good clip the adaptive cruise control was a great feature. After I adjusted my speed and following distance (via the HUD and steering wheel controls), the feature made me feel a lot more comfortable. Too great a following distance and cars will slice and dice you as they cut into the open space—each time a car moves into your lane, the car cuts power before accelerating again and this will freak out cars behind you repeating the cycle. With the right distance you won’t be tailgating, but you also won’t present too much of a temptation for constant lane changers.

Acceleration from the 4.6-liter Northstar V8 that generates 320 horsepower and 310 pound-feet of torque is good. However, the rear mounted transmission didn’t seem to have the wits that other higher end cars do. At some points the transmission kept downshifting/upshifing and refused to stick to a ratio. The shifts were very smooth, but other cars that I have driven have been able to figure out shifting requirements and adapt to the situation and hold a gear. This wasn’t a huge issue, but given the price of the car I’d like it to shift with a certain deftness that makes you think of great engineering.

Ride quality in the XLR has been tuned softer than it’s Corvette counterpart, but I think it’s still on the firm side. This suspension tuning, especially at 18K miles brings out quite a few shakes, rattles, and shimmies inside the cabin. On my dime, I’d soften things up a bit—perhaps things would hold together a bit longer. I felt that the handling on the XLR was very good. Some writers have complained of body roll, but I didn’t notice great amounts of it and if the suspension was tightened up any further I’d really worry about the ride. The only solution in my mind would be strengthening the body and then tuning the suspension to take advantage of it.

The top’s operation is simple, but it does take its time. You have to press the button the entire time it is whirring and clicking and wait for the chime that tells you that it’s done. Unfortunately on our car, over rough patches, we would get another chime telling us that the top was not secure. The top, of course, was secure but some sense somewhere thought it wasn’t it.

The XLR has Magnasteer, a speed-variable power-assisted system, combining conventional hydraulics with patented electro-magnetic control technology. Steering effort is applied via magnetized "doughnuts" mounted around the output shaft, which stiffen the rate as vehicle speed increases. Something in that system must’ve failed in a shopping mall that we visisted. I thought the tires had gone flat, but that wasn’t the case. Given that so many things solve themselves with a reboot, I decided to turn the car off and wait. Nope. Fine I wrestled the car into another parking space and waited. Not gonna happen. I sucked it up and drove the car home, trying to make as few turns as possible. I called Hertz, checked the car (still failed) and they sent out a truck. What a sad way for the car to leave.

Here are my thoughts on the car: Visually stunning but the interior lets the car down. The quality of some of the plastics was off; there were a lot of squeaks/rattles and the overall experience in the cabin wasn’t one of richness. I wouldn’t pay $77K for this car. I’ve seen some XLR’s with demo mileage advertised in the paper for around $58K or so—that is much closer to this car’s worth.

The one picture that probably needs explaining is the second from the last. This is the bolt in the headliner that I was writing about earlier. Doesn't this look rather ugly for such a high end car? Shouldn't there be some other trim around this piece?