{"id":1006,"date":"2005-02-05T10:04:31","date_gmt":"2005-02-05T10:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zmetro.com\/?p=1006"},"modified":"2005-02-05T10:04:31","modified_gmt":"2005-02-05T10:04:31","slug":"recent_rental_c_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=1006","title":{"rendered":"Recent Rental Cars: Kia Amanti &#038; Toyota Solara Cabrio"},"content":{"rendered":"<table>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.google.com\/images?q=tbn:cinVzm1cR4IJ:www.gminsidenews.com\/gallery\/albums\/userpics\/10067\/Story10301-Picture11904-L.jpg\"><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.google.com\/images?q=tbn:jPYwM8juiHQJ:toyota.images.free.fr\/images\/japon\/toyota\/solara-cabrio_1.jpg\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>\nFirst up, the <a href=\"http:\/\/clusty.com\/search?query=%22kia+amanti%22\">Kia Amanti<\/a>.  Think of this car as Kia&#8217;s version of a Toyota Avalon or a Buick LeSabre.   My points:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Styling<\/b>: Not for me.\n<li><b>Interior<\/b>: Not bad.  My black rental had a grey leather and (fake?) wood accents.  The controls were reasonable except the odd radio.  Kia has adopted a display screen which monitors time, temperature and &#8220;enteertainment&#8221; options.  I found it rather difficult to use.  Time might solve this problem.  The stereo&#8217;s sound system was reasonably good (Why don&#8217;t they add an audio in jack?   iPod users would be  much happier).\n<li><b>Handling<\/b>: I cannot make one positive comment on the Amanti&#8217;s handling.   In a word &#8211; terrible.  Far too soft for my tastes.\n<li><b>Fuel Economy<\/b>:  I drove 76 miles, 2\/3 of which were highway miles.   I filled the tank prior to returning the car with over 4 gallons!\n<li><b>Quality<\/b>:  The car felt reasonably well made, but, the very sloppy handling left an overall bad impression, along with the poor fuel efficiency.<\/ul>\n<p>The bottom line: would I purchase this car? No.<\/p>\n<p>Next, the <a href=\"http:\/\/clusty.com\/search?query=%22Toyota+Solara+Convertible%22\">Toyota Solara Cabrio<\/a>. The Solara is a two dour coupe based on the best selling Camry sedan.  The Cabrio is simply a convertible version of the Coupe. I&#8217;m sure Toyota&#8217;s sterling quality reputation will sell many of these. My points:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Styling<\/b>: Not for me.\n<li><b>Interior<\/b>: Straightforward, easy to use.  (Disdclaimer, I&#8217;ve driven Toyota&#8217;s for years, so the controls are quite familiar).  The interior looked like the plastic it was.  Functional but not all that aesthetically interesting.  I thought the automatic transmission&#8217;s stick shift Mercedes-like pattern was silly. Stereo sound was not bad &#8211; again no sound input jack.\n<li><b>Handling<\/b>: Reasonable, but not great &#8211; a bit soft on the corners.  I did have one major dislike &#8211; the cabrio has a rather large blindspot.   Perhaps this is the nature of convertibles, but it&#8217;s a safety issue.\n<li><b>Fuel Economy<\/b>: I did not keep track of my miles.\n<li><b>Quality<\/b>:  The car felt and operated like a Toyota, which is generally good.  However, dropping up to $30K on a Toyota leads on to expect more.   I think the Germans still have them on the fun to drive question (and styling).<\/ul>\n<p>  Bottom line, would I purchase this car? No.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First up, the Kia Amanti. Think of this car as Kia&#8217;s version of a Toyota Avalon or a Buick LeSabre. My points: Styling: Not for me. Interior: Not bad. My black rental had a grey leather and (fake?) wood accents. The controls were reasonable except the odd radio. Kia has adopted a display screen which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}