For my trip to Italy I have rented a car instead of using mine. I did that because mine is a hatchback and wouldn’t have space to carry all the things I have to take back to the UK, so we rented an estate.

The company from who we rented the car is Avis and the car they provided us is a Vauxhall/Opel/Chevrolet Vectra 2.2 Direct Estate.

The car looks nice and other than the alloys the only thing I don’t like on it is the front, which looks too small for the car. It looks like the car is huge but have a very small front.

Entering the car, the poor build quality is very noticeable. All the switches, levers, knobs and controls are made in plastic and feel very cheap. The gear stick has a detail on its top that would be nice if made in metal, but it is plastic and just adds to the feeling toy car. Many of the materials used in this car I would expect to see in a Corsa, but not in a Vectra.

When you first sit on the seats you notice that they are very comfortable, but don’t have any support on the sides. They are really family man oriented. :-)

The car has a lot of buggy things like complicated unlocking procedures, warnings on all things, boot door that doesn’t close easily and other things, so when you first start the car you will probably need to be patient to pass through all the warnings and beeps you will face.

Once you enter first gear and start leaving the clutch you have a poor feeling or none, so you can’t actually know when you have to start accelerating until you do a few trials.

The engine is rather noisy and when in constant RPM (between 3 and 3.5K) it has a smooth quite pleasant sound (even if quite loud for a family car). When accelerating, though (4-5K RPM) it has one of the ugliest sounds I have ever heard from a new car. It is bad and you will be willing to leave the accelerator as soon as possible just to stop that noise.

The car came equipped with some goodies like the cruise control and the centre armrest. The cruise control works as expected and proved more than useful on this trip. Without it I would be ruined now. The armrest in the other hand is quite low and doesn’t have any kind of height adjustment, so you wouldn’t be finding a really comfy position.

Space wise, the car is spacious but I can’t say much about that as I drive a sports hatchback. Compared to my car, this is a really big car. The boot is big and the space for the back seats is great. Lowering the back seats you have a whooping amount of space, so I really like it.

The car is really new. I got it from Avis with only 3106 miles on the clock, so probably I will double it before returning next week.

I was not expecting a well configured car like that from a rental, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the car. Thumbs up for Avis, even if they forgot to give me the warning triangle which is required in the continental Europe.

The car disappointed me a bit as I was expecting much more from a Vectra, but it proved very comfortable, gave me a nice and smooth ride and is pleasant to use. I was expecting better fuel consumption, but all in all it is a nice car. If I was searching for a budget full-sized family state, I would consider it (in Italy Opel is offering some great deals on new Vectra Estates).