Friday 14 September 2007

What's outside today 21 - German Hertz hire car Alfa 159 SW

Outside the Holiday Inn Padova that is. En route to a pal's wedding further south at the weekend. The booking was for a Mercedes C Class 'or similar' and 'or similar' turned out to be the Alfa Romeo 159 SW - no complaints about that all.


In fact, if they'd given me a Merc I'd have been stuck as the German end of Hertz doesn't allow its hire cars from German prestige brands to be taken to Italy or eastern Europe (presumably because there's too high a risk that they will be nicked), a fact that I didn't discover until I started reading the boring hire documentation on a coffee stop in Italy because I didn't have a newspaper or an Internet connection to hand. Alfas are OK though.


I hadn't driven the 159 before but I was impressed by its performance on a long demanding day of driving across the Alps yesterday - but more of that later.

2 comments:

Fourwheelsteer said...

That looks nice. As a hire car I think I'd rather have the Alfa than a C-class.

David Wilkins said...

Actually, I think the interesting thing is that Hertz is supplying these to badge-conscious Germans who are turning up expecting a Merc. Hertz probably wouldn't have got away with that they ten or fifteen years ago. Shows how much the Alfas have improved lately.