My wife and I flew into MIA for a brief visit (less than 30 hour round trip). We rented from Avis. The person at the desk was helpful, it wasn't terribly busy unlike Alamo, and it was a pretty swift and painless process.
The problem is, I pre-booked the car with them and booked a "Standard" car which is listed on their website as a "Subaru Legacy or similar". (Things it is supposed to do is comfortably fit one large bag, two small bags, and five people, which a Subaru Legacy does in spades.) Instead we were given a Mitsubishi Mirage ES, which according to Mitsubishi is classified as a "subcompact". I'm a bit miffed. This caused some problems with car / passenger division at times, that and it would have been nice to actually have a trunk to put bags in, instead of the back seat in the FL sun.
That said... the little Mitsubishi even in the rental car ES spec comes with single zone automatic climate control and push-button start, both of which were nice.
It's cheap and plastic inside, but with a MSRP of $15,395 I don't think you'd expect more.
It has a 1.2 L 3 cylinder engine, possibly the first 3 cylinder I've driven and a CVT transmission. The website lists HP at 74 @ 6000 rpm and 74 lb-ft @4000 rpm. Weight is roughly 2,051 lbs. according to the website. Brakes were disks up front and drums in the rear and the wheels are tiny alloys at 14".
All in all it's not too bad. It handles decently. There is more body roll than I'd like. The seats were decently comfortable for the small amounts of driving we did (50 miles in all). There is some lift off under steer which can be more or less controlled by steering wheel inputs and a dab of throttle. Flooring it in D or B (not sure what the B on the CVT meant) is not rewarding. Best to drive in D and accelerate gradually. I wouldn't say this car is up for any sprints or aggressive highway passes but it does move itself off a line and doesn't feel like its lagging behind everything on the road.
Over the 50 miles driven, mostly highway, the returned MPG (USA, not UK) was ~43.5 mpg which is respectable considering I wasn't exactly driving the most economically.
Here are some photos of the little Misubishi:
I apologize for photo quality but this was all snapped with my cell phone in not so great light.
Also, my dad had a VW Jetta SE TSI (not sure on the year but the badging had those letters). It could get out of its own way, so maybe I need to reconsider.
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