Over the past 3 weeks I've had two rental cars that were absolute, and surprising opposites.
The first one was an AWD Camry Hybrid that absolutely surprised me. The drivetrain was resaonably peppy and behaved nicely. The quality of the interior and controls were great and it got 50 mpg over the week I had it. While the car wasn't fun to drive, it was really nice and I could see it being a car that a car person would recommend to a non-car person a lot.
In absolute contrast was the base model Corolla that I had next. It had a freighteningly anemic engine that made a lot of unpleasant noises as it tried to catch up with traffic. To say it was anemic would be an understatement. The handling was horrible, the car leaned and flopped around like a boat around any kind of corner and it did so with absolutely no feel through the wheel or chassis. It was a terrible experience. I don't know how Toyota could sell two cars that are so starkly different to drive. If you are looking to buy a Corolla, look at the Hybrid!
So the 2025 Corolla sits among the top 3 cars on my list for the worst rental cars I've had. It's up there with a 201X's Jeep Wrangler which I'm sure is good off road, but it's just a miserable, loud, mess on the road and a 90's Geo Metro which was the scariest thing I've ever driven at 90mph trying to keep up with traffic in Chicago. I was sure things were going to start flying off of it.
The first one was an AWD Camry Hybrid that absolutely surprised me. The drivetrain was resaonably peppy and behaved nicely. The quality of the interior and controls were great and it got 50 mpg over the week I had it. While the car wasn't fun to drive, it was really nice and I could see it being a car that a car person would recommend to a non-car person a lot.
In absolute contrast was the base model Corolla that I had next. It had a freighteningly anemic engine that made a lot of unpleasant noises as it tried to catch up with traffic. To say it was anemic would be an understatement. The handling was horrible, the car leaned and flopped around like a boat around any kind of corner and it did so with absolutely no feel through the wheel or chassis. It was a terrible experience. I don't know how Toyota could sell two cars that are so starkly different to drive. If you are looking to buy a Corolla, look at the Hybrid!
So the 2025 Corolla sits among the top 3 cars on my list for the worst rental cars I've had. It's up there with a 201X's Jeep Wrangler which I'm sure is good off road, but it's just a miserable, loud, mess on the road and a 90's Geo Metro which was the scariest thing I've ever driven at 90mph trying to keep up with traffic in Chicago. I was sure things were going to start flying off of it.
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... we go inside, and are handed to keys to a 
here’s the 2025 running, in order of how much I enjoyed my time with them (very subjective / unscientific I know).
