Are hire cars limited?

alchemistkevin said:
I don't think anyone limits their car like that...
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Unless I've misunderstood the posts in this thread, they do:


Ezah said:
when I used to frequent Europcar for rentals I have seen some strange ways to limit the cars, such as something fixed to the bottom of the go pedal to stop you mashing it all the way down.

But I have not seen any proper sophisticated limiting. Probably too much for these rental guys to manage.
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amigafan2003 said:
Yup, throttle stops are quite common on American hire cars.

Starting to become more widespread in the UK as well.
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Firestar_3x said:
One and the same thing really isn't it?

If you can't fully depress the throttle the car will never get to it's max RPM in a given gear.

That's why when you can leave the throttle in one position and keep a constant speed, from what your proposing the car would keep on accelerating to it's max rpm but the throttle dictates the speed at which is does this.
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You can get a car to it's maximum RPM without the throttle fully depressed, I suggest you go outside and try it. :p

And yes, that is what I am proposing because it's correct. If you don't understand that, I'd probably suggest researching it before telling other people they are wrong. :)
 
mattyprice4004 said:
You can get a car to it's maximum RPM without the throttle fully depressed, I suggest you go outside and try it. :p

And yes, that is what I am proposing because it's correct. If you don't understand that, I'd probably suggest researching it before telling other people they are wrong. :)
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So, car not in gear and set the throttle to say 30% of the maximum travel the rpm will eventually go to the rev limiter just slower than if i gave it 50% Maximum throttle?
 
It would have to be over a certain point, 30% probably isn't enough. I've just been outside and tried it on my 75, and at about 60% the revs climb to the 4.5k redline, although of course slower than WOT would do.
 
I rented a van and it was limited at 75, utterly dangerous moment nearly occured the first time I discovered this! longest journey to Cornwall, ever!
 
Went to Germany in a minibus limited to 100Km/h recently, that took a while.

Did make me appreciate my V6 more when I got home. Had gotten used to slow.
 
mattyprice4004 said:
Hardly backtracking, I know I'm right as I had a lengthly discussion with some of my car-enthusiast friends last night over a few beers. :p
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So what you are saying is that you don't need to use 100% throttle travel to reach maximum engine revs with the car in neutral as long as you press the pedal down to a certain point, as unless you press it that far it won't reach the rev limit.

Not much of a discovery is it ;)
 
Indeed, once you need power to overcome the rolling resistance and drag you need much more than 60% throttle to reach max rpm, especially if you want to reach vmax.
 
the Alfa I have on long term hire from Avis isn't limited nor does it have a throttle stopper either... however it does come with other things to limit its use such as too much road & wind noise, uncomfortable driving position, and nowhere to put your left foot which makes for a wonderful 100 mile commute each day :(
 
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