dr auto Reviews 558

Got a rental DR 4.0 at FCO airport from AVIS. Worst car ever. Unstable steering, no power, small trunk, no Apple Carplay.

All I asked for was a Fiat that is suitable for the Italian roads …

The worst car ever driven.

We requested a "WV Golf" like car in Florence Airport and got a DR.
"What's a DR?"
"It's an Italian car"

From the very beginning, the car felt poor, wobbly and unstable. Clearly a Chinese remake of a15-year old car, technically very bad and "Autopilot" couldn’t hide the fact of a very cheap car.
To drive safely only 70km/h was max on highways – being a pain to all other drivers.
Not safe to drive at night in areas without streetlights, as only high beam light was sufficient to light up the streets beyond 15 meters.
Returned the car after 2 days.

Initially I was happy about getting what looked to be a smart modern vehicle for 2 weeks of driving on Gran Canaria. It has several cool gadgets, but my old i30 is much better at these gadgets. The aircon is not climate control. The rear suspension is stiff, making the vehicle less smooth in sharp corners and on rough surfaces. The central screen is worth nothing it has touch control if you first use the manual controls!! Remember to ride 1-2 gears lower than expected, it only has power over 3500 rpm. The trunk hardly fit our suitcases, but that's no news -in our i30 they fit well. The l/km is awful using 11 to 19 l/100km. The seats are fine, but the plastic surface is not breathable. Don't be afraid to drive it with full throttle, ever though in windy conditions it sounds like it will come apart. 😂 Enjoy the ride with someone you like or love, enjoy the views.......

Italy -We have a DR pk8 and since 5 months the ABS sensor is broken, we have sometimes issues with the breaks due to this. Five Motors in Taranto just left us driving this car and says we are waiting for this sensor. In the meantime we are a danger on the road. since a month we left the car (which we are still paying for) with Five Motors thinking if it's in their way it might speed up the solution but still nothing. Now we might have to buy another car or rent it on top of paying off this DR! Unbelievable really! We have no way to contact DR to complain directly. Does anyone know DR contacts in Italy to file official complaints? Thank you!

Was “upgraded” to this from a Ford Fiesta. This car really doesn’t have any redeeming qualities. It’s big on the outside, small on the inside, it rattles constantly.

It sounds like a wind tunnel over 90kph and rattles constantly. On top of this it rides like it doesn’t have shocks and cannot go around a corner.

They say it has 115hp, but they must be lying. It felt like 60. It genuinely struggled to get to Mount Teide.

If you’re offered this car, insist against it. It LOOKS modern, but drives like an economy car from the 1970’s and somehow handles worse.

I am on my second year of long-term hire of a DR 4.0. What everyone says about the acceleration is true. You need to drop into third or second; even then, it can be a struggle. However, it is spacious, comfortable, and comes with every electronic convenience. For instance, you don't need to fiddle for the key to unlock the boot. If you have the key with you, it will just open while leaving the doors locked. It's a decent car for someone who isn't overly concerned with acceleration. I wouldn't buy one but am happy to hire it.

We hired a dr5 at Verona Airport for a week in the Dolomites. Really comfy car with distracting (thus dangerous) and unnecessary entertainment screen, but with all supposedly modern gadgets such as electrically adjustable seats and mirrors, remote locking doors, airco and all sorts of detectors, it even had a rear view camera, which I find really handy and not present on my 1995 daily Citroën AX drive. Three downsides however: very dangerous sharp points on the trunk door, repeatedly pump my head into them, with bleeding wounds as a result. 2nd the gears shift into the backwards gear is fuzzy, and 3rd too little power in 3 4 and 5th gear.

Got a DR5 as a hire car in Valencia. Would have been better off with a horse and cart. I wouldn’t wish this ‘car’ on my worst enemy. No power, cannot go around a corner and it’s impossible to have a conversation above 100km/h. This thing should be scraped off the road and returned to hell where it clearly came from.

Our Dr, which we named Franz, was hired for our two week road trip round the Italian Dolomites. I can’t even begin to explain how horrendous the acceleration and power is on a hill. We would need to put the car in second gear to get up even the slightest of slopes. 5th gear could only be used in a steep descent. To be fair, my partner maintains this handles well on corners and it is comfy I agree but nothing can compensate for the utterly awful experience of driving it on mountain roads. A different analysis may be made away from mountains or hills. Either way, finding third gear was basically impossible… I almost left my fiance thinking it was his useless driving but it turns out it’s genuinely the car. Thanks drivalia for the “upgrade”….!!! Never again. I’d rather walk.

If a rental car tries to assign you this car....REFUSE IT!!
This is not a car, it is a tractor, an elephant, a bin, a buffalo...they sell it as being Italian, but it is a horrible Chinese car assembled in Italy. The engine is like the one of a Barbie toy car. With no power, I had always to put the second gear to overtake trucks on the motorway. And the breaks...horrible. A very very dangerous car.

I also hired at airport in Italy. I thought there was something wrong with the car I got until I read the reviews here. Horrible car to drive, no power and gear shift felt like a tractor. Absolute rubbish.

I hired a dr 5.0 at Pisa Airport. Well work hired it. First impression was that it looked OK. I hopped inside and started it up to find a very poor interface and no navigation. I persisted using Google maps.
I had the car for 5 days. The biggest issue was performance. The car had virtually no acceleration in 4th or 5th gear. Slowing down required gearing down to 2nd to get any traction and even then the power was so poor. As another reviewer put it, the car is dangerously under powered. For a modern car I was shocked at the performance. I have driven Chinese cars before such as the Link & Co 1 which I was impressed with. I mistakenly had similar expectations of the dr. Avoid avoid avoid.

I hired a car from at Rome Airport via Budget car Rental company and had I known just how bad a DR 4.0 automobile is I would not have accepted the vehicle and would have insisted that they provide a "real" car.
These DR automobil cars are a "rebadged" cheap chinese manufactured cars which are just absolutley awful to drive. The car I was supplied with was dangerously underpowerd for use on the italian autostrada, with so little power you genuinely cant overtake lorries on a hill on the motorway. The gearbox I think must be reconditioned from old cars from the 1980s, as they are only 5 speed, and i dont think there is a syncromesh fitted, meaning each gear change is like "if you cant find it, grind it" experience. The fuel economy is very poor, and driving it on mountain roads was very hard work. These cars handle like a "ship in storm" and personally i never felt safe putting myself or my family in this car. My advise is avoid these awful cars, even if it means paying more for a better car. Because in life you get what you pay for, and beleive me, with a DR 4.0 you get a disgrace of a vehicle.

I hired a DR car at Barcelona Airport in April 2023.

It's a good size car for 5 people, with very good boot space, good fuel economy, but that's the only good points.

It drove like a 1980s style car.
The handling was terrible.
There was terrible wind noise driving at 120km/hr with a howling sound due to wind around the wing mirrors
It has very very poor acceleration.
Unless you place the ignition key exactly on the marked oblong, it cannot see the key, even 1cm to the side.
The controls and switches just seem to be out of comfortable fingertip range.
I could not get android auto to work, a problem that I have not previously encountered in any other car.

Anyone who claims there's no bad cars being made today had not driven a DR! We were"upgraded" to a DR5 by Herz for lack of the Renegade we ordered. What an utter POS this car is. If it wasn't for the Apple CarPlay that actually worked, I though I went back in time 40 years. No power, a 5 speed gearbox with massive gaps to add to the misery. Basic things like axial steering adjustability and cruise control are absent. When braking slightly harder than normal the alarm light comes on and it handles like a 70s Chevi. If you get it offered as a rental, refuse it, if you're considering buying: don't!