[335dFan]

For the diesel folks, I thought I'd share my experience on renting cars in Italy in France the last 3 weeks. I've included pics of two of my rentals and a few other cars we can't get, although one of them is probably coming to our dealers soon.

1. Fiat 500. Rented from Hertz in Malpensa Airport. Not a diesel but rather a 1.2L gasser. Perfect size for small roads and parking. Got quite good mileage. A rather fun little car. No pic. Five-speed as I recall. Not enough room in trunk for two 22" rollerboards, only one. Put 582 kilometers on it.

2. Renault Megane diesel. Rented from Hertz at Aix-En-Provence TGV rail station. Only downside was it had a windshield chip that I reported when taking it, and it grew to 1/3 meter before I returned it. Was covered. Six-speed. Plenty of luggage space. Sufficient get-up-and-go for country roads and autoroute. Very good mileage. Put 1247 kilometers on it. Pic included. It's been a while since I drove a US spec VW TDI, but I think it performance wise about the same. Handling not as good, but adequate.

3. Mercedes S-Class diesel. Rented from Hertz downtown near Arc d'Triomphe. Don't know the engine size. I had booked a Volvo V40 diesel with Navi, but when I got there they said they didn't have one and asked me if I wanted a free upgrade. I said no because I wanted a small car, but had no choice in the end. Well, the S-Class is a huge car, especially for Paris and small French countryside roads and towns. Quite luxurious of course. Smooth, deceptive power. Not a kick in the pants like our 335d vehicles, but it would easily get up to illegal speeds (130 kph plus) on the autoroute, so cruise control was quite useful. Quite good TomTom navi (same on Renault above). Good mileage. A bit Titanic like; I had to put it in Sport Mode to make it even acceptable. Not sure why I would ever want a car this big even if I could afford it. Way out of my socioeconomic class. Felt like an impostor driving it. Pic included.

4. Other pics included: BMW 330d touring, Citroen C5, Audi A6 Avant TDI, VW GTD. Many others I could have taken, like 118d, 120d, etc., etc. Such a great car selection over there. I already knew that from previous experience, but driven home yet again.

[Brad335d]

Top Gear always seems to give high marks to the Megane, seems like you liked it too.

[335dFan]

I went on the German MB website for the S-class diesel and I guess for this year, and probably the one I had, is the S 350 BlueTEC Sedan. The German site shows 254 hp; US site says 240 hp. German site has no torque spec that I could find, but the US site says 455 ft/lbs. The car did have a lot of grunt.

[AzureHaze]

Wow, you don't play around when it comes to traveling do you?

[335dFan]

Originally Posted by AzureHaze

Wow, you don't play around when it comes to traveling do you?

Yeah, I guess so. This one kinda went overboard. Too much driving as much as I tried to plan around that and take trains. Have a lot of frequent flyer miles, plus I was stationed in Europe for five years, so I know my way around pretty much. Several of the locations require a more leisurely exploration. BTW, the autoroutes in France and the autostrade in Italy can have pretty bad traffic, and the lines in the toll areas in France were very bad if you don't have their equivalent of EZPass or the like. And the tolls are pretty nasty. I could have done a better job of planning. Oh well. It was too long---3 weeks. I need to go do some more part-time work to refill the retirement coffers, or just plan to die earlier.