8 Things I Learned Driving in Europe

"RightFootDown" (rightfootdown) 07/28/2015 at 11:36 • Filed to: None

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Greetings readers! If you follow me [Will Byrd] on social media, you’ll notice that my accounts went dark over the past three weeks. That’s because I hijacked the RFD !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! accounts to bring you highlights from my exploits driving across Europe over the last few weeks. So if you follow the RFD accounts (which you should!) you already saw dozens of gratuitous automotive pornography photographs from Austria, Italy, France, Monaco, Switzerland and Germany. This is the kick-off article, the first of many, where I will share my thoughts about driving in Europe, a culture seemingly built around cars (screw the train!) and provide in-depth looks some of the best automotive museums in the world. But first, for anyone planning a trip to experience some automotive nirvana, what is it like driving there? I had a series of meetings set up in various parts of the continent, and instead of taking short plane trips from place to place or hauling my bags around a train station, I drove. Here are the eight things I learned driving in Europe.

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1. It is intimidating at first.

Driving in any foreign country can be intimidating, but driving on a continent known for fast moving traffic and a lack of attention to the rules-of-the-road is a bit more so. Just trying to leave the Munich airport rental garage in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that Hertz loaned us was a challenge. “Ausfhart” (which is pronounced just like it sounds) means “exit” and is the only way to get out of a parking garage or to take an exit off a highway. But from a language perspective, that’s about all you need to know. The highway system in every country was labeled with consistent road signage, most of which should be familiar to US drivers. The others you get used to over time, just keep a look out for the big circle outlined in red. That either means “do not enter” or in some Italian cities may indicate a “zona traffico limitato” area where your vehicle is on camera immediately as you enter and your tag number had better damn well be on the list. It’s basically akin to our “local traffic only” but with actual fines. Opt for an international cellular and data plan (you can add them for a specific period of time) and use a navigation app like Waze or Google Maps to get around, since some streets are either barely labeled or the road sign will just list the city you are heading towards vs. the road name. You’ll eventually appreciate hearing “at the roundabout, take the 3rd exit towards Milan”. So getting around is easy, even on Italian back-roads. Just be prepared to keep your right foot down. More on that in a moment.

2. The Italians are as crazy as you heard, mostly.

That aforementioned moment is now, Italians drive fast. All the time. The Italian granny heel-to-toe’ing her Fiat Panda behind you will be annoyed that you won’t drive fast on the tight stretch of road in Tuscany. She’s been there her whole life and is annoyed that your rental car with “D” on the euro plate is slowing her down. The rumors about completely disregarding traffic laws isn’t really true though. Speed limits aside, I didn’t find the Italians to have a wanton disregard for the rules of road. Unless they were on a scooter. That part comes later though and was quite infuriating. So if you drive in Italy, be prepared to move expeditiously or pull off and let them pass. Otherwise you might get an Alfa up your tailpipe. France moved a bit slower around the Riviera, as did Switzerland around the Alps. Germany was bonkers. See #8 below.

3. Germans drive German cars.

That sounds like a no-brainier, but I was quite struck by how nationalistic Germans are when it comes to purchasing cars. There is nothing like this in the US that I know of, perhaps a few areas around Detroit, but that’s it. I saw some Fords, some French fare, a few Toyotas, and everything else was German. Everyone drives a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , or !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Everyone . Which is why you can get the tiny Audi A1 and Mercedes A-Class in Europe, there is a market for them. They don’t all necessarily come with leather and lots of gadgets like our German lux-cars do, and most of them are manual and diesel.

4. Lane discipline is amazing.

I was five minutes into my drive home from Dulles International Airport last night when I lamented how well Europeans practice lane discipline. Stuck behind someone driving 50 in a 55 in the left lane, I immediately reminisced about how 99% of European drivers practice lane discipline (the practice of using the left lane to pass and moving over to the right when you are done, or need to slow for an ausfhart). I’ll cover the autobahn at the end of this article, but suffice to say, you should not linger in the left hand lane in any of the countries I visited other than to pass. Passing on the right side will result in a very upset European. On one stretch of the Italian Autostrada, I came up behind a slow moving Citroën in the middle of three lanes. The left lane was full of German wagons moving quickly so I went around him on the right. As I went by him, he started to speed up and I could see his arms flailing in my rear view mirror. I kept my foot down and my diesel Toyota pulled away, but it was clear that he wasn’t happy about my maneuver. I only had to do it one additional time, this time in Germany, where that slow mover magically found his gas pedal as I passed as well. Do it if it is the safest option, but be prepared for the driver to get annoyed. There is honestly a culture of respect when it comes to driving in Europe, people respect the fact that you may want to go faster than they do, regardless of speed limits, and they will quickly move over. Nobody got road rage when you advanced up behind them rapidly, they just did the right thing and got out of the way.

5. Exotics are plentiful, depending on where you are.

I’ll admit, I expected to be knee deep in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as soon as I entered Italy near the Brenner Pass. That wasn’t entirely true. Around the Venice area, I didn’t see any, although supercars are notoriously difficult to drive in the water. In the Tuscany region, I saw a couple of older Ferraris, a 308 and a 456, roll through town in the Chianti region. Naturally, as we went North towards Maranello things changed quite a bit. You can sit downtown near the Ferrari factory and just watch them fly by or queue up at stop lights. As you’ll read about in the upcoming Ferrari Factory and Museum feature article, the folks from Fiorano test every car on the street. So you’ll have up to 80 KM on the clock of your factory ordered Ferrari, and you’ll like it. There are also lots of “exotic car driving experiences” in and around the area, which makes up quite a few of the sightings. Same for the Bologna region, I saw numerous !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! out for testing runs, still wearing protective plastic on their newly built bodies. I was struck by the financial disparity between the supercar companies and the residents in around the two regions, which are both primarily agriculture and industrial. I wondered aloud if the residents appreciate what is produced near their home or perhaps have some disdain for the excess of it all.

Speaking of excess, there’s Monaco. I quote the brilliant scribe, William Smith “Hundred thousand dollar cars, everybody got em”. In and around the main Monte Carlo casino, you’ll be treated to numerous high end cars parked around the circle and driving through. Even a 458 Italia stopped traffic at one point as it was valet parked. The 20-something female driver may have helped on that one though. Just under an hour away, Cannes was a similar experience. The upscale Hotel Martinez had numerous high end exotics parked outside at any given moment, including a Bugatti Veyron, which the only one I saw on the trip. Switzerland and Germany were similar to each other, I saw the occasional Italian exotic, but nothing too extreme. Switzerland, particularly in the Interlaken and Zurich areas had very diverse cars, including old American muscle cars, which provide quite the contrasting looks and sounds next to small European cars.

6. Everyone drives a manual diesel wagon.

Well not everyone, but almost everyone. From the initial walk through the Hertz lot in Munich (where they tried to stick me with a Ford Transit van) to the 5000 KM that was logged on our diesel Toyota, it was clear that most people drive a manual, diesel wagon or hatchback. Some were even brown. t’s so cliched, I assumed it may not be true. But for those who are wondering, it’s incredibly true. What will it take for more Americans to go this route? Higher gas prices I assume, plus a more comparably priced diesel fuel in the states. The Toyota operated like a normal petrol car, the 6spd hatch certainly wasn’t the slowest thing on the road and the automatic start/stop feature required it to have a fairly smooth start-up, which it did. Mostly.

7. Two wheels very bad.

Scooters. I fucking hate scooters after three weeks in Europe. Not all scooters, but Italian and French scooters most certainly. Between the Lake Como area of Italy and the French Riviera, if I don’t get passed on a curve by a scooter dodging oncoming traffic again for awhile, it will be just fine with me. Those guys are obnoxious, I get that they can lane split and get through the tight, slow moving, roads full of tourists, but it’s dangerous. Plus, while you sit and revel in the fact that you are the first one at a stoplight, you all of a sudden hear the sound of angry mosquitoes coming up behind, beside, and then in front of you. My start-stop feature seemed to anger them, the noise of the engine starting back up normally got me an angry leer. I’m not sure how supercar owners survive, other than by taking their cars out on the incredibly fast highways.

8. The autobahn is still incredibly fast.

Seriously, it’s fast. If you’ve heard the same rumors I have here in the states, you’ll think that perhaps there are but a few stretches left in Germany with no speed limit. The naysayers, who I now question whether or not have been to Deutschland, will say that the traffic is too heavy to really go fast. That is all bullshit . Sure, there are speed limits in some stretches of the autobahn, and Germans obey them, but then you’ll see a sign like the one to the right, with a number crossed out, you had better move over unless you think you can hang. And hang you will have to, as soon as that sign is visible, gas pedals are planted to the floor and and triple digit miles-per-hour come up fast. I was pleased to reach nearly 200 KPH in my econocar, which is around 124 MPH. That was in 6th gear and likely maxed out either the power or aero (or both) of our Verso. I was passed by BMWs and Mercedes going probably 20-30 MPH faster than that, if not more. You truly spend 30% of your time looking in your mirrors to make sure you have enough time to pass before the headlights you see a few KM away are on top of you. Regardless, it is quite an experience to see fast cars flying by you as your car buffets from the wind they are displacing. It’s hard not to smile but perhaps wish you are in something faster.

So in summary, if you get the chance to drive around Europe, do it. Skip the train, skip the airport and rent a car. Even your small diesel hatchback will be great fun carving through Italian b-roads or covering hundreds of kilometers of highway (I’m sticking to the metric system by the way, I’ll be ahead of the curve when we switch). It is a bit intimidating, but it’s an experience of a lifetime.

BONUS PHOTOS

Jump over to the full article on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to see bonus car sighting pics including Bentley, Bugatti, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lancia and more. Behold the weird and wonderful.

//Follow me on Twitter @WilliamByrdUSA

All photos by the author (except the speed limit sign, that’s from !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .)

Tohru > RightFootDown 07/28/2015 at 12:13

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(I’m sticking to the metric system by the way, I’ll be ahead of the curve when we switch).

Blasphemy!

WiscoProud > RightFootDown 07/28/2015 at 12:16

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Nice article. I've always wanted to drive around Europe. I was watching /Drive a few weeks back and Chris Harris was cruising on the autobahn in a BMW 335d at 135mph, and was nonchalant about it.

William Byrd > WiscoProud 07/28/2015 at 12:21

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Thanks! Ironically in the Pagani showroom, Mr. Harris’s video was up on the screen in the background.

And yeah it’s incredible how easy it is to drive fast there. Could only imagine what it’s like in a faster car.

Svend > RightFootDown 07/28/2015 at 12:22

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I've found cars tend to be cheaper or have lower tax on home made vehicles. In the U.K. you can get a Nissan QashQai for £19,000 but with dealer incentives you can pick them up for sell than £15,000 new if you look and ask.

William Byrd > Tohru 07/28/2015 at 12:25

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Curses!

Svend > RightFootDown 07/28/2015 at 12:28

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In many countries ‘undertaking’ is illegal over 10-15mph and may get you a ‘tug’ from the police.

Be aware some countries may want to breathalyse you for minor traffic infringements so always be polite and articulate, if you don't speak the same language try to use hand gestures (slowly) and be patient. They want to be on their way just as much as you do.

Svend > Tohru 07/28/2015 at 12:34

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My god, I’ve not seen a teletext/ceefax screen like that in years.

Thanks for posting it.

William Byrd > Svend 07/28/2015 at 12:44

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That would require the police to actually be out patrolling the highways. I can probably count on one hand how many patrol cars I saw on highways, most had their lights on heading somewhere very quickly. Very different scene than the US.

William Byrd > Svend 07/28/2015 at 12:44

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Makes sense! Doesn’t really happen in the US so it was surprising.

Bman76 (no it doesn't need a WS6 hood) M. Arch > RightFootDown 07/28/2015 at 12:45

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I concur, I found out a diesel Ford Cmax will run 185kph in Germany. Also, Mondeo wagons, seriously Ford bring them here.

Klaus Schmoll > RightFootDown 07/28/2015 at 12:50

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Nice write-up!

Just two little things: It’s “Ausfahrt” not “ausfhart”. The h AFTER the a elongates it.

And passing on the right is highly illegal and can land you a hefty fine. People still do it, but the reactions you got should basically show you that you did something wrong. I wouldn’t recommend to your readers, “to do so in a safe manner”.

William Byrd > Klaus Schmoll 07/28/2015 at 12:53

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Ah, good call. I’ll edit that. Even looked it up, must’ve transcribed it in my brain as I typed it.

And yes, if it is indeed that frowned upon, I would not recommend it. Interesting to see how different countries develop different rules and driving customs. I passed on the right many times this morning, mostly due to the number of drivers going slow on the left.

William Byrd > Bman76 (no it doesn't need a WS6 hood) M. Arch 07/28/2015 at 12:55

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I almost got a C-Max but they had rented the last one. Wanted a Mondeo wagon (we own a Fusion) but they weren’t available either. The little Toyota held its own, I’lll say that.

Klaus Schmoll > William Byrd 07/28/2015 at 13:12

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For Germans it’s a € 100 fine plus fees and a point on the license. Foreign nationals who can’t get points on their license in Germany will pay more. Non-EU nationals will have to pay on the spot. So prepare to pay € 200 - 250 on the spot or they will escort you to the next ATM.

William Byrd > Klaus Schmoll 07/28/2015 at 13:15

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Curious how often it’s enforced. I literally counted a handful of actual patrol officers on European highways. Germans were out in more force than other countries, and even then I only saw a few and always lights and sirens responding to somewhere. Stark contrast to the number of patrol cars on highways in the US.

Klaus Schmoll > William Byrd 07/28/2015 at 13:25

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Did you notice the bridges with the LED signs that tell you the current speed limit and/or warn you of accidents, ice, and the like? 10 -20 % have cameras in them that do speed, safety distance and illegal passing. They also have unmarked cars with cameras for heavy speeding and passing on the right.

William Byrd > Klaus Schmoll 07/28/2015 at 13:35

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Scheiße!!

Svend > William Byrd 07/28/2015 at 13:58

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Thing is even if you can’t see the police cars, chances are there are hiding somewhere or on a bridge looking down or many many cameras dotted about. Our police cars in the U.K. are covered in retro-reflective tape to be highly visible (sort of a, you can see use so we can see you so stop speeding/acting a douche/etc... or we’ll pull you).

It’s not just the U.K. that’s highly prevalent with cameras.

Svend > William Byrd 07/28/2015 at 14:04

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The U.S. is quite a closed market when it comes to cars and trying to import one. I’d say the majority of cars sold in the U.S. market are actually made in the U.S. or a neighbouring country.

Cars made and sold in their home countries don't require massive logistics of moving them from continent to continent and the various tax systems they'll pass through and so they'll pass on the price saving to their customers and so boost sales over other cars that are being imported and need to recoup some of that cost.

William Byrd > Svend 07/28/2015 at 14:13

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I don’t necessarily disagree with that, however if you drive through the average neighborhood you won’t see solely American cars (as I said, perhaps in and around Detroit is an exception). Whereas I saw almost nothing but German cars while I was there.

Svend > William Byrd 07/28/2015 at 14:33

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Maybe not American but I’m guessing a vast percentage are U.S. made, Toyota Camry and Sienna. BMW X3, 5 and 6. Mercedes GL, R and M Class. Honda Accord, CR-V, Element, Pilot, Odyssey, Civis, etc..., while imported cars such as Audi are priced higher to their equivalent U.S. made cars.

CCC (formerly CyclistCarCoexist) > RightFootDown 07/28/2015 at 15:11

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I agree with you, I was in Europe no more than 2 weeks ago. Italian drivers aren't that scary, compared to Parisian drivers. Parisians are insane while Italians are much more demure. Mopeds are insane. And lots of manual diesel brown wagon.

Hiroku > Bman76 (no it doesn't need a WS6 hood) M. Arch 07/29/2015 at 08:48

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I managed to get a 50hp hatchback up to 180 once. Granted it was going downhill and with the clutch in, as 5th was maxed out around 160...

I wouldn’t recommend it.

Hiroku > William Byrd 07/29/2015 at 08:55

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As an European who never drove/been to the US, I am always surprised about how much police you Americans seem to have on highways just to pull people over. In 3 years of driving I have never once been pulled over, and could count on the fingers of one hand how many times I’ve seen cars stopped on the side of the road getting a ticket. Our police does seem to be more concerned about chasing actual crimes than generating revenue for the state (maybe that partially explains why we’re all broke!).

William Byrd > Hiroku 07/29/2015 at 11:47

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Interesting questions. I pondered that very concept as I drove around Europe. Do we need less police, have them focus less on traffic and more on violent crime, theft, etc? Would that make the roads safer or more dangerous? Or do we need the same amount of police and re purpose their day-to-day in the US? We certainly do get some revenue from speeders and traffic violations. I’ve been pulled over many, many, many times.

William Byrd > CCC (formerly CyclistCarCoexist) 07/29/2015 at 11:50

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Nice. Didn’t make it over Paris. Biggest cities I drove through were Munich and Frankfurt. I’ve heard most large European cities become even crazier. The small Tuscany and Como towns were interesting, as was the French Riviera. Did I mention I hate scooters/mopeds?

Mockngbrd > RightFootDown 06/22/2017 at 22:47

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I was in my happy place