Soldato
I toured Europe in a lorry based motor home. Well, as far as southern Germany. The rest I did in a hire car when it broke down. 
Now that was an experience!
Now that was an experience!
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£5k Car for Eurotrip?
- Thread starter wez130
- Start date
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I would like to say it was just the two of us but I utilised my car packing skills to make a seat free to accommodate my Mum for a week from Dubrovnik to Zagreb. It wasn't easy but we managed as we always do
But yeah if I had a choice a Kia Picanto wouldn't be top of it
Keep the Saab, and strap one of these to it if boot space is really a problem.
http://www.boot-bag.com/
My Z4M has less boot space than yours and I'd wager my wife has a bigger clothes habit than you and this solution was fine for us for a three week jaunt round Europe.
http://www.boot-bag.com/
My Z4M has less boot space than yours and I'd wager my wife has a bigger clothes habit than you and this solution was fine for us for a three week jaunt round Europe.
I really think you should reconsider how much you have planned to spend on your trip... We have just come back from a euro road trip in a KIA Picanto... We managed just fine with a Tent, cooker, 2 chairs, 2 sleeping bags, clothes, towels, food, table, bbq, toiletries!! We covered 4.5k miles and spent 6 weeks away!!
In total we spent... €1700 (£1500) including fuel, food, accommodation ... all of it... It just seems like you would be over spending for the sake of it! Rather than thinking to use it wisely. Just for the info went to many places as far as Poland and down to Dubrovnik. I just want to give you faith that if you budget to do it all for £5000 you would be a lot better off and know that you have the extra money if you need it.
Any how good luck with finding the right car... I can't say I would recommend a Kia Picanto though haha (No comfort, cruise control, power to get up hills) But all part of the adventure at the end of the day
Have fun.
EDIT: Obviously we were on a strict budget as we wanted to go away for as long as possible on as little money but just saying that what you have budgeted considering you want to camp some nights is still a lot
Informative, thanks, what was your route, we'd like to fit some Eastern Europe in the trip, ideally, i'd like to get the ferry to Holland, then drive up to Sweden & Poland, then round to St Petersburg, through Poland etc but that doubles the distance and makes about a 6000 mile trip, which in 4 weeks is a bit too much driving than i'd like.
Alternative route i've calculated, but by no means finalised, is ferry to Holland, across Germany,down through Prague, Austria and Switzerland, then down to Rome via the Italian lakes (Garda or Como), along the med coast to Monaco, Marseille, Montpelier and down to Barcelona, then back up to Paris via Millau and back to UK via Calais.
As i stated, i'd like a bit more of Eastern Europe thrown in, maybe Croatia and a bit of bulgaria, but that seems to be going too far out of the way.
I know i've majorly overbudgeted on the trip, but i'd rather have the money there and be able to eat at good restaurants, stay in nice hotels etc. I may start a new thread specifically to plan the trip, but this one is still about the car, which i'm still adamant on changing. Honestly, driving at 75 /80 is so noisy in the cabin, the stereo is poor and it's just not a nice place to be on a long drive, yes it's comfy granted, but that's about all it's got going for it.
Soldato
This was the route we'd planned to take. There are some truly beautiful sights along the way. Try to stop at Lake Constance in Switzerland for a night, then head over to Austria for some major tunnels!
Oh, and fill up if you can in Luxembourg!
nm
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Okay well let me know if you make a thread for the trip I may be able to help you a little bit as prior to our trip this year we done a euro road trip in our Ford KA
And we drove to the south of france then to Rome and got the ferry from Italy (Ancona) to Split (Croatia) and drove back via Slovenia and Venice through Switzerland etc. We covered over 3000 miles again we were on a Budget but saw some fantastic places.Only recommendations is to make sure the car is reliable & good radio. Also don't just take a sat nav, buy a road map as well because no doubt you will need it.
Sorry I can't be more help for the car but good luck with finding the right one for you.
Edit- I think for what you want to see going as far as Poland would be too many miles... the roads in Poland aren't fantastic (we did avoid tolls though).
Good for you that you have the money it will be nice to have luxury on such a long trip.
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Hi, i've decided to up my budget to ~£8k, and i have a list of cars i'm interested in, however, and am currently trying to test drive the options.
I was down in Portsmouth / Soton yesterday and whilst down there i test drove a Honda Accord 2.2 i-DTEC, This exact one in fact. It seems like a lot of car for the money, fully loaded and quite a nice interior, it apparently has the best engine in its class, and whilst it wasn't the fastest car in the world, it went ok, enough for what i need anyway. How reliable is Hondas flappy paddle gearbox though and what else should i look for. Wouild you choose this over say a Mondeo Titanium X with the touch nav for instance? I drove one of these last week, though it was only the 1.8tdci, which, strangely, is both slower, and less economical than the 2.0tdci? I did like it though too.
I'm not completely sold on any yet though because i'm still trying to hold out for another audi A6, but there just seems to be nothing about in the spec i want. (leather, colour nav/ MMI and under 100k miles are the very minimum requirements).
I was down in Portsmouth / Soton yesterday and whilst down there i test drove a Honda Accord 2.2 i-DTEC, This exact one in fact. It seems like a lot of car for the money, fully loaded and quite a nice interior, it apparently has the best engine in its class, and whilst it wasn't the fastest car in the world, it went ok, enough for what i need anyway. How reliable is Hondas flappy paddle gearbox though and what else should i look for. Wouild you choose this over say a Mondeo Titanium X with the touch nav for instance? I drove one of these last week, though it was only the 1.8tdci, which, strangely, is both slower, and less economical than the 2.0tdci? I did like it though too.
I'm not completely sold on any yet though because i'm still trying to hold out for another audi A6, but there just seems to be nothing about in the spec i want. (leather, colour nav/ MMI and under 100k miles are the very minimum requirements).
Just did a 2 week 2500mile roadtrip round Europe in an Audi A4 avant 2.0 tdi s-line (company car), roof box and 4 of us. Spent around £800-1200 each on a semi strict budget depending on individual, but had access to car and roof box and tent. Mixture of camping, apartments, hotels and eating out more than expected. Tolls were about £150 (mostly France!), 8-9 tanks of fuel at 40ish mpg with a full car. Cruise control was a must for me.
Hope this helps
Hope this helps
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We got back from a just over 4000 mile trip last month which we completed in a little over two weeks, in a 4.6V8 Classic Range Rover, even I didn't spend 1.5k on fuel! LPG helped though.
A large amount of our money went on posh hotels, food and attractions.
A large amount of our money went on posh hotels, food and attractions.
Soldato
I own that exact car in manual with the larger diamond cut alloys (58 plate ES-GT Nav) and do 25-30k miles per year in it:
Benefits
- Perfectly reliable. I have only regassed the AC and changed a light bulb in 55k miles, currently on 95k.
- Lovely engine to drive compared to other 4 pots
- Lots of features (cruise, nav, bluetooth, mp3/ipod, etc).
Drawbacks
- Boot is more tourer than estate. The rear suspension encroaches and the boot isn't that wide
- No spare tire which would worry me on a lengthy euro trip
- Interior feels cheap compared to Audi/BMW/Ford Mondeo
- Seats are only "ok". I am comparing to a Volvo S60 but even so they are not fantastic
Our current second car is a 2004 Volvo S60 D5 SE and I arrive far more refreshed in that car. It will also be for sale soon and has the top of the range factory option sound system
