The Irish Mitsubishi FTO Owners Club

Spend a few days in Germany, came back Monday evening, myself and a few guys went over to see a mate who lives there, we were planning to do a fair bit of driving (Dusseldorf - Hannover - Cologne - Dusseldorf) so we rented a Merc C200 K and a BMW 525d. Driving the Autobahns is a completely different motorway experience to any other country I've ever driven in, well laid out roads, sections of motorway without speed limits, courtious drivers and good roadside facilities. GPS was a great help as well, it really took the hassle out of the driving experience and was pretty spot on most of the time (once we worked out how to get it from German to English!)

CJ

The autobahns are cool alright, I spent 6 months in Germany with a previous job so got a lot of autobahn mileage done.

I had one scary moment when I went from a dry to wet part of the autobahn, and within about 2-3 seconds I literally couldn't see 5 feet in front with the spray from the car in front of me (praying the guy hadn't just braked heavily).

Apparently the worst crime you can commit on an autobahn is to pass someone on the wrong side(i.e. to the right). There's supposed to be unmarked cars around watching out for it.

kevinod wrote:Apparently the worst crime you can commit on an autobahn is to pass someone on the wrong side(i.e. to the right). There's supposed to be unmarked cars around watching out for it.

That is understandable as there is probably no need to 'undertake' so to speak....unlike in Ireland that is
I expect the Germans have much better lane discipline, i.e. drive in the correct lane according to speed and road conditions, and use the overtaking lane for overtaking, and get out of the way of faster moving traffic.
I've never driven in Germany but even the motorway expiernce in the UK is far supperior to here, people actually know how to use them in the UK.

Mustang wrote:I expect the Germans have much better lane discipline, i.e. drive in the correct lane according to speed and road conditions, and use the overtaking lane for overtaking, and get out of the way of faster moving traffic.

Ya, in general they were better alright, you still get the odd gobsh*te that only wants to drive in the fastest lane but they're a hell of a lot rarer than here.

I was in LA with the job and there no such thing as a fast/slow lane there, they'll overtake you whichever side they happen to be on, although considering traffic was bumper to bumper for large parts of the day on the busier freeways it's kinda understandable.

Spent 2 years in Germany myself, on the roads every day pretty much. loved every minute of it. You can rent excellent cars over there too for relatively good money.

adrian wrote:You can rent excellent cars over there too for relatively good money.

True, we were after 911's but they'd none left, we ended up paying about €600 altogether for the C200K and the 525d for 5 days (Avis), great value when you compare to other countries.

We did get flashed once in Cologne doing 70kph in a 50 zone, I wonder will I get stung with a ticket? (My CC's were used for verification).

CJ

CJ wrote:We did get flashed once in Cologne doing 70kph in a 50 zone, I wonder will I get stung with a ticket? (My CC's were used for verification).

CJ

I would say yes as I just got stung on my cc for a ticket in Norway on a hire car - they have a section in the small print which states all tickets (speeding, etc) will be billed to customers cc.