Just finished a fantastic 8 day European trip. Rented a BMW M550 by Sixt. I originally had a Porsche Panamera hybrid and a E63 for European delivery, due to various reasons I cancelled both. My advice if you like driving is to rent a car and abuse someone else’s car.

Route: Munich—Lichtenstein—Zurich—Lucerne—Lake Como—Milan—Geneva—Middle of France (had to drop off a kid for summer exchange program)—Strasbourg (sadly we were there when Anthony Bourdain committed suicide)—Stuttgart—Munich.

Key observations:

-The Autobahn is incredible. The car, however was speed limited to 150mph.

-U.S. drivers are terrible period. If we had an Autobahn concept here, we would triple the freeway death rate immediately. People here do not use signals, cruise in the left lane, on their phone while driving, etc.

-U.S. roads are terrible. The European roads are by in large much better than here (less potholes) and I was surprised there was very little road construction during my route. Here in the states we have road construction/maintenance every 30-40 miles during the summer.

-Despite the above short comings of the US, I would still not switch from living here. There is no way I could afford any of these cars in Europe. The same cars cost 30-40% higher there.

-The BMW drove very nicely, felt much smaller than it was. The adaptive cruise control works much better than the Mercedes unit.

-Had some very spirited driving thru the Swiss alps. On two occasions I was following a Jeep and a Mercedes SUV driven by some locals. Damn they could drive. Tore up the tires and brakes on my car (once again I would not have driven aggressively with my own car). The AMG track event that I went to the prior to my trip definitely helped.

-Driving in Lake Como is not for the meek. The roads are designed for horses. You have a rock wall on one side and literally 4 inches of room for the car across from you on the other side. The Italian drivers do not slow down for oncoming traffic nor for any upcoming curves.

Now back to work.

 

Nice trip! I drove from Como up the lake to Hotel Tremezzo where my wife and I stayed a few days... god's country for sure! And you are right: that road is not for the meek, nor for two-way traffic. The on-coming buses freaked me out the most. The Fiat we had for that trip was tiny but still felt too big!

Cheers

 

Thanks for sharing! It's always interesting to hear about others' experiences at another country/continent.

Indeed, to have the Autobahn system, US will need to improved and revamp training for drivers here. I'm sure the poor road condition in the US is also a reason for hold-back. Moreover, I'm sure a lot of cities and towns that derive a good portion of their revenues from speeding tickets wouldn't want that. (Off topic: Same situation with ensuring drug stays illegal so the legal and jail system can continue to thrive and profit, at the expense of lives lost and illegal activities/chaos north and south of the border)