Easy on the Gas

Due to the high price of fuel, we opted for a car with good mileage rather than muscle when we were in Europe. We reserved a small Opal from Alamo. When we arrived at the airport they had a VW Polo for us instead which is a similar car. On the fourth day the power steering went out on that vehicle. We were in a rural area and our host at the Gasthaus helped us with language barriers getting the car towed to a nearby town for service. Bad news it would take a week to fix. Alamo found an Avis car nearby for us to use until we could pick up another car from their company. The next day we drove 50K (out of our way) to Saarlouis to a rental agent for Alamo to pick up the car reserved for us. We had the reservation but they did not have the car. The people were very apologetic. While we drank their coffee they made arrangements for us to return our Avis car and pick up our Alamo car in Trier, our next stop. We were given directions to the Avis shop where we would drop this car and told they would drive us across town to the Alamo agent. So far so good. We accepted their apologies and on we went. Surprisingly, we easily found the Avis agent. She informed us they were too busy to drive us to Alamo. I think that was after Jon said "collect from Alamo for this car". After a 17 euros cab ride we connected with the third car. It was brand new and an upgraded Opal. So much for "easy on the gas". Life was good. Jon found out it would go 220K on the autobahn. Later, he found out even if you never see a "highway patrol" on the autobahn they have cameras that watch for speeders. If the sign says slow down, it means slow down. Two days ago we received a ticket for 20 euros for speeding near Wels, Austria. The notice is all in German. We cannot understand how to pay the ticket. A couple of calls to Alamo and we will now receive something in English in the mail. A friend of ours got a speeding ticket in Switzerland for 50 euros. He disregarded it and the next mailing it was at 100 euros. This got his attention and he asked a friend who lives in Switzerland to pay it for him. He then got another notice the ticket was now 200 euro. The friend forgot to pay it. I am not sure the Austrian government will double or quadruple our ticket but I feel better clearing things up. Anyway, we should have followed our original intent to be "easy on the gas".

I love the picture which I found on the Intranet. I always wondered what happened to all those old Yugos. Before the collapse of Yugoslavia, "Yugos" were marketed in the US at around $4000, a bargain even in the 90's. I thought we should get one but am glad we didn't. The one above does look like it is easy on the gas.