I too shall be going to England next week for 10 days. I arrive at
Gatwick and have rented a Ford Sierra for the time that I shall be there.
> about rental cars (e.g., how do I avoid getting the British equivalent
> of a Pinto)? Any other words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated!
> Ralph
My advise is rent a car with at least a 1600cc engine. Remenber you can
cruise on the motorways at a fairly high speed and anything below 1600cc
will be somewhat boring and gutless. The last time that I was in England
my average speed from Gatwick to Manchester was 87mph, I was constantly
cruising at above 100mph (at least that is what the speedo was indicating).
I rented a Montego with the 1800cc (?) or 2.0L (?) engine, and that seemed
happy all the way.
I also rented an Escort 1300 but I found that to be somewhat under
powered so I swapped it for an Escort 1600 which made the world of
difference.
This time I have rented a Sierra 2.0l only because I am curious what they
are like.
Getting used to driveing on the left side of the road, takes a couple
of hourse to get used to. But if you are driving on the motorways there
should be no problem. This biggest danger I found was when pulling out
of a side road onto a main road. In the States in that situation I have
the habit of looking left first and then right to see if everything
is clear. In England remember you have to look right first and then left.
Also the first couple of hours of driving through city streets I mumble to
myself "keep left, keep left etc). After a day or so you should not
have any problems at all.
I read a statistic a couple of years ago that when people form the UK
go over to the continent, 90% of the accident happen with 25 miles from
leaving the port.
Hope you have a good time, I tend to spend a couple of days driving from
one car factory to another. I hope to see TVR, Morgan and Reliant while
I am over there.
Gerry
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