2012 - European cruise - great MPG

[John1950]

Well, we've just got back from a three week camping holiday. Janet and I travelled to one of the Croatian islands and then back covering 3200 miles.
On the way out we had a two and a half hour journey to Dover, then into France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Slovenia and eventually, Croatia and the island of Cres.
We had a couple of weeks here - the temp was up to 40c so the roof was up all of the time and the air conditioning ran in recirculation mode. During our time on Cres and it's adjoining island of Losinj we covered about 800 miles on D grade roads mostly with lots of hills and valleys.
Then, it was time for the return journey - Italy and through the absolutely stunning Dolomites, Austria (stopped of for the day at Innsbruck - lovely place), then Germany but didn't stop, Luxembourg again, Belgium and then stayed overnight in a B&B in the Alsace region of France - another beautiful place.
Finally we saw out first Brit for the entire holiday as we headed towards Calais. Once on the ferry the weather changed to British type and we drove home bronzed like film stars (we thought) and so pleased to see the clouds

So, 3200 miles - we cruised at about 68-70 on the main roads with plenty of lusty overtaking during the three weeks (you got to on those lovely twisty mountain roads haven't you...it made 'madam' rather fractious) - and by the time we got back - our MPG for the entire journey.... 32.6MPG!. Not bad at all I think for a 2.8.

[billz]

We have just got back after doing 3420mls and ours returned almost the same 33mpg. We went Calais Jaca Javea Avignon Lake como Belfort and back to Calais only toll roads we did was fram Javea to Lake Como and like you temps of 37 to 40. The Alps are absolutly stunning and a euro trip is a must in a zed.
Glad you enjoyed it, we are doing something again 2014.
bill

[John1950]

We have just got back after doing 3420mls and ours returned almost the same 33mpg. We went Calais Jaca Javea Avignon Lake como Belfort and back to Calais only toll roads we did was fram Javea to Lake Como and like you temps of 37 to 40. The Alps are absolutly stunning and a euro trip is a must in a zed.
Glad you enjoyed it, we are doing something again 2014.
bill

I tell you something else I noticed - much more interest in our car than here in the UK. Everywhere else people seem quite happy to come over and talk about it - it's the fact that we have a UK registration and the oddness of right hand drive. We had some pleasant chats wherever we went.

[billz]

Yeh we stayed in one hotel and a bus driver stopped the bus and came over and started takin photos on his mobile, it turned out the z3 was his fav car but he had a z4.
But i didnt notice any recession abroad at all, every restaraunt was full, all new posh cars and when we went from Spain to France there was a 2hr delay at the East side boarder full of French,Italians, Germans and Swiss all going North.
bill