# Toll roads in Europe?



## g4fishing (Jan 12, 2008)

Looking for a little more help planning our summer trip to Europe (Spain, S. France, Italy, Germany, Paris).  Am 90% sure that I will lease a car in Europe for the month we are there.  We are mostly staying in the countryside where a car is necessary and we won't drive in the cities.  My question is are the toll roads between the countries expensive or not a major concern?


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## aztex (Jan 12, 2008)

Toll roads are not cheap, especially now with the current exchange rate.   Safe to say that if you use one for any distance you are going to be up in the double digits.  Given the price of gas however and the efficiency of the toll roads for getting from point A to point B your cost for the road is a small factor. 

We like to use local and toll in combination all depending on our day's schedule and the experience we want.  If you aren't in a hurry the best way to see Europe is to stay local for as much as you can.  It will introduce you to an entirely new language and vocabulary, some of it visual.


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## alfie (Jan 12, 2008)

The toll road are expensive, but, they are very easy to drive, and fast.  You can pay with your visa as you go along.  The local roads are free, but, wind thru little towns. They have the advantage of being very tree lined and quite scenic.    It really depends on where you want to go.  To go from A to B take the toll, down the Loire Valley or down the Costa Dorada to the Costa del Sol take the local routes.  The toll roads are like our typical 4 lane highways.  The local roads are, well, more interesting.  They all have picnic areas, and more rest centers than our highways at home, so you can stop and see the view and have a picnic more often.  There also are many more long tunnels thru mountains, so check your gas situation often.  Are you familiar with the term ...round point, or round a bout, or traffic circle?


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## x3 skier (Jan 12, 2008)

If you are going to be there that long, you might look into a European Delivery of a car. BMW, Mercedes, Volvo and others have some really good deals. I got a BMW x3 and saved over 10% vs US delivery. The price included shipping back to the states, insurance while in Europe, redelivery to my home dealer and was a blast. 

Cheers


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## silvib (Jan 13, 2008)

x3 skier said:


> If you are going to be there that long, you might look into a European Delivery of a car. BMW, Mercedes, Volvo and others have some really good deals. I got a BMW x3 and saved over 10% vs US delivery. The price included shipping back to the states, insurance while in Europe, redelivery to my home dealer and was a blast.
> 
> Cheers


Was this long ago as given the exchange rate at the moment, I didn't think it would work out very favorably.
I have a Jaguar XK8 and it's cheaper in the US than in the UK where it's made.


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## x3 skier (Jan 13, 2008)

Basically, the list price is discounted 7% for BMW's. Exchange rates are not a player. You check the MSRP in the USA, Deduct 7% or so and that's your MSRP for a European Delivery. Anything extra you can negotiate is even better. I saved over $4500 when I bought mine. For BMW, check www.bmwusa.com and look for European delivery. Mercedes has similar deals as does Volvo. Porsche actually charges a premium for ED. 

If you are interested in BMW's let me know and I can give you some hints.

Cheers


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## silvib (Jan 13, 2008)

That's interesting to know.  Other than buying through a dealer, in whichever country we've been living, the only time we personally imported vehicles (within Europe) was a disaster, so I'd always feel cautious in the future. We lived in Spain at the time, there was a down in the real estate market, like now, so we concentrated on our car rental business, the cars all being made in Spain, etc.etc. instead of our real estate business
In approx. 1990, we bought a used Range Rover in England and in Holland, a new Mazda 626 coupe V6 2.0 - it had a different engine to the comparable model here at the time.  We were in the UK for about a month using the Mazda, we drove both vehicles back to Spain & successfully imported the Range Rover, sold it, although not for as much as we'd hoped but customs impounded the Mazda, said we couldn't import it as used, which after driving around and approx. 2,000 miles later ?? and it was considered new, along with that would come a very hefty import duty.  It wasn't considered a European car as it had been made in Japan.  Anyway, we refused to pay what they wanted and after 12 months of them holding the vehicle, we got it back, after a lot of red tape and paperwork.  We'd bought the car to re-sell, because at that time in Spain, the vehicle which was black, was a real head turner, but we all know cars don't appreciate with age, with the exception of specific makes & models, so we kept it ourselves.  We kept it until we moved here, it was a great car, never had any problems.


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## Jimster (Jan 14, 2008)

*volvo*

Check out Volvo on line.  They have an extensive program.  You drive the car while you are there and then they import it for you.   There are many other perks along the way too.  Check out their site http://www.volvocars.us/salesandservices/overseasdelivery/


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## hibbeln (Jan 17, 2008)

Back to the question of tolls.......this website gives great directions for Europe AND tells you what the tolls will be.  We actually found the tolls they listed in France to be about 1.25-1.50 Euros on average more than what we really paid,  but they will give you a rough estimate.

www.viamichelin.com


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## silvib (Jan 19, 2008)

Of course it depends how quickly you want to drive from A to B.  I remember years' ago, we were driving down to Spain with 2 vehicles from England, but scheduled to visit friends near the French/Spanish border.  When we arrived in France, we decided to take the more scenic routes, to see the countryside.  It didn't take long for us to move over to the interstate equivalents, I don't remember if they were toll roads or not.  Even after our decision change, it took us about 9 hrs. after getting off the ferry to reach our destination and it would have been substantially longer had we stuck with "scenic".


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