international driving permit
First, let us reiterate that the minimum age limit
for the French auto lease program is only 18 years, and there is no maximum
age limit. The only other requirement in this regard is that
you've held your valid drivers license for at least a year.
In France your domestic drivers license suffices for operation of the vehicle.
Indeed many European countries require of you, the foreign driver, no license apart from
your domestic drivers license. However, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Ukraine,
and Vatican City do, by law at least, require non-Europeans to carry
an International Driving Permit (IDP) along with their domestic license.
(See the country listings posted on the New Zealand Automobile
Association's Website.)
Basically an IDP is a means by which police in a foreign
country can know — in terms of translations in nearly a dozen
different languages —
that your domestic driver's license is indeed recognized as being valid by
the proper authorities in your country. See the
excellent article at
Drivers.com.
Is it really necessary that you obtain an IDP
if you plan to drive in the aforementioned countries? In practice of course it
depends on the particular police officer who might happen to pull you over.
Renault doesn't care whether or not you have an IDP; it's up to you whether
you cover yourself in this regard.
The local office of your auto club (AAA, CAA, etc.) sells IDPs for
about US$10. If you need an IDP, take
your license, two passport-sized photos and the requisite cash to the club office. (Though for about US$6 the
club may snap Polaroid photos for you.) Ten minutes later you'll be able to
legally drive on any European road—assuming you're at least 18 years of age. If you
plan to operate a motorcycle in Europe, be sure to have the auto club certify your
qualification to do so. The USA's AAA now has a Webpage whereby drivers
licensed in the USA can obtain an IDP:
AAA's application for IDP.
Web searches will bring up a host of Websites selling documents that conform
to the model delineated in annex 10 of the United Nations Convention on Road
Traffic (1949); but according to Article 24 of that convention,
a truly valid IDP is one which is "issued .. by the competent authority of
another Contracting State or subdivision thereof, or by an association duly
empowered by such authority ...." The US State Department says it has
empowered only the American Automobile Association (AAA) and the American
Automobile Touring Alliance (AATA) to issue IDPs. The AATA offers IDPs
through the National Automobile Club.
maps
Maps are not provided with your leased vehicle.
We recommend that you invest in a top quality map or maps, or a very good atlas. You can
buy your map(s) domestically,
from the likes of Amazon.com, or once abroad from a bookstore (present
in most airports) or service station. Everyone wants a free map, but in addition to death and taxes at least one further fact will always be generally true: free maps are
not good maps. And no matter what map you get, remember the words
of Thomas Ottavi: "There are lies, damned lies, and then there are maps."
travel insurance
The lease plan includes insurance which covers injury to occupants of and theft of your
leased vehicle, but it doesn't include insurance to cover theft of
your belongings. IdeaMerge recommends you consider purchasing travel insurance
to cover, among other things, such an eventuality. You can start your
research in this regard by visiting IdeaMerge's choice travel insurance providers:
books
cell phones
Many cell phones (i.e., mobile phones, handies) now work overseas. Check with your
service provider in this regard; it might be a good occasion for you to
upgrade to a phone (and plan) that works overseas. Otherwise,
consider the following rental vendors; but understand that the latter two will charge
you about US$80 for the shipping (to and from you), about
US$1 per minute for calls between persons within Europe, US$2 per minute
for calls coming from or going to a person outside Europe, and
perhaps a daily rental rate as well:
route planners
fuel prices
Over half the new cars sold in Europe are now diesel; and high-quality diesel fuel is of course available wherever gasoline is sold,
the pumps being on the same service islands as the gasoline pumps. Some stations
even provide disposable gloves which customers may don to pump fuel.
Make sure you do not mistakenly pull up to a truck diesel pump.
The size of the nozzles for the truck pumps versus the car/motorhome pumps is different.
A truck fuel nozzle is too big to fit into a car's or motorhome's diesel fuel pipe, and the flow rate is much greater.
LPG (i.e. propane) pumps always occupy their own island.
BEWARE: A diesel fuel pump nozzle (for cars and motorhomes) is considerably wider than either a leaded gasoline pump nozzle or the even smaller unleaded gasoline
pump nozzle
and indeed will not fit into either such tank.
Consequently a gasoline nozzle will fit into a diesel tank.
Therefore, be careful not to put gasoline into a diesel tank!!!
Even a liter of gasoline added to the tank of a modern diesel car or motorhome can cause irreversible
damage to the injection pump and other components due to its relatively low lubricity. (Diesel in a gasoline engine — while creating large amounts of smoke — does not normally cause permanent damage if it is drained
once the mistake is realized. Similarly, older diesels using completely mechanical injection can tolerate some gasoline,
which has historically been used to "thin" diesel fuel in winter.)
A green pump holds unleaded gasoline or else diesel, a blue leaded gasoline. Diesel pumps are sometimes colored black, sometimes green.
Diesel pumps are chiefly signified linguistically, either with the very word diesel or with one of the
equivalents: gas-oil, gaz-oil, gasolio, gasóleo, dieselolie, mazot, motorina, or nafta.
automotive conversions
other resources
The best place to begin further researching your journey may be our
Moto Europa Website at www.ideamerge.com/motoeuropa. The Moto Europa
site is a full and free online guide and Web portal devoted to the topic
of European motor travel.
Some highlights from that Moto Europa Website include the following:
And some very useful links include:
special-case renault documents
The forms required of clients who are traveling under a passport issued
by a country which is a member of the European Union:
Optional "Proxy" form whereby the individual in whose name the lease is arranged
(and, yes, these leases do need to be in one person's name only, even though
the insurance is indeed still effective when family or friends drive the vehicle) can give
his/her parent or spouse or son or daughter (i.e. an immediate, nuclear family member,
siblings not included) the right to pick-up the vehicle in his/her (i.e. said singular individual's)
absence. (Whew! That's a mouthful!)
And finally, the forms required of clients who are applying for a lease duration
longer than the durations allowed for mere tourists. Persons going on paid assignment
or paid sabbatical to or studying in Europe can qualify for a lease of up to 360 days:
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