Our arrival in Amsterdam and our "contact" for the lease company have already been discussed earlier in the blog. We finally get to see the car we have been pinning the hopes on for getting us around Europe, and, as advertised comes a brown box on tiny wheels. I got a very brief introduction to the GPS system, how to set the cruise control, a packet of manuals (all in French), and a very condescending reminder that "other Americans have put petrol in a diesel... It is very expensive to fix," then we loaded up and were on our way. Except, that it has been a few years since I've driven a stick, so within the first 10 minutes, I stall it.
They only give you a couple of liters of diesel when you get the car, so I get another introduction to European life, filling up. In Europe, you pump first and pay after. Don't try leaving without paying because even the most out of date station has cameras on you and your license plate. The other thing was the presence of plastic gloves, the kind you find in food service places. I learned (the hard way) that even the nicest station's pump handles usually have a thick layer of oil on them and, if you don't use the glove, your hand smells of diesel for the next few days.
Our first couple of days were wonderful. We found that the Kangoo has shelves. Yes, shelves. Right above the driver and passenger seats, and, if you don't secure things properly up there, thing will fall on the passenger, the driver or both. It makes driving exciting and unpredictable. The kids have the life in the back seat. They have fold-up tray tables like you find on an airplane and overhead bins as well as under the floor storage. As a result, the kids get to do things like make and serve lunch and snacks for the rest of us on the longer legs of our trip. Most of the displays are pretty self-explanatory except that they are in French. I just found out how to change the odometer about 4 days ago. There is one for fuel efficiency, how long before you need an oil change, and, my favorite, how many kilometers until you are out of gas.
About 4 days into our trip, we were in Heidelberg when the remote to the GPS wouldn't sync up. We were able to get ourselves to the castle we had been trying to find, then, with the help of and old fashioned road map, get ourselves to Stuttgart. We had left our car parked while we were in Stuttgart, and decided on our way to the next destination to get the GPS fixed. We called our "contact" about the problem and were treated to a very brisk, "take it to the Renault dealership!" then he hung up. The only Renault service I could find put us on a long winding road that took us up mountains and down valleys. Near sheep fields and on one-track roads. I did this without leaving Stuttgart or using a functioning GPS. We finally found the service in a very small garage that I had accidentally driven by. I backed up and found a man we called Doctor Renault. We called him Dr. Renault because of is white hair and long lab coat. He didn't speak much English, but he understood, "Navi, Kaput!". Our thoughts on what could be wrong were that the remote was broken and needed to be replaced or the system just needed a reboot. Dr. Renault pressed a couple of buttons on the remote, then stated that he could not help us, but that his colleague down the hill might have the part we'd need. As it turns out, his colleague was in the same area of Stuttgart as the hostel we stayed in. There we met Christian. He was in his late 20s and spoke very good English. He came out to the car, removed and replaced the batteries, pressed combinations of buttons, tried turning the car off and on, and even disappeared with the remote for a while. I assume to try it on other cars. He came back about a half-hour later and stated that it wasn't the remote. It was the GPS itself which is integrated into the dashboard and gave me my first insight into the magic number of European car service; 2 days. Everything you'd ever need or want for a car was going to take 2 days to get in stock and replace. We were in Carcassonne, France when we were filling up at what just happened to be a Renault dealer and a very large one to boot. 4,000 miles is a long time to be with out any music and the only way to plug one of our 4 iPods into the Kangoo's stereo was a couple of red and white RCA jacks.We had been looking in other service stations for the elusive cable and even in the MediaMarkt, where we eventually found the replacement GPS, without any luck. I thought, with the size of this dealership, they must have it. I asked the station attendant, who sent me to Marciel, who sent me to Raphael, who looked up part numbers and asked around to other people and finally, a half hour later, found another guy. They had a conversation in French and Raphael interpreted to me that the part he had was not the correct part (more French.) The correct part was not in stock, but could be here in (more French) 2 days. We had to give credit to Christian in Stuttgart. His discovery of the problem with the GPS prompted a long exchange between the Renault Eurodrive people ourselves about whether insurance would pay for a portable GPS or not. This part of the story takes about an hour and a half with many calls back and the Eurodrive people talking to us, talking to Christian, to us again, waiting for calls back, waiting for the "guy who speaks German (we don't know why they needed this guy because Christian's English was very good and, according to Christian, his German was very bad.), and finally the call that would pay for the GPS. We never got that call back. We just went to MediaMarkt and got our own. We finally did get the in-car GPS to work. Outside Bilbao, Spain, the car was in dire need of a wash and the attendant made sure we took off our antenna. I was sitting there bored and just playing with the remote and it started working again.
I have always loved driving and as such, I find myself in awe at particular moments in this trip, especially when I realize things like, "I am driving in Amsterdam" or Paris or Spain. It makes me realize how good this little car is. I guess it could have more cup holders or a little more cargo space, but as for the main thing; it gets us where we are going with no real issues. I haven't found a parking space it can't fit in or have any engine or transmission issues (knock on wood). Lets see how the Kangoo and I do on the wrong side of the road!
Addendum:
We are now safely home and I wanted to get this post out that I had already written. Unfortunately, as the driver, I did not get the net-book time everyone else got to get it posted. It has been a strange transition back to driving at home. The Kangoo only did metric and I realize now what 100 km/hr means (its about 65 mph). Also, I keep trying to shift the automatic transmission. It means a lot to me to get this posted as I found driving in Europe easier than I thought it would be. Even driving on the wrong side in Ireland and Great Britain was not as hard as I expected. Crossing the street was harder (which way do they come from first?). With the price of taking the trains through Europe getting more and more expensive, it turns out that driving is very economical. I only had to fill up the car 6 or 7 times and even returned it with a quarter of a tank even though we'd been driving for about 4 days. I think we got to see more of the countries we'd visited and got to meet the people that lived and worked there than with any other form of transportation.
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