12 countries in 1 month

Driving in cities in Europe (this in France) better use small car like this.
Because its road is small and tiny & tight. 

Yeps.. from May to June 2012, I & several of friends embarked on a journey to 12 countries.. let me count. (France > United Kingdom > Belgium > Nederland > Luxembourg > Germany > Swiss > France).. for 2 weeks. Then rest for 4 days.

everyone's favourite destinasions.. I dunno why

The 2nd round we continue from France > Lisbon, Portugal > Spain Andalusia (Malaga , Cordoba, Granada) > Barcelona Spain > Nice (South France) > Monte Carlo > Italy (Pisa, Florence, Venice, Verona) > back to Swiss > return to France.

The Ford Focus Wagon. The handling, comfort and its diesel engine
with manual gearbox simply superb. No wonder the Europeans
love this and its bigger brother (The Mondeo)

WHAT CAR WE DROVE?
This time sorry no RENAULT car.. he he. Coz I rent vehicles from Avis, Europcar and SIXT (a German Car Rental Company). Well, I drove the Ford Focus Wagon, Merc Vito 9 seater, Renault Trafic 9 seater, Ford Mondeo Wagon, Citroen C1 and Peugeot 107 (which the same as C1).

REPSOL, the national petrol company of Spain.
but normally most expensive compare to other brands here

WHATS THE MILEAGE?
The 1st round totalled 3700+ km while the 2nd round  is 7700+km...

WHATS THE BEST EXPERIENCE
In terms of driving

• Spain, Italy, Swiss, South of France has beautiful roads (motorways and non motorways) with beautiful sceneries
• Germans and UK has polite and discipline drivers
• Drivers in Italy do drive quite fast and aggressive by the European standard (quite like Malaysians)
• Friendship and chemistry between travel buddies is important

entering Portugal from Bilbao (Spain). Hmm..
Nothing much actually in Portugal (Lisbon)

a typical European cities and its tiny roads

Traffic jams in summer. Everyone on holidays maybe

our friends driving the Renault Trafic. We stop every 2-3
hours to rest and change drivers. Important and a safety
aspect especially when travelling far away

the superb smooth, beautiful and scenic roads in Spain

WHATS NOT GOOD

• Costs of toll is simply expensive in Italy, Spain & Portugal. (German has NO Tolls, Swiss only pay about RM140 per year, France has tolls on motorways but quite ok the price)
• Have to concentrate and get used a lot driving in European towns as it is old, has small roads, tight bends and sometimes simply not big car friendly
• Drivers in Paris, Barcelona, most Italian towns and some part of Spain do drive aggressively.
• Italy has superb winding roads. and with 130kmh speed limit, they are really driving near that limit even on corners (even the big lorries drive fast). So, take your time and increase speed gradually. 
• Learn and speak some basic local language as it really helps a lot. Most of them do not speak English or do not want to speak English. They proud of their local language.

in Gibraltar (Jabal Tariq). 

near Costa Del Sol between Gibraltar and Malaga
in Spain Andalus. Simply beautiful MasyaAllah

a sample of quite deserted, beautiful roads in south of
Spain. This is using a non motorway road from
Cordoba to Granada 

on top of Monaco.. you can see the town where they
do the FORMULA 1 MONTE CARLO there! Well it is
quite a nice place but very hectic and many2 superb cars

one example of "normal" cars in Monte Carlo. Maybe
next year drive this.. he he

CONCLUSION
The 2nd route is simply one of the best. We do cover 2-3 top best driving roads in Europe. But some route is simple too far (France > Lisbon is 2000km+). So maybe I only go to Swiss, Italy, Spain... Next year plan to add 2 top driving road which is STELVIO PASS to DAVOS (Italy & Swiss) and South of Germany (bordering Austria) road. All those roads have been voted some of the best & most beautiful driving roads in Europe.

So, next year plan to drive again this route, but using a cabriolet.. InsyaAllah..

I also wash the car. You can wash the whole car yourself
with just 2 euro.. if you know the technique. I love car wash

during a stop on Italy Autostrada. 

a place where we cannot drive.. Venice!

also here, some parts of Swiss only accessible by train
or cable cars! but MasyaAllah very beautiful

our favourite accomodation in Swiss. Came here several
times already.

from Italy (verona) to Swiss alps using one of the
beautiful roads in Europe. Alhamdulillah

Octane Booster as alternative from RON 95 to RON 97 fuel?

STP Octane Booster (new bottle). 

Filling up the tank of my Grand Espace with RON 97 (RM2.80/litre) will easily costs RM180. With RON 95, about RM 120. With the difference of RM60 per full tank, that is a big cost issue.

The problem with the RON 95 fuel is that the Espace feels slow, no power and engine sounds rougher. Combined with the small 2.0lt 16v engine natural aspirated, not a good start. Hmmm... so I started to try using OCTANE BOOSTER as a practical alternative to the RON 97 fuel. Everytime I fill up the tank with RON95, I put a bottle of an Octane Booster. And , it works... really. The brand that I think really works is STP. Tried some other brands, not that good. 

A bottle of this STP Octane Booster costs about RM17-19. So, a saving about RM40 per full tank. If a month, can save about RM200 la (for about 5 full tanks).

Previously, read some reports and tests that this fluid did not work. I dont know but after trying, it works for me and my car, and that's good enough for me. So, now I got some bottles in my car of this stuff. The other advantage of STP bottle is that it can fit the narrow flap of the petrol insert of Renault vehicles.. I dunno what they call this thing. Other brands had a bigger bottle, so very hard to pour it easily. 

So, maybe you can try.