Car Stats

During the 18 days that we had a car, we drove 3,600km (631km with the SEAT Toledo, and 2,969 with the VW Passat), which was nearly 600km longer than we drove last trip, even thought there was an entire day in Nafplio when we didn't go anywhere!  This translates to 2,237 miles, which is nearly the distance from Boston to Albuquerque, NM, by plane.  There were fortunately more highways and fewer mountain passes this time, but we did drive almost to Turkey in the panhandle of northern Greece.

On our travels, we spent 96.05 euros in tolls!!!  The Peleponnesse has built a beautiful new 6-lane highway, but they charge a random amount about every 20km (and don't post the toll until about 100m before the toll booths which often left me holding a random assortment of coins which could produce the most variety of combinations, since tolls ranged from 1.20 to 3.90 euros).  On our day-trip adventures, we happily paid for the privilege of getting to the archaeological sites more comfortably (and quickly).  The drive from Athens to Korinthos was also getting pretty irritating with the most expensive tolls every 10 min, until we accidentally got on the no-toll road at Megara. Under the pretext that this was the more scenic route from which I would want pictures, and it was the only road accessible to the pedestrian bridge across the Isthmus, we took this coming back all the way to Athens!  We have the flyer to get an electronic toll transponder (there are 4 companies which provide these), and maybe next trip we will.  

We filled up the tank about 2.5 times (we were driving a diesel engine for most of the trip).  I'll do separate analyses for the cars:

Toledo - unleaded

38.77L at a cost of 58.50 euros 

10.25 gal at a cost of $65.50 ($6.39/gal)

Total MPG = 38.25

Passat - diesel

132.33L at a cost of 163.75 euros

35 gal at a cost of $183.40 ($5.24/gal)

Total MPG =52.71

So, even with some mountain driving and a couple of chromatodromoses, diesel fuel was the clear winner, and we still enthusiastically endorse the VW Passat automatic transmission.  We didn't quite put it through the battery of tests that we did last time, but it still got a good workout.

Returning the car in Athens, we didn't bother trying to fill it up (much to the Hertz agent's surprise) largely because navigating in Athens was probably one of the scariest things I have ever done, and I didn't want to spend any more time trying to find a gas station, and we had stopped caring about dirt or bugs after we arrived in Nafplio, so a car wash or even a windshield wash was right out.  We had carefully noted scratches on all sides/hood/bumpers of the car, so "damage" was irrelevant.  Even though we arrived well before the drop off time, the Hertz agent was anxious to get the car, did a cursory scan before signing off, and probably flipped it within the hour.

Overall, the Hertz rental was a good choice, rather than a cheaper Greek or EU (Sixt?) company, but we were supposed to get a Mercedes A4, got pawned the SEAT Toledo until the flat tire incident, and finally ended up with a car that we knew and knew would serve us properly for what we wanted to do.  A car which does as well on the dirt roads in between olive groves as it does on newly tarred surfaces of the A7!  Accept no substitutes.