Page 2 – Diesel Grand Touring – The Green Car Driver –

One of the great joys in traveling is flying off to a distant destination and then embarking upon a drive.  While many people rely on rental cars for this purpose, it’s possible to travel to Europe, pick up your very own diesel-powered car at the factory, and drive around the …

Growing up, I watched my parents dutifully have winter tires (we called them “snow tires” when I was a kid) fitted as the temperature started to drop, and the car’s standard tires would be put back on when it was sure not to snow anymore.
Today, thanks to the advent of …

This is Part 2 of Grand Touring feature on the Drive to the High Tatras Mountains. The first part was The Drive to Vienna.
The Audi Q7 TDI is like an old friend.  I drove the Q7 for the first time four years ago and have driven it and its siblings (the …

The Audi Q7 has been around since 2009 and has been continually updated by Audi with the latest in driver assistance and safety technologies.  With regard to vehicle size, it was a bit of overkill for my trek to the High Tatras Mountains of Slovakia, a range of mountains along …

Over the past few years, the Bavarian and Austrian Alps became popular destinations for our editors and our short- and long-term test cars. Berchtesgaden, located in the south-eastern corner of the Bavarian Alps and home to a population of 7,800, is one of the better known locales. The Austrian city …

The two cities I drove to in the BMW 320d Touring could not be more different. Leoben is the second largest city of the state of Styria (Steiermark) in Austria and is home to more than 24.000 people with roots in the mining and steel business, while my second destination, …

Picking up a new car at the factory has always been an adventure some car enthusiasts elect to take. Many U.S. buyers travel to Europe to pick up their BMWs, Mercedes-Benzes, Volvos, Audis and Porsches at the factory, but the long wait before their car is re-delivered to them in …

Located on the shores of Lake Constance (Bodensee), Bregenz, the capital of Austria’s western-most state of Vorarlberg, is the site of the Bregenzer Festspieler (Bregenz Festival), a performing arts event that typically draws over 200,000 people to over 100 performances.
Home to more than 27,000 inhabitants, the city is tucked in …

European Delivery, also known as Factory Delivery is the only way I know of buying a new car.  Indeed, I have found memories of accompanying my parents to the local Mercedes-Benz dealer to discuss ordering a vehicle when I was just ten years old.  Unlike the way my friends’ parents …

Leipzig, the second largest city (after Dresden) within the free state of Saxony, was one of the most important cities during the fall of communism in the former East Germany in 1989 and is situated about 200 km (124 miles) south of Berlin. The city is today home to over …

A small village with a population of just a handful of people is normally not worth the drive of 85 km (52 miles) but the Bavarian village of Fall (which owes its name to a waterfall) is the exception to the rule.  Fall’s proximity to the beuatiful Karwendelgebirge (Karwendel Mountains), …

Situated along the Kennebunk River, the city of Kennebunkport is a small town just one mile away from the Atlantic Ocean. Although the city is home to only 3,474 inhabitants, it is particularly well known because of one resident, former president George H. W. Bush, who had chosen Kennebunkport for …