hausfrau

As far as I know, the majority of European tourists are NOT traveling with scuba, rock-climbing, and/or paragliding equipment. So missypie, are we talking about 4 passengers or 5? If 5, then the E-Class is the way to go. The Opels all fall in the large family car category. I still think the E-Class wagon would have the best combination of passenger and luggage room.

traveller1959, a well-equipped E-Class makes for a perfect Autobahn cruiser, but if you were unfortunate enough to end up with 5 people and their luggage in an E-Class 200, you wouldn't have to worry about breezing over the speed limit because it would take you so long to get there!

schuba

i know one person who went diving in alps recently.

missypie

There are 5 of us-a big Dad, a small Mom, a big 17 year old boy, a small 15 year old and an even smaller 12 year old. Plus luggage. With 5 of us, even when we pack light, there is always lots of luggage.

travelgourmet

Bear in mind that you may not get the car that you think you are getting. The choice is not between the Mondeo and the E Class, it is between the Mondeo, <i><b>or similar</b></i> and the E Class, <i><b>or similar</b></i>.

This means that you might reserve one and get another, anyway. For example, I had a rented the Opel Vectra, or similar from Avis in Belgium last summer. When I show up to pick up the car, they only had an A4 available.

Also, I wouldn't get your hopes up with regards to performance. The E-Class, for example, has a pretty small base engine that won't deliver the kind of performance you might expect from the nameplate. I doubt that a rental car company will be giving you a car with all the bells and whistles. The Audi's and BMW's I have so far been renting are not what I would call luxury or performance vehicles.

Personally, if there was a minivan category, I would rent that, as it is the most likely to meet your capacity needs without any surprises.

missypie

There is a mini-van category, but the least expensive automatic mini van I've found was around $1600 for 11 days.

travelgourmet

$1600 sounds about right. Minivans are in short supply from European rental agencies. But, I still think it is the best way to guarantee an adequate amount of room.

If you don't go with the minivan, I would at least suggest packing pretty light to minimize any risk of baggage intruding on interior space.

missypie

So...I did more research. Novacarhire descibes it as &quot;Group LWAR Mercedes E Class Estate Luxury Wagon or similar wagon.&quot; The car actually comes from Europcar. So I looked at what Europcar has in its fleet as a LWAR-you guessed it-the Audi A6 Avant!

Cowboy1968

The A6 is bigger than the A4.

What usually seperates the minivan from a large station wagon is the 3rd row of seats. So with 5 pax you can seat them 2-2-1, instead of 2-3 in a station wagon.

Nevertheless, it will depend on the minivan how much space you will have in the luggage compartment.

missypie

The Class E Mercedes has a 3rd (rear facing) seat. None of the other wagons mention that they do, so I assume they don't.

By the way, the auto manufacturer's web sites sure do vary in the amount of info and number of pictures they provide!

BTilke

Seconding the post to pay close attention to the &quot;or similar&quot; clause. Do you have any way of finding out what the &quot;or similar&quot; options are? Is there a way to contact directly the branch where you'll be picking up your car?
You might want to check out the size of some other station wagons commonly found in Europe, including the VW Passat, Reanault Laguna, Skoda (I think they make a wagon), Opel, and Volvo wagons. For us, it's been the rule rather than the exception that we get the &quot;or similar&quot; instead of the car we reserved. The only time we've gotten the specific model we wanted was when we went down to the agency in advance, sat down with their rental agents, and went over in person the types of vehicles they had and what their books showed would be available for our dates.

Re the Mondeo, I see them everywhere in the UK, but there seem to be far fewer in the rest of Europe (it's UK where the term &quot;Mondeo Man&quot; was coined).

hausfrau

I would not assume that a rental E-Class will come with the rear-facing seat; that's not a standard feature and it would eat into a ton of your luggage room. An Audi A6 Avant is comparable in size to the E-Class. Since you are talking teenagers in the back seat, I think you are going to be fine with any of the large family wagons that have been mentioned. You certainly don't need a minivan (unless, of course, you are going scuba diving). There are probably fewer &quot;or similars&quot; in the Premium class so you are most likely to get the E-Class or A6 Avant if you decide to shell out for that class.

missypie

Just back from Germany-as I suspected, the &quot;Mercedes E class or similar&quot; was actually an Audi A6. I felt sorry for my three kids because the back seat space was very cramped. We packed pretty light and just had enough room for our luggage.

dutyfree

Missypie-leaving this next week in Germany to do the Rhine and Mosel rivers with hubs(6'3), myself(5'8), 23 year old daughter (5'10) and 26 year old son (6'3).If you had it to do over again on your renting would you go for the minivan? Avis had a better price than Gemut and Autoeurope last night and am thinking of going that way. Your thoughts or anyone else on what type of car to rent for 4 tall people?

missypie

If you can get a decent price, do go for the minivan. (Ours had to be automatic, so the price was $$$.) Both a station wagon and a minivan are too large for many narrow streets, but unless you want to rent two small cars, I'd go with the van.

cmeyer54

you can always ask the person at the rental car desk too - they know the cars and can advise. What you have reserved does not necessarily lock you in stone to that vehicle. Be aware that the roads are much narrower, etc where you'll be driving so even a medium sized car in the states will seem huge and will be less manueverable. And remember...in germany, the taxi cabs are mercedes! We've had peugot, renault, bmw, ford, etc and never had a big problem (well, except for the car totally dying on the autostrasse in the dolomites but that's a whole story in itself).