I'll be arriving in Madrid the first week of June. I know that I will want to travel by car for about 6 weeks, ending up in France. I've read that the car options are either to rent, lease, or buy. Can anyone recommend the best way to travel by car? I'm leaning towards the buying a used car and then selling it back at the end of the trip, but I don't know if that is really the best idea. Any advice on this topic would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Dana

For 6 weeks the purchase/resell option offered by Renault or Peugeot might be the best deal.

http://www.renaultusa.com/

http://www.autofrance.net/index.html

There is an extra charge for picking up the car in a foreign country, but it would be no higher than the cross-border drop-off fee charged with a rental.

You can also make the same arrangements through Auto Europe.

You cannot purchase and insure a car in Spain or France unless you have registered to live in either country. So hiring is the best bet for you.
If you do not intend on returning back to Spain and the above ideas are not of interest then just hire a car in Spain, leaving it in a major town, cross the border using either bus or train and hiring another car for the French leg.

The French buy back deal is your best option. You get a new car of your choice, full coverage, and you can pick up in Madrid--we did for an 8 week trip once. I liked the Peugout line--look at www.kemwel.com

<i>You cannot purchase and insure a car in Spain or France unless you have registered to live in either country</i>

Not quite. You can purchase a new car for export purposes and drive it in the EU for 90 days. Many people do that with German cars. The purchase/buy back option (others call it a lease) is based on that possibility and the French plates of such cars are red.