Hola-i'll be driving into Madrid ,probably more than once in July. some knowledgeable people have told me I'm crazy to drive a car there. I'm used to driving in Philadelphia,so how bad is the Madrid adventure? Thanks for your input

take roosevelt blvd....shrink it into a narrow, twisting lane...add a few dozen more of those speeding , noisy scooters popular in philly these days...add philly's suicidal pedestrians who stand in the middle of the street waiting for traffic......and have mayor street conducting traffic at the intersections...and dios mio...you have madrid!
but at least it won't be raining!!!!!

hahahha lol thanks howitzer

I think Howitzer got it about right. You really need a very good reason to drive into Madrid. However, look at the bright side: driving is the easy part. Try parking!

calvo,
From experience we've learned that the very best time to attempt Madrid driving during a July (or Aug.) visit is on a Sunday morning. That's when the streets are relatively free of traffic (surprisingly so) until 11-noon, when natives begin to think about going out and heading to the country for the day. Early on a Sunday July morning you can find relatively deserted streets, since madrileños sleep late after being out until the wee hrs. on Sat. night. We even find places on the street to park on summer Sundays.
Sunday evenings, from 8 p.m. on, however, see heavy traffic, when everyone comes back from the weekend away.

Maribel is right. When we went to the airport in Madrid early on SUnday morning, there was no traffic at all--we made the trip in 10 minutes at about 9 am.