Which car to rent for Austria, Germany, & Italy?
 

We are driving from Vienna to Salzburg to Fussen to Venice (family of 4). I reserved the VW Golf or similiar. But I'm thinking of upgrading to the Mercedes C Class. Is that a good idea?

Depending on youre rental agency you can get a free upgrade. I have rented twice though Gemut.com (Gemutlichkeit) who gets their cars from AutoEurope and they include a free upgrade. In Paris at Christmas I rented a compact and they gave me a big brrand new Citroen. In Munich this Spring I went from a compact to an Audi A-3. Both were deisels and it saved a few pennies at the gas pump.

Before you "upgrade" to a Mercedes, you should confirm with your rental company that there is no restriction with regard to taking the upgraded car into Italy. A few years back, many rental companies did not permit high-end cars to be taken into Italy; and I know from experience that this did include some models of Mercedes.

We rented a C for four of us - all adults - and while the inside of the car is roomy enough the trunk was quite small (I swear no bigger than my sub-compact's).

Also - cars in europe frequently have different (smaller) engines than in the US - and we found this car distinctly underpowered. While it will certainly get you where you want to go - be cautious getting on highways - there's not a lot of pick up. (Again my subcompact coupe is way zippier.)

Previously we had rented an audi - forget which model - and were much happier with it's highway performance - but it was only for the two of us.

What's important is that the engine uses diesel (aka "gazole")as fuel. On our last trip diesel was 80% of the gas price and got better mileage. True, the acceleration suffers but not that much.

We rented a 3-series BMW diesel wagon a few years ago in Munich. I was surprised how peppy it was, the great mileage we got, and the lower cost of fuel. If you have a choice, go for a diesel. ((b))

Thanks for all the feedback.

My trunk of the C-Class sounds small. Other options that I have are the BMW 118 2.0 or similiar, Ford Focus or similiar compact, & Ford Mondeo Traveler. Our family will be 2 adults and 2 children (13 & 11) with 2 large suitcases and 2 small. The C-Class sounds like it might be too small. Do my other choices sound like the better way to go?

Mondeo is a nice car and should be big emough. If you could get a Citreon they are nice sized too. Do they offer a VW Passat - mine has HUGE trunk and would easily handly all of you and your luggage. Passat would be excellent choice. Make sure about your insurance requirements also since you plan to drive into Italy so that you are covered as required by law.