Just got back from Europe where we rented a Citroen C4, Diesel, 5 speed manual with GPS. GPS is an absolute must, without it I'd probably still be driving around in circles in Lisbon. And where could you rent a manual in North America?...No where!

The first impression of the cars there is that it looks like maybe half of them are diesels and at least 90% have manual trannies. Of the Audi's, probably 75% were diesels 1.8, 1.9, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0's. Again the vast majority appear to be manual transmissions. Very few were Quattro, in fact I don't think any of the diesels were, but I'm not sure.

Driving a diesel car is not bad at all, there is no need to rev the engine beyond 3,500 because the torque just pulls hard from low RPM. That's good and bad. In my TT on winding road I'm between 4,000 and 6,000 in 3rd, 4th and 5th rarely 6th until I cruise. And that's fun, in a diesel, it would seem silly. But on the Autobahn it's great, plunk it in 5th and slip along at 140 to 160km rarely changing gears. And ours really did sip fuel. We got about 1000km on a tank-full, averaging less than 5L/100km on the highway! Even in the city the fuel consumption is very good. So if you drive a lot, a diesel is worth considering

And the best part ....They KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS

 

that's awesome. cool review and story... thanks for taking the time to let us know!! amazing that there are that many people driving manual and here its the flip opposite of that i think.