Vacation in France
 

So we are renting a van. I was volunteered to be the chauffeur across Italy and France for two weeks. Much to my pleasure this is the van we will be using.


This epic 125hp 2015 diesel 6speed 8 passenger Renault Trafic. Its rated for 5.1-6L/100Km. I'm excited to try to hit 60+ mpg with 8 passengers :) I'll report back at the end of the trip.

https://scontent-cdg2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...21&oe=58269960

https://scontent-cdg2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...1a&oe=5850C4EC

https://scontent-cdg2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...28&oe=581CBE30

Just took the van to the local Speedy to take the tires from 3 to 5 bar.

Could be a typo. The first sight I checked said 7hp.

RENAULT Trafic Combi L1 dCi 125 Energy Neuf de 2016, 0 km, DIESEL : RENAULT BYmyCAR Epinal

Found another sight that has two different ratings on hp. 125hp seems more realistic. Edited first post to reflect that.

Utilitaire RENAULT TRAFIC III COMBI 1.6 DCI 125 ENERGY ZEN L1 2016 Diesel occasion - Bernay - Eure 27

Looking forward to hear about your results. I drive their 1.5 dci with 55 hp and much smaller car, trying hard to keep around 5 l/100 km. I suppose more realistic figures for you is around 8 to 8.5 (with respect to terrain and road type.)
Good luck!

Even if you are using GPS on your trip, planning the route ahead on a Michelin road map is beneficial, for one specific feature: green roads.

When a road is particularly pleasant to the eye, such as having beautiful vistas and forests etc. then it gets a green line. These roads attract extra traffic seeking to admire the scenery.

Now there are big roads and smaller roads.
When in an area some of the smaller D roads have a green line the area is not especially noteworthy.
But if the Route Nationale and other big roads are green then the whole area is beautiful. They just don't color the D roads if the N road already has a green line, or the whole map would be green. But usually the uncolored D roads are even better than the colored big ones - and devoid of lines of slow moving tourists as a bonus.
So seek out the areas where the big roads have green lines and drive on the smaller uncolored roads :)

And avoid city centers.
You easily lose half an hour ploughing through some dusty 70.000 inhabitant town where you could have driven round in minutes. There always is a detour or one of 20 other reasons to regret being there.

Well... I would not drive through a city center, anyway. (heh)

Wife and I and our brood of boys went to Hungary last August, and that was a total blast. Took the train to Balatonkenese and stayed there for a week, walked all over the place, then spent the remaining time in Budapest. Also walked around all over the place.

I miss being in Hungary...

There's a badge in the driver's door that will tell you power in PS. They range from 90-140 (89-139hp). The 120 and 140 models are twin turbos, the lower spec are single VGT's.

There is no 125hp model in this generation that I'm aware of, however, it's not uncommon for there to be special models to comply with local laws and (CO2) taxes in Europe.

EDIT: The passenger models are EURO6 so have SCR and gained a couple of HP over the non SCR EURO5 van models, that would explain the extra couple of hp.

50mpg should be achievable, but 60mpg will probably require the assistance of the Pyrenese.

Our first leg of the trip wasn't especially efficient. We spent a lot of time in traffic around Pisa and Rome was worse. I'm guessing our first quarter fill after almost 400km at around 42mpg will be about par for the course this trip sadly.

Don't forget that some European countries and former (mostly) French colonies in Africa still use "fiscal power" ratings.