The worst car i ever owned was a morris ital/marina,everthing that could go wrong went wrong,i kept it six months

We had a Triumph Dolomite that had problems with the electrics, every so often the lights would short for no reason.

We then has a Austin Maestro, that had problems with the automatic choke you could nip to the shops and then get back in and the car would not start, totally embarrassing sometimes.

This one is easy--A Volkswagon Rabbit. It was yellow for a reason.

VW Rabbit ???????

VW Rabbit was our version of the UK's Golf....I think

On the subject of cars, we plan to rent a car to go explore the UK in while we're there. I was thinking one of the new Mini Coopers would be a good option--good gas mileage but not extremely small. Are they available in the UK? Or would you suggest something else? We know gas is very expensive there, but we don't want to be in a vehilce that's too small. Keep in mind, we're accustomed to large trucks and SUV's.

Please call the fuel "petrol" or "diesel"... :)

A Mini Cooper sounds about right, though I'm sure there are quite a few other fuel efficient cars for you to hire.

Hey, I'm just trying not to be a know it all American. I know it's called petrol, but I don't want to sound condescending to people who are being nice to me.

Hi Kat,
I did not think it was a very friendly thing for Chris to say either,call it gas or petrol,its still an expensive rip off in this country.Most small to medium tubo diesels are very quick and will return at least 40 mpg,the Mini should return the same.
Hope you enjoy your visit to the UK,why not visit Shrewsbury?
Just for the record,how much are you guys paying for petrol/diesel in th states.
One very important thing to remember Kat,DIESEL is always sold at the BLACK pump on the forecourt (filling station).

I don't think Chris was being rude. He was giving a tip to keep me out of trouble when I get to England. And about visiting Shrewsbury, well, that's where this whole trip started. Both my mother-in-law's parents grew up in England, and her uncle, Harold Perry lived in Shrewsbury. Mark visited there years ago and has always wanted to go back. One of his mother's cousins recommended some Shropshire internet sites to visit, which led to this forum and FM 96.
Petrol (can I call it gas, while I'm still stateside?) is going for about $2.30 a gallon in our area. It's a bit less in areas that are more heavily populated. We've heard about the high prices for fuel in the UK. I think we did the math and came up with our prices being equal to about 30 pence per litre. Right now, diesel is higher than regular fuel. How about over there?

Unleaded can be cheaper than diesel in places,petrol/gas is about the same price here, the rest is duty which this grabbing government skims off but does not invest in the road sytem,we also have road tax,which costs me £100 a year for a 1100cc small car,then insurance,another £90 a year,and if you live in London you have congestion charging and now motorway tolls are creeping in.We also boast the highest train fares in the world,and a trip into town on our local bus is now £1 for less than a mile,so dig deep into your pockets and have a nice time in rip of Britain,and we also pay at least £2000 more for our new cars than the rest of Europe and the US.

Yup, it's the good old "rip-off Britain" unfortunately!

You may also find that eating out is more expensive in the UK than in the US.

Fortunately, I have a spouse who is a natural math whiz. He's already figured costs for air fare, accomodations, rental car, fuel, and meals, and knows about how much we'll need for our trip. We considered taking the train on a few of our excursions, but since we have to rent a car anyway, decided it was best to stick with the car. I'm not sure how our insurance compares to yours. We pay about $130 a month for three vehicles, an SUV, my Jeep, and our son's small truck. I hear that such things as TV's are taxed in the UK, and it's by size. Is that true? And thanks for the warning about toll roads. We have a AAA Road Atlas that has great details for finding things. I'll have to check to see which roads are toll roads.

Hi Kat
A tv licence costs £121 a year for the BBC broadcasts,the commercial channels are free.

Hi again
We have five terrestrial channels which are fairly good,but Sky,(satellite)and digital are crap,based on the worst of American tv.I have great admiration for most things American,but NOT your tv or your president,who is too buddy buddy with the incompetent idiot we have in charge here,i shall now climb down off my soap box and wish you good night,23.17,what time where you are?

Keep thinking of things i should have said in the last post,rail travel in the UK is good when everything is working well,if you book in advance fares are quite cheap,avoid walk on fares, they are charged at premium rates,Virgin run sevices from London to most cities in the north,GNER on the east coast and First Great Western to the West Country,but if you want to experience real rail speed try the TGV trains in France,180mph +.Long distance coach/bus travel is slow,due to the congestion on most of our morotways.

As of right now, it's 10:30pm here, 22:30, military time. We're six hours behind you.
Our prez isn't real popular here most of the time, even in Texas. There was a joke going around after he was elected that he carried Texas because we wanted to get him out of the state. As for TV, here it's just the opposite. Cable is terrible, and satellite is the way most people prefer to go. That's what we have. We also have satellite for our internet. But that's because we can't get anything else, other than dial up, because of where our house is. It's pretty isolated out here. Was gonna add a photo of the house, but it wouldn't let me. Sorry you can't get better TV programs. We've got some really good programming for the first time in years. You know that Hugh Laurie won a Golden Globe for best actor in a drama for his TV series "House." One of our favorite shows. We love BBC America, and watch a lot of Black Adder and Monty Python reruns.

Didn't see that second post about the trains. We talked about taking the train, but decided that since we have to rent a car anyway, we might just do a short day trip or something, just for the experience. But otherwise, we'll stick to the car and our road atlas. Our car rental will be tied in with the cost of air fare and hotel, which means a better deal on the car. We're planning to see a lot of the UK. Mark's been doing a lot of reasearch. His favorite reading materials are travel books. I'm the one who reads up on the history of the places we visit.

Oh but we do get good TV from the BBC and Channel 4 (the two public broadcasters here). It's just the naff commercial channels like ITV and Five that have rubbish on them 24/7. The BBC is great for comedy and documentaries.