Thanks for the advice!

Never really thought about going down the French marque route...hmm nteresting. I'll start havng a look around. I do like the look of Laguna's! I'm looking at these two:

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/03-03-Renault-Laguna-1-9dCi-120...1

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2002-Renault-Laguna-1-9-DCI-PRI...e

Volvo's do seem rather attractive though I must say. I've been looking and I can get hold of a decent one e.g. had the cam belt down recently etc and with a long MOT for around £1200 - £1500. Has around 130,000 to 170,000 miles on the clock.

I know I said a budget of £1000 but as I am soon realising this won't be enough.

Any tips for when I go and test drive these cars? As in what to look out for etc? I have minimal mechinal knowledge ?(when I say minimal, I mean minimal) I'm guessin' to look out for knocks and rattles, make sure the gearbox handles the gears nicely and smoothly. As well as no smoke or oil leaks.

What's your thoughts?

That is a much better option.

Given how cold central Europe can be mid winter, I would take the possibility of a breakdown very seriously.

I wouldn't waste too much time agonising over the mechanical merits of different marques. The same thing applies to viewing a vehicle. You'll open the bonnet and think "yes, it's an engine" and solemnly check the dipstick. It takes experience to differentiate between a benign leak and a serious one.

If you want to buy a car, get a cheap one and keep a reserve of cash to deal with any problems as they arise. A £200 vehicle with £1000 in your pocket is a much better prospect than a £1000 and £200 in your pocket.

BMW 1 Series It's 2490 miles round trip from Dusseldorf to Bucharest. Using an online MPG calculator and stating that the car will achieve around the 48mpg mark and petrol price being 129.9 pence/litre, it says that a round trip petrol cost would be £304. .

Forget getting 48 mpg out of a petrol 1 series, a 118D deos about that. Budget for 35 mpg.

I would go the hire route a set of winter tyres compulsory in Germany will knock the budget then you are subject to temps of -30c in fact I would look at flying or maybe train or bus.

Well, I was up until 5 in the morning working out all the figures. And been onto the hire companies today and after many phone calls and wearing the buttons on my calculator out, I think I have a final price and all the details.

In case you guys are interested I'll outline where I have come to and please feel free to come in with any suggestions/remarks.

Avis seems like the best bet. They are the only company that allows their cars to be taken into Romania (for 8 euros a day). I'm going to opt for the VW Passat Diesel Estate, they can't tell me until the day I pick it up exactly what model it will be but I am sure that a 2012 diesel Passat will achieve close to the 50 MPG mark but I have been conservative in my calculations. It works out at £485.20 for 10 days rental including Young Drivers Surcharge, Romania entry fee, unlimited mileage and snow tyres.

There are two of us going so for diesel, car rental and return flights to Dusseldorf, it will cost us each £470.11 return.

Of course, we could fly but where's the fun in that?! Currently a London - Bucharest return is £316 each for the dates we are looking at. The only cost on top of this would be the train from Bucharest to the ski resort which I shouldn't imagine would be particularly expensive.

Decisions, decisions...

@mickeybay:

I've driven from the UK to Latvia before (1300 miles one way), admittedly in the summer but it did give me an idea of crossing borders etc. We had no problems whatsoever crossing borders and it worked out for most of them that we were crossing at night. I had only just bought the car back then (Audi A5 2.7 TDI oh how I miss it) and hadn't received the new V5 by then so only went with the little slip ripped off the original. There was some issues at the Poland-Lithuania border because of this but then they just went into their little car, checked the European database, saw that I owned it and we were on our way.

Thanks for the heads up on the price for using various roads, I have many friends in Romania so I can find out how much they will be and I'll do the research to find out the other prices.

It's only going to me driving anyway seeing as the guy I'm going with doesn't have a driving license so no worries there then; I'll just take regular rest stops like I did on the Latvia trip. And I will time the rest stops so that I will drive minimally in the dark (I want to see all the ice!)

Yeah, got to find a cheap place to get all of that stuff from here in the UK, reflective jackets etc. And a shovel too! And a torch! And some blankets! I keep telling myself this WILL be fun!

Killjoy? No. Realistic I say. But..."The biggest risk in life isn't taking one!"

@Avant:

Sure, it's not particularly personal...we're going for a skiing/snowboarding trip in the Romanian mountains, specifically so we'll be there for NYE.

Now my heart is being sensible too, going down the Banger route just wouldn't work. I would be worrying myself sick the whole time willing the car not to break down. I don't need an extra headache! As you can see, I have enough to think about just hiring a car!