I’d mainly put this down to the cost of fuel in the UK, and the cost of road tax. Here in the UK we have to pay a tax which is based on the vehicle emissions. So basically anything fun or old is expensive to tax. Anything with 4WD is expensive to tax - typically you’re looking at £500+ a year. This really hits the…

An exit ramp in Germany is called an Ausfahrt. It really does make for travel on the autobahn endlessly amusing!

Fine work, Sir! I passed my driving test in a classic Mini, and owned several (including an Applejack green Clubman estate - damn I miss that car!), and was heavily into the Mini club scene for several years, I’m amazed I missed this! Really cool that you managed to make so much of your visit, good on you!

Seems like a ban on poor people. I can’t afford to replace my 2005 Mercedes E270, and frankly, why would I want to? It’s done 144,000 miles and still drives like a dream. At 20,000 miles a year I’d conservatively say it’s got another five years left in it. I guess if I want to go to Stuttgart I’ll have to take the…

What did you do to help?

Mine isn’t as good, but it was a memorable day.

Sorry to be picky, but it’s the Duchess of Sussex, not Princess Meghan. Princess is reserved for bloodline Royals.

Looks like a Porsche 944 I think.

True! So liter then!

UK English person here, watch your step, Sir!

It’s not pompous, it’s the UK English spelling.

Amazing! The Ford is called the “Kuga” here in the UK, and they’re a popular vehicle. Lovely cars too - I’ve driven one quite extensively off-road in Sweden and Norway, and they’re surprisingly capable. But it astonishes me to think that the car is tooled up to pass an offset crash test for a driver in left-hand drive…

Happy to help - giving travel advice is something I love to do, so if you’re thinking of doing a trip and need some pointers just give me a shout :)

I live in the South West (Devon) - Dartmoor and Exmoor are on my doorstep, and I have my pick of amazing empty backroads. It’s really lovely! 

Have been wondering this myself - in my case it’s for speeding in the USA - I am a Brit who was doing a road trip around CA/NV.

A pick-up truck was going to be my best guess. Thanks for the reply and keep up the great work!

What a brilliant article, thank you. These days it’s hard to find online content that hooks me in and keeps my interest for more than about three seconds. This was fascinating and well written, so thank you. Jenni’s story is inspiring, and as a mechanical engineer myself I admire what must be an encyclopaedic brain.

I don’t have Guardian views, I just object to comments which on the face of it appear rather stereotyped and narrow-minded. In this instance, however, the poster was able to give reference to some credible articles, albeit those being some isolated cases and exactly representative of our nation as a whole. Need I…

You did, to be fair to you those were good sources, so I’ll withdraw my ire! However, let’s not lose sight of what are isolated cases, and not really a fair representation of our nation as a whole.

I assume you don’t own a passport? British person here. Not sure where you’ve been reading your news but it doesn’t appear to be about the country I live in.