Gas prices in France

$1.90 / liter x 3.8 = $7.20 per gallon. Bordeaux to Lourdes, by the most direct route, is about 160 miles, one way. Maybe 200 if you take the scenic route. Either way, the fuel cost is going to be nominal. Technically, you need an estimate of the miles / gallon of the car. European cars are fuel efficient, so if you get even 30 miles / gallon, then 160 mi / 30 x $7.20 = about $40, one way. $50 if you take the scenic route. This is fuel cost only. If viamichelin is giving you a higher number, it could be including tolls, which can add up on autoroutes in France. But you're not driving far, so the fuel cost of that segment is going to be minimal.

Rent a diesel-powered vehicle which will get better mileage plus benefit from lower price per liter. Unlike the US, diesel sells for less than gasoline in France. Here's a website with prices updated this week prices

Be real careful of the diesel trap. I've had both a bunch of times and the mileage on a diesel was not signicantly greater. If diesel costs .15E more per liter than gas, that's .57E per gallon, or about seventy-five cents. If both engines/cars get 40 mpg (about what my little ones seem to get), drive a thousand miles and thats twenty-five gallons of fuel. The saving would be .75 X 25 or about nineteen bucks. If you have the car for a week, that's something like $2.75/day. Plug that kind of number into your daily rental rate and make your decision from there. I don't care what kind of fuel I get, I just go for the cheapest car. One trip I drove over fourty-five hundred miles in a month. I thought about a diesel but the rental rate would have been more.

SP 95 is running about 1.56E in SW France. That's $2.12 per liter or $8.08 per gallon. I figure the little cars I rent average 40 mpg. If the distance is 160 miles that's four gallons or about $32. There's a toll on that main freeway that runs twenty-five or thirty bucks. Call it $60 for the trip. EDIT: I just plugged my numbers into viamichelin and got $31 for the toll and $35 for the gas. REEDIT: Checked mileage - - it's closer to 190 than 160, thirty miles adds another 3/4 gallon or $6. Had I used that, the trip would have been called at $66, exactly what VM had, although the components would have varied slightly..

Thanks; I like your costs a whole lot better :>

Stop! If you have to worry about the cost of fuel being a few $ more or less/ gallon you shouldn't be going. This is a tiny % of the total cost.

I just needed some idea of what it was going to cost, so I could let my 2 friends who'll be traveling what to expect and budget for.

Repeat - diesel costs less per liter in France than gasoline. Diesel-powered vehicles are proven to get better mileage than gasoline-powered identical vehicles. They are plentiful in Europe and cost no more to rent.

I've never seen a "diesel trap" either. Every time we drove one we got 1000 km or more out of a tank of gas. And almost everywhere in Europe diesel is cheaper than gasoline. Granted, the purchase price of a car with diesel engine is higher than the gasoline model. But when you compare rentals that doesn't always show through.

The point is you have to consider both rental cost and mileage - - regardless of the type of fuel. Without beating the subject to death, I just checked two rentals for all of July (from CDG) on kayak/autoeurope. The cars were similar in size (Twingo and Punto) and both probably use gas as best I can remember. One got 42 mpg and cost $878. The other got 60 mpg and cost $1183. With a hypothetical 3000 miles of use and gas at $8/gallon, the cheaper car had the better bottom line. Even if the 60 mpg car were diesel, the fuel price differential for three thousand miles is two hundred bucks, making the cheaper rental still the best deal. With less miles driven, it's an even better deal. Do the math for the situation. Blanket statements are not necessarily true.

Ed, we were talking about mileage and gas cost. The discussion was not about rental cost, and you didn't mention it either in your first post. The assumption is that rental cost is comparable. And if you do your homework and compare rental cost with different companies you should be able to find a diesel car at a similar prize as a car with a gasoline engine of the same size. The last few times when we rented a diesel in Italy and Germany the rental cost was the same as for a similar sized gasoline version.

Gee......I didn't mean to start such a discussion! I have already rented the car (a Renault compact wagon), and it uses regular gas. I needed one that would carry 3 persons' worth of luggage in the trunk (I couldn't believe that some of the cars were rated as being able to only accommodate one person's luggage!). At the time I was looking, I think - and may I stress the word "think" - that the diesel ones were a bit more expensive, but had I been aware of all of this beforehand, I might've chosen the diesel. As it is, I don't think I can change my mind, although the trip is still 3 months away (although I will look into it), but many thanks for the figures on gas prices.
Glas I bought my flight tickets when I did; according to Yapta, theyy've gone up by about 78%!