Ill get the "bad" news over with first !
Well,"Himself" collected the new (newish) car today Gambrinus and Im afraid that once again it was from MR FORD(Im now hiding behind sofa in case of attack) A Burgundy red Mondeo LX--2 years old( 20,000 on clock),one owner (was Hertz courtesy car),very comfortable & handles well.Of course,I blame it entirely on the lottery "not" coming up--but,know what H said on our first drive? "Ill be trading it in towards my next carafter our Algarve stay--a B M W !"
They say men dont understand women-well,men & their cars are complete puzzle to me,for sure
Are there any folk on the forum who've made recent trip overland from UK to Algarve? Only its been a couple of years since we did it.We drive through France via Le Mans route to Biarritz/Bayonne- Pyranees-Salamanca (wonderful city) and cross at Badajos,across to Grandola then down coming through to Silves(I think) As its been some time,wondered if there is anything new we should be aware of-its been over 4 years. I would be grateful for any advice please. Thank-you,Elle.

Well Ellie, I guess there are worse fates than driving a Mondeo (although I am having a hard time thinking of any ). Apologies are not needed, it is your money after all.

I do have a confession to make, I have done some considerable mileage in a (very old) Ford Orion a couple of years back, and one thing has to be said:
Although every piece of elecrtonic equipment was shot after 7 years the car still runs smoothly today and is considerably closer to quarter of a century than to it´s manufacturing date.

That said, (and me never having driven to or from UK) I wish you a safe and comfortable journey.

Thanks for your good wishes Gambrinus and I sure hope the Mondeo does the business for our long long journey !
But,as you and I know Germany makes the best and "Himself" said the very same thing tonight--he confessed that when he picked car up yesterday a B M W estate had just been brought in, okay it was 5years older thanMondeo,but it was immaculate and he nearly weakened so have a feeling the Mondeo wont be around that long--well maybe just till we get back!
Actually,regarding journey out,I wasnt very clear,what I really meant was any advice about driving down in Portugal--we cross border at Badajos,then across to Grandola --just wondered if there was anything new regarding roads down to Algarve to watch out for /
Thanks anyway, Ellie.