Adiesel-electric hybrid that combines luxurious, spacious accommodation for five people and their luggage with 4WD while offering a CO2 figure of 99 g/km that is normally reserved for small cars, is available now to Australian drivers as one of the wide range of Citroen vehicles available in the Citroen DriveEurope programme.
"Citroen DriveEurope is the most cost effective way to enjoy a European driving holiday with all-inclusive rates paid in Australia starting from just $27 a day," says Miles Williams, General Manager of Citroen in Australia. "The newly launched 2012 programme not only offers remarkably low prices for a car in Europe, early bird bookings mean that nine days - or 12 days for previous DriveEurope customers from 2005 to 2011 behind the wheel of the Citroen DS5 could be free."
With a choice of 36 different models and variants, as well as the new Citroen DS4, which is available from April, and the DS5, which may be booked now for June delivery, for the first time, DriveEurope has an even wider range of cars, people movers and a 4WD for comfortable, stress free European holidays.
The 2012 Citroen DriveEurope range includes two small cars, the economical Citroen C3 and the stylish DS3, with the C4 and the DS4 the next size up, while the C5, C5 Tourer and the DS5 offer the luxury of full size car motoring. The people mover choice ranges from the economical Citroen Berlingo Mulitspace, the stylish yet compact C3 Picasso, five and seven seat versions the versatile and comfortable C4 Picasso, the full size seven seat Citroen C8 and the nine seat Jumpy minibus.
"The remarkable pricing and the unique range of vehicles alone make the Citroen DriveEurope programme an unbeatable choice," says Miles Williams, "but they are just the beginning of the advantages of choosing a Citroen DriveEurope car for the European holiday of a lifetime. For a start, the entire cost is paid in Australia and Australian dollars, so no hidden charges or credit card currency charges. The price is all inclusive with a zero insurance excess and the car is able to be used right across Europe. The car you book is the car you get, so no sudden substitutions by rental companies and you can choose the engine, gearbox, options and even items such as child seats and snow chains. It's even a brand new car making it an ideal start for a visit to Europe."
The low cost is guaranteed firstly by the fact that cars under the DriveEurope programme pay no purchase or on-road taxes, a huge saving in Europe where value added tax (VAT) can be nearly three times what it is in Australia. Secondly all the payments are made here in Australia, in Australian dollars, so there are no foreign exchange penalties. Thirdly, there is even a zero insurance excess, something that, alone, can cost hundreds of dollars a day on conventional car rentals.
Driving holidays should be all about flexibility and peace of mind, being able to go wherever the road goes, changing plans on a whim, heading to wherever you want, just to see what is over the next hill or around the next corner. However, this is not something of which conventional car rental companies tend to approve, with distance limits, restrictions on use in countries other than when the car was rented and so on.
Not with Citroen DriveEurope.
Indeed the range of countries in which a Citroen DriveEurope car may be driven is extraordinary. If you want to drive from the frozen top of Norway to the Sahara Desert in Morocco or Tunisia, then DriveEurope is for you. If you want to do a lap of Iceland, cross Ireland and drive on to Israel, and visit every country in between, then DriveEurope is the automatic choice.
All Citroen DriveEurope cars come as standard with the comfort of AirCon, power steering, central locking and radio with CD player, as well as the safety of ABS brakes and front and side airbags, with many also offering SatNav.
"If this wasn't a sufficiently convincing argument as to why Citroen DriveEurope is the only way to get behind the wheel on a European Holiday, then there are the earlybird booking bonuses," says Mr Williams. "These can mean almost an extra two weeks of a European driving holiday added to the minimum 17 days at no charge, as well as halving the costs of collecting and dropping off a car outside France. The holiday pundits and experts say that 2012 will be the year to make that European holiday dream come true and with Citroen DriveEurope it will be a holiday of a lifetime without the fear of having to spend a lifetime paying for it!"