Hi Everybody-

Well, it's been nearly 25 years since I gave up my trusty 124 Spyder and Fiat pulled out of the States, but I'm arriving in Rome and driving through the contenient for 10 days, and I need to rent a car.

It will be my wife and I (I'm over 6 feet and about 113 kilos), along with two grown kids; a 6'4" boy and a 6' girl. We'll have 4 carry-on size bags along as well.

Will the Croma be roomy enough for us for a 3000 km excursion? The problem is the next step up with AutoEurope is a Mercedes C-class estate, and although it is a lot more money, I'm not sure it is much bigger. Can you suggest any alternatives if the Croma is not a good choice?

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

Should be large enough. I would have thought the Merc has less headroom given their shapes. Plus you can drive a Merc anytime - a Croma could be a once in a lifetime experience!

Chroma is probably bigger than the C-Class and only a step up in price....I've seen one up close and it looks a nice car, ideal for a long roadtrip, kids and luggage.

Theres plenty of room in a croma, been in a couple of them and there very comfortable aswell.

new chroma hatchback/sportback (I think they only do one shape) are great!!!!

They are really quite spacious inside, well built for a fiat, nice touch plastics and seats are fairly good, not as much shape as fiat grande punto sporting style seats, but good, boot is a good size, altough back does slope down at an angle and loose a bit of height space in the boot, but up front and in the back you can get 4grown adults fine!!, legroom isn't the best in the world, but is very very similar to the new C class estate (had one as a taxi when in germany a month back) in space wise.

It can fit my bike in the back with the rear seats down, only havign to take one wheel off (big bike), my bike also fits in my 1998 mk1 punto, but doesn't fit in one of the new (aptly named) grande puntos, with both wheels off, still does fit .

anyway, go for a diesel if you can (JTD diesel) they are very good

I believe the Cromas are all Multijets. In 1.9 16v and 2.4 20v varients.

Thanks very much for the "thumbs-up" on the Croma. I'll go ahead and make a reservation for one.

Another benefit of hiring a Croma is that they are fairly new ('05 the first year?), so I won't risk getting an old high use vehicle.

Hellcat said:

I believe the Cromas are all Multijets. In 1.9 16v and 2.4 20v varients.

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2.2 petrol.

most europeand and british car rental places don't buy cars and rent them out, they hire them from manufacturer or from car fleet companies, use them for 3-12months, them get a new one, I have never driven a rental car in the eu with more than 10,000 miles or kilometres depending where on the clocks,

in america we have been fairly lucky, except once, we got this 1997 chevoleat POS, with 85,000miles (km's?) on it, it was nasty, had no gearbox left in it (the only manual they had, as we are not keen on autos). and had more dents and prangs than the average, one thing I'll say about US rentals, they are very very cheap!!!!


BTW if you get an option (you will prob only get it when you pick it up), to pay like 5euros a day to prevent you having to pay a fortune if you crash it (most companies excess was between E750 and E1250), instead with the discount thing you pay like E50!!!!

Came in very handy when we were in germany, we reversed a 800km old BMW 320D into a wall (actually it was a multistorey carpark carved out of the inside of a rock cliff in Saltzberg austria), I managed to push the dent out with a stick over the period of a few weeks gradually making it better and better, very amusing to bystanders laughing at this british guy whacking and bending his new BMW with a stick:slayer:

faster4_tec said:

very amusing to bystanders laughing at this british guy whacking and bending his new BMW with a stick:slayer:

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Probably the best thing you can do to a bmw

croma easily more roomy than c-class. I think its the perfect choice.

Can't picture a C Class wagon, do they exist? (checked Google, they do exist but are just as dull as the rest of the line up hence why they are invisible to me! LOL)

For excellent rear legroom then look no further than the Skoda Superb.

Liam