Running short of AdBlue!

Miscellaneous

Hello! My name is Eri Ito, a Japanese motorsport journalist.
I mainly cover MotoGP, MotoE which is the electric two-wheel road racing championship.
This blog is all about Eri Ito’s personal experiences of visiting different countries to cover the MotoGP.
Please click: ABOUT for more details.

I use rental cars whenever I cover MotoGP.
They are handy for going to and from the circuits also because it’s difficult to know in advance when I finish and leave the circuits.
Driving a rental car in European countries can sometimes be eventful and unexpected experiences await me.
So, this post is about rental cars.

One-man comedy sketch show around indicator

In Japan, traffic is left-lane and right-hand drive, but in Portugal, Germany, Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands, where I have visited for MotoGP coverage, it is the opposite; right-lane and left-hand drive. Only the UK is the same as in Japan.
Driving in the right lane is not very difficult. All you have to do is to follow the car in front of you.
What is more difficult for me personally is… believe or not, to operate the indicator.
In all the left-hand drive rental cars I have driven, the indicator lever was the opposite to that of Japanese cars (or cars with Japanese specifications?).
In other words, the lever on the right is for the windscreen wiper and the one on the left is for the indicator in European cars.
In the cars that I am used to driving in Japan, on the other hand, the lever on the right is for the indicator and the lever on the left is for the windscreen wiper.
What would happen?
Yes, you guessed it right!
When I am about to turn right, the wipers move, and when I think I am operating the lever to turn left, the wipers move again.
It’s so ingrained in my muscles that it’s difficult to change the habit.
Even in right-hand drive Britain, the wipers are on the right and the indicator on the left. I’ve no idea why!
By the way, according to my acquaintance who lives in the UK, in some British cars, there are the lever on the right is for the windscreen wiper and the one on the left is for the indicator.
As I was getting used to it, I returned to Japan. Driving in my home country, it is the repeat of what I did in Europe… wipers move every time I am about to turn right or left!
This is nothing short of a great comedy sketch show.

When to go into a roundabout.

I am extremely careful when driving wherever I am. Maybe I am even more cautious as thoughts of getting into a traffic accident in foreign countries is too much to bear.
In particular, roundabouts put me off so much, which I find to be like jumping a long rope. It reminds me of the time when I used to miss the timing of joining a long rope and kept stopping the flow when I was in primary school. As a matter of course, I hesitate before the roundabout.
In addition, I easily get motion sickness, so I sometimes get carsick going around roundabouts even though I’m driving myself. So, I can only drive very slowly around roundabouts (never mind the cars behind me!).
I wonder if drivers of cars that are going around the roundabout at high speed don’t get drunk.
However, once you get used to it, it is good because you don’t need to stop as you would at the signal. Maybe I’m getting used to roundabouts enough to think so.

Running short of AdBlue!

I once almost ran out of AdBlue in a rental car while covering the MotoGP French GP.
It was the first time I had ever driven a car that needed AdBlue (or rather, the first time I almost ran out of the AdBlue) and Google told me to “go to a car mechanic and ask them to put it in the car” and I panicked thinking, “I can NEVER make an appointment with a car mechanic in French!”
…… but my senior colleagues at MotoGP told me that I could buy AdBlue at a petrol station, and the problem was solved.
Eventually, I bought some AdBlue at a motoring shop near my hotel in Le Mans and filled it myself.
At the shop, I approached one of the guys saying, “Excuse me, I don’t speak French, but I would like to buy AdBlue: ……”, and he smiled and answered, “AdBlue, right?” in English and showed me the way.
When I say I am in trouble in foreign countries, it’s really is a BIG trouble for me, more so than in Japan.
So, I really appreciate a little kindness, like giving me useful information or even just a smile.
By the way, I didn’t expect that AdBlue would not be full when I set off. It’s a rental car, which should be in a top-notch condition.
Is it just me who thinks that, because I am too used to Japanese customer services?