Required Safety Equipment ?

The rules vary according to the countries you will travel through and they also change on a regular basis. In the EU, it's inconsistent. It also varies in the non-EU countries.

To be mostly sure, you should at least take the following:

1) Warning triangle (two in Spain)
2) Warning vests for each passenger+driver (inside the vehicle, within reach of the occupants). These must be EU standard.
3) Spare bulb kit for the vehicle.
4) First aid kit
5) Fire extinguisher

Be careful in Austria and France. Austria requires winter tyres up until April 15. In Germany, winter tyres are not required legally but effectively someone without winter tyres will always be considered at fault, making them required. France has really weird new rule that you need 2 x breathalysers as well. I've never heard of fuses being required but it makes sense to carry some (although you can just buy them at most petrol/gas stations if need be).

If you don't have this stuff, the chances of being caught out are quite low, but then again, do you need the hassle? To drive on the motorways (highways/autobahns) in Hungary and Austria, you need a vignette. In Hungary, you can get this at any gas station, by mobile and online as it's electronic. In Austria, you need to buy a vignette sticker at the border or gas stations (also in Slovenia, Slovakia and Czech Republic I think). Germany and Holland do not have vignettes. France, Spain, Croatia and Serbia have tolls. 

If you cross the Austrian-German border, there are customs (Zoll) patrols and you could get stopped and your vehicle searched. They are looking for cigarettes, perfume, drugs and money. Once you get about 30-50km from the border, the chances of being inspected are almost zero.

Austria itself has inspections too, usually randomly at the parking/rest places or at the border crossings but they are mainly aimed at checking the vignettes.  The Austrians are a suspicious bunch and they will often follow foreign registered cars on the major highways for no reason other than they are foreign registered. In Austria, any person who could possibly be foreign is considered fair game for on the spot identity checks.

Thanks as always for your well thought out and comprehensive reply. I think I will simply avoid driving in Austria.

Rob

americantraveler wrote:

Thanks as always for your well thought out and comprehensive reply. I think I will simply avoid driving in Austria.

Rob

If you drive between Hungary and Germany, the transit time through Austria is less than 4h, you would probably get away with not having winter tyres before April 15. You could possibly lower your risk by making yourself less visible, e.g. drive after dark. Austria police don't seem to be visible after dark on the major highways and also if it's raining. Presumably, they don't want to get wet.

I am not familiar with the winter tyre rules for Slovakia or Czech Republic but they are probably similar but this would be an alternative from Hungary to say, north Germany. You might also drive through Poland.  But I think this diversion could add a significant amount of driving time if you went to say, Hamburg.

Anyway, you can look here for up to date information:

TheAACountryDrivingRulesPage

One thing I forgot is the German pollution zones and the controls on them. For some cities, you need a special sticker and your car can be banned altogether if it's in the wrong class. The only thing you can do is look it up and avoid these zones. More details in the link above.

Hi,

I've been a couple of times to Austria with Hungarian plates and nothing ever happened, but the singular of "data" is just "anecdote" of course :-)

German special zones tend to be inner city destinations, not something that would get in the way of transit traffic. At least the ones I came across, but again, see above :-)

szocske wrote:

German special zones tend to be inner city destinations, not something that would get in the way of transit traffic. At least the ones I came across, but again, see above :-)

Yes, it's true. One of the very worst is centred on Frankfurt bounded by a triangle of several motorways, the bottom part of which is the motorway running past the airport.  This covers a huge area and makes the centre of Frankfurt inaccessible in an older car. The only thing you can do is drive to the outskirts and take public transport.  There are other ones due for implementation. It means that if one is in transit, one has to find a hotel outside a city, which makes for a less interesting drive.

Hello Americantraveler,

Do you have any question still?

americantraveler wrote:

I think I will simply avoid driving in Austria.

A pity. A drive through the Tyrolian Alps and a visit to Innsbruck is worth the effort.

The site provided earlier is information for UK license holders. For US Licenses, you should be aware you also need to get an International Driving Permit (a simple translation of your CA driving license and available at a local AAA office for about $20 -- the DMV does not issue this document):

austria.info/us/practical-information/driving-regulations-in-austria-1084578.html