Driving In Romania: My Experience

Avoiding fines in foreign countries is mostly just common sense - and actually reading. It doesn't take much foreign language expertise to be able to read parking and road restrictions.

And as for the Austrian vignette issue - the leaflet that comes with it clearly states in multiple languages that it must be attached to the windscreen (not the tinted section). The reason is very simple - to stop it being transferred and also it has various anti forgery and auto recognition features and that are only obvious when it is attached properly.

Santastico, I feel your pain. We had the same experience in Italy. Stopped at the hotel to ask where to park legally and were told we were fine where we were. Guess what, two months later a ticket shows up at home. Rental car company (Hertz) was no help. Had no recourse other than to pay the fine. Think the mafia runs the parking scam :-) Nice way to fleece the tourists.
Austria was just as bad. Had my vignette on the dash, basically in front of the steering wheel. And of course, another ticket shows up, because the vignette was not on the left side of the windshield. What a ripoff.

Why on earth would you rent a Juke, let alone a Nissan is Europe.

SUV is an American abomination. Can't go offroad like a 4x4, can't handle like a sedan. Cheaper ones tend to be under powered, all have bad mpg. It is good for the American highway system, nice big and comfy ride with mostly straight and very little sharp turns.

If minivans are for soccer moms, SUVs are for grocery dads. If you ever want to have fun driving outside USA, never rent an SUV if you can. Sadly many family travels make it impossible to fit all those stuff for everyone.

Now it would be a dream to do it like TopGear. Close Transfagarasan and do a downhill race.
If you watch the YouTube it says James is the happiest. Yes because, he's got an mid engine AWD Lamborghini. The best grip and balance you can get for high speed corners.
Now racers like @Lilian might be able to handle RWD, most amateurs do better with AWD.
And no, AWD is not for offroad, it's for paved road handling.

You could not have picked a more hard riding small SUV than a Juke. Still got your fillings? Kidneys healed?

The bright colour inside is supposed to resemble the painted tank of a motorcycle, or so Nissan said when this model - now dumped from the US - was launched here in Europe. The thing has now had a complete redesign.

It’s not that long ago the European car industry was pretending a/c didn’t exist and automatic was impossible to find in small rentals. Centre armrests are reasonably common but you obviously had a garish coloured, stripper spec Juke - the spec they foist on rental companies when they can’t sell it retail.

As to Romania’s infrastructure, is this the same Romania where a businessman recently built a symbolic metre of freeway to protest the lack of infrastructure? Where the head of the Ford plant in Polesti said infrastructure was a problem? Where a Mercedes plant went to another EU funded former Communist country because infrastructure was not up to scratch?

Corruption is also endemic.

You obviously got Lucky with your choice of route.

I love driving in Europe, except Italy, where their B.S. laws get you ticketed without knowing.

I apparently drove down a street I wasn't supposed to in Sorrento, and four months later, Avis charged my card, saying I got a ticket I knew nothing about. I'll admit my hotel in Sorrento warned me this would happen and warned me about pictures being taken by invisible cameras which invariably lead to these random tickets when you get back to the States. But in this instance, Avis never provided me any proof or evidence and thus my card refunded me the fee after I complained.

Driving through Greece, about two hours from Athens, I learned how their speed trap works. One cop is hiding in the bushes and clocks you. Two miles down, you get stopped. As a former street racer, I have a sixth sense for cops and slowed down by the time I got to the cops waiting for me. My sixth sense, however, had never before encountered cops hiding in bushes to get you in a tag team effort! Even worse, the cops that stopped me were male and female, with the female cop sent to speak to me, defeating any possible effort to show some leg and/or cleavage to get out of the ticket. No, I have no shame. Anything that gets me out of a ticket!

Everywhere else has been wonderful, my favorite being Portugal where no one uses the highway because locals don't want to pay the tolls. I rented a car and drove the entire country, stopping in towns in between, while staying in Lisbon, Porto, Evora and Algarve. I was able to do 235 kph almost the entire trip without being stopped, again, because locals don't use the highway, thus cops are few and far between. Did I mention I have a lead foot?

But to your point, Lucky, when you're in Europe, you're better renting from companies that do business in America, such as Avis, Enterprise, Hertz etc. I've had good luck with Sixt Car rentals as well. Coincidently, however, Romania is where their options of cars really sucked. I rented a Mercedes that had absolutely no power whatsoever for a speed demon as myself, and it was the best car in their fleet.

Romania is a beautiful country and there are parts of it that to this day, memory of driving on some of the roads still makes me smile.

@Endre: it gets worst that that. You drive through little towns in Italy where even Italians get tickets. There was one city that forbids cars in some streets in the city center during very specific hours. Problem is "if" there is a sign it is hidden and in Italian and Waze and GPS do not inform you of those restrictions. Same for parking. They make the rules so difficult to understand that by the time you try to figure out if you can park there you already got a ticket. None of my violations were for speeding. Luckily in my case wife and kids were with me in the car and shared the WTF moment when I got the tickets on the mail.

"I do have one question for you guys. In the towns leading up to Sinaia, the biggest signs in the city by far were for Coke or Pepsi. Like, a restaurant would have a sign with their name, but then the Coke logo would be five times the size of the restaurant’s name."

This used to be common in the US and Canada (many decades ago) - Coke and Pepsi (I've seen 7-Up and Canada Dry ones too, and RC in some parts of the US) paid for the signs in exchange for the restaurant putting them up. Restaurant gets a free sign, soda company gets advertising. There are still examples of this in the US, mainly in really rural areas, but they've gradually died out. The size discrepancy, that might be unique to Romania?

"I was amazed by the road infrastructure, which put the US to shame (as does road infrastructure in many parts of the world)"

Romania has received bountiful road funds from the EU, courtesy of the taxpayers in the "net contributor" countries. Surprised you didn't see signs extolling this generosity.