Ferry to St Malo, cut the driving distance by half?

How many passengers will there be?

I did it last summer. Punto from newcastle to dover, then calais to south(ish) west coast, then to Brittany then back to newcastle.

It was fine, although mine only had about 40k on it. And it wasn't very hot in france, if it had been hotter it could of been a nightmare with no aircon

Car was fine, Just make sure you have europe breakdown cover just in case

Did Cornwall to Dover then Calais to the Alps and back in a little Saxo VTR. It was fun!

I did Gloucester to Applecross (in the uber-North of Jockland) in a 100k Golf. That was about 800 miles, no probs.

back in the day; we went on a family holiday in a punto 55.

roof box up top with all the clothes, trailer tent on the back with 4 bikes on top of that. parents in the front, me, my brother and the fridge in the back.

no problem (although we did struggle to get up the bridge at nantes!)

several yeards later i inherited the car – was like driving an underpowered office chair – still amazed the holidays we had in it.

Oh, and it also helps to see the journey as part of the adventure, and not just the dull bit before the holiday begins..

:o)

did sheffield to metabief for the world champs on me own in a 1 litre metro of 86 vintage.
yeah no probs just take it steady.

so long as you're reasonably comfortable in the driving position then you'll be fine. MTFU!! French roads are generally better (smoother) than over here, so harsh ride issues with a small car on rough roads shouldn't really be an issue once you get into france.

If my 16 year old 1.4 Astra with 160k on it can do Yorkshire from Somerset return in a weekend 4 up with bikes then your Punto should be fine

The car should make it if it's in a good condition but have Europe breakdown cover just in case.

You don't say when you are planning on doing this though. We have driven to France (Zeebrugge to Morzine and on to Provence) in the summer in a Passat Estate and it was very comfy but with the temp outside in the high twenties, low thirties I can imagine it would not have been as pleasant without air conditioning. Especially when you get to the inevitable road works or accidents.

So, do-able yes but comfortable? Possibly not.

just get it serviced beforehand and get RAC/AA etc.

french roads are a different league to ours, way less stressful to drive on IMO,

Drove to the Dordogne in a Morris Marina with vinyl seats, didn't do me any harm.

The girlfriend and I drove 3500 miles around Europe in a G-reg Diesel 205 with 140 000 miles on the clock in 2003 – during the summer heatwave. All the way to Corsica and back. All our camping equipment, and my MTB strapped to the back of it. Happy memories.

Ps. Try to stay at lower revs too (not thrash) and…… maybe a coolant change wouldnt go a miss. I wonder how many cars overheated etc are due to coolant changes being skipped…

MTFU!

I took at Peugeot 305 to Provence when it had 100k on the clock, was fine. Just get some decent continental breakdown cover.

And heatwaves used to happen before most cars had A/C too, at least the autoroute will usually display the temp regulalry, that Provence trip topped out at 38 degs near to Dijon. All the windows down, regular stops for fluids and to wring out sweaty T shirts, class studenty holiday.

Also drove to SW France in a mk2 GTi that often overheated. So to draw heat out of the engine, it was best to leave the heaters on full blast. In August. We survived.

We had to buy an extra fan to mount on the dashboard like a mini-office fan when we used to road trip in france…