cars

Mum of two Hannah Britt shares her top tips for family road trip success, from choosing the right sized rental car to arming yourself with equipment-free games. Bon voyage!

Planning a successful road trip with children requires smart packing, strategic timing, and easy entertainment to keep everyone happy. And as a mum of two young children, I’ve got it down to a fine art. This summer we hired a car with Sixt and drove through the south of France, often for long periods at a time. But armed with a bit of knowhow, it was child’s play for all the family. Here’s how it’s done…

Pack the essentials

• Mess-free snacks: Pack dry foods like crackers or popcorn in separate plastic containers or use silicone cupcake liners for easy, spill-proof portions.
• Plenty of wipes: Bring an abundance of antibacterial wipes and tissues for sticky fingers and unexpected juice spills.
• Comfortable clothes: Dress children in soft, loose, and easy-to-wash clothes or let them travel in pyjamas if you leave early or late.
• First-aid and emergency gear: Keep sickness bags, a small first-aid kit with child-friendly medicine like Calpol, and bin bags for daily rubbish within easy reach.

Keep kids entertained

• Activity bags: Give each child a small bag filled with rotating toys, colouring books, or magnetic games, and allow them to explore each one at a time.
• Audio and music: Create a shared family playlist or queue up engaging audiobooks and children’s podcasts to pass the hours.
• Screens with headphones: Download movies or games onto tablets ahead of time and pack backup chargers and headphones for each child.

Manage the journey

• Time drives with sleep: Depart right before nap times or early in the evening so young children sleep through a major portion of the drive.
• Plan active stops: Stop every two to three hours at parks, playgrounds, or open fields so kids can run around and burn off extra energy.
• Pre-emptive breaks: Pull over for a toilet break whenever you approach a service station, even if nobody asks yet.

Game time

• 20 Questions: One person thinks of a secret person, place, or thing. Everyone else takes turns asking up to 20 yes-or-no questions to guess the answer.
• I Spy: One player says, “I spy with my little eye something beginning with…” and names a letter of an object seen inside or outside the car. The others guess the object.
• The Animal Name Game: The first player names an animal. The next player names a new animal that starts with the last letter of the previous animal (for example: lion ends in N, so the next player says newt).
• I’m Going on a Picnic: The leader states an item they are bringing on a picnic based on a secret rule (like starting with the letters of the alphabet in order, or items that spell their name). Other players guess items to figure out the rule.
• Rainbow Cars: Players look out the windows and spot cars matching the colours of the rainbow in order—from red and orange through pink.
• The Alphabet Game: Passengers look at roadside signs, billboards, and license plates to find every letter of the alphabet in order from A to Z.
• License Plate Game: Work together or compete to spot license plates from different regions, states, or countries.

Choose the right car for the family

Choosing the right hire car depends on matching vehicle categories to your passenger count, luggage volume, and driving environment. Because rental companies assign vehicle classes rather than exact makes or models, focus on size segments and practical constraints. For our road trip through France, I chose a BMW X5, which was roomy enough for all of us – plus a mountain of luggage. And snacks.

Small and economy cars

• Best for: Solo travellers or couples on city breaks with light luggage.
• Capacity: 1–2 adults, 1 small cabin bag.
• Pros: Highly fuel-efficient and simple to park on narrow streets.
• Cons: Very limited boot space and minimal highway power.

Compact and intermediate (hatchbacks etc)

• Best for: Small families or longer road trips balancing comfort and versatility.
• Capacity: 2–4 adults, 2–3 medium bags.
• Pros: Better highway stability and easier fuel economy than large vehicles.
• Cons: Tight rear seating for three adults on extended journeys.

SUVs & full-size estates

• Best for: Rural touring, mountainous terrain, or bulky gear.
• Capacity: 4–5 adults, robust luggage capacity.
• Pros: Elevated driving position and generous cargo room.
• Cons: Difficult navigation and parking in tight historic European garages.

People carriers & MPVs

• Best for: Large families or groups travelling together.
• Capacity: 6–9 passengers.
• Pros: Maximum seating flexibility and vast interior volume.
• Cons: Height restrictions in underground parking and high fuel consumption; note that using all seats in a 7-seater often eliminates boot space.

*For more information about Sixt, see HERE

The US president said he would end a so-called ‘EV mandate’ that steered consumers to electric vehicles.

United States President Donald Trump has announced new fuel economy standards that roll back requirements adopted under his predecessor, arguing they will lower automobile prices and encourage manufacturers to expand production in the US.

In a social media post on Saturday, Trump said the new standards would “TERMINATE” what he called former US President Joe Biden’s “EV (electric vehicle) mandate”, accusing the previous administration of imposing costly requirements on carmakers and steering consumers towards electric vehicles.

“These new Standards will take the waste out of building cars in America. That means LOWER PRICES, saving families thousands on a new, beautiful, and safe car,” Trump wrote.

The changes form part of a broader Trump administration effort to reverse Biden-era policies supporting lower-emission vehicles, increasing the gap between US policy and global trends favouring electric vehicles.

While Trump and US Republicans have used the term “EV mandate” to describe higher fuel efficiency requirements instituted under Biden, a Democrat, there are no federal guidelines or laws that require Americans to buy electric cars or bar the sale of ones powered by petrol.

At the centre are Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. This system, established by the US Congress in 1975, requires automakers to meet average fuel economy targets across all cars and light trucks they sell, meaning that a brand that sells an inefficient vehicle would also have to sell a more efficient one to help comply with the government’s standards.

Under rules finalised by the Biden administration in 2024, the required fleetwide fuel economy was scheduled to rise from 39.1 miles per gallon (mpg) to about 50.4mpg by 2031. The administration said then the measures would reduce fuel consumption and emissions to combat climate change while helping motorists save money at the pump.

As a result, auto manufacturers have ramped up production of EVs to help meet the Biden-imposed fuel economy requirements. The Republican-controlled US Congress, however, gutted consumer tax incentives last year for electric vehicles as part of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Trump did not provide details regarding what the new fuel economy standards would be. But in December 2025, he announced a proposal that would set the industry fleetwide average for light-duty vehicles at roughly 34.5mpg by 2031, more than 30 percent lower than the Biden-era rule.

In a reposting of Trump’s announcement, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said an announcement would be “COMING MONDAY”.

Al Jazeera has reached out to the White House for comment.

Published on
21/09/2026 – 11:46 GMT+2

Volkswagen, Europe’s largest automaker, is no longer among the eurozone’s blue chips.

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Index provider Stoxx confirmed the change in its annual review at the start of September, and it came into force before trading began on Monday, with Finnish telecoms group Nokia returning to the index and French utility Engie joining.

Dutch information-services group Wolters Kluwer was also dropped.

The removal is mechanical rather than a judgement, as the index is weighted by free-float market value, and Volkswagen’s shrinking valuation no longer cleared the threshold.

However, the consequences are real, as funds that track the benchmark must now sell their Volkswagen holdings, adding to pressure on a stock already under strain. Stellantis suffered the same fate last year.

Volkswagen shares have fallen almost 30% since the start of the year and are down over 6% since last Monday’s open, trading at roughly €76 at the time of writing.

A profit warning to match

The timing could hardly have been worse.

On Friday, Volkswagen flagged around €10 billion in one-off charges and cut its operating margin forecast for 2026 to no more than 1%, down from a previous range of 4% to 5.5%. Analysts had expected 4.1%.

More than €6 billion of the charges stem from a writedown at Porsche, in which Volkswagen holds a 75.4% stake, after the sports car maker lowered its medium-term expectations.

Porsche has been hit hard by American tariffs and weak Chinese demand for foreign luxury brands, and managed a margin of just 1.1% last year.

A further €2 billion or more covers expanded early retirement schemes, impairments in China and the planned sale of Volkswagen Osnabrück GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary and automotive manufacturing plant located in the northwest German city of Osnabrück.

The company warned of “further deterioration in the market environment, especially in China, as well as an accelerated shift in demand in favour of battery-electric vehicles.”

The warning came two weeks after it agreed its largest-ever restructuring, doubling planned job cuts to 100,000 and halving its model line-up.

However, not everyone reads the numbers as a collapse.

Stripping out the one-off items, Volkswagen puts its underlying margin at around 4%, and it kept its cash flow and liquidity forecasts unchanged.

Deutsche Bank, which rates the shares a buy with a €115 price target, said it believes “the headline significantly overstates the deterioration in the underlying business.”

The bank does not expect the pain to end there as it wrote that “additional restructuring charges simply confirm that the transformation process is very expensive and complex […] we expect more to follow over the coming months.”

Volkswagen’s third-quarter results are due on 29 October.