Driving in Spain
Discussion
1) Insurance on hire cars - usually the excess is high; often 5-800 Euro and the insurance you are offered by the hire car company to cover that at the airport is expensive - if you have your own excess insurance say so and don't let them push you to take out their extra cover - not that I've ever had an issue with that at Malaga. Even for one trip it can be worth buying a year of insurance for the excess which covers any hire in UK or Europe up to something like £5k excess. I've used insurance4carhire.com (others are available). Last Feb it was £39.99 for the year - and we hired cars/van about 3 times in Spain, twice here, so £8 a time. A couple of years ago I needed to claim (oops) and it was straightforward.
2) Speeding - 20 years ago you would see people going very fast but as some have said earlier they have tightened up considerably with very narrow tolerances and at higher speeds pretty draconian penalties - not that you said you would be planning to speed. There are also helicopters looking for speeders, mobile phone users... Again, you used to see truckers having 3/4 of a bottle of wine with a 2pm lunch, then getting back on the road at 5pm, but I think that, like here, social mores have changed and police have clamped down on that.
3) I've found standards of driving to be good, and middle laners far less of an issue than in the UK, possibly because most motorways used to be only 2 lane, so people tend to stay in lane 1 unless overtaking. Out of big cities the lack of traffic on many National roads (if there is a motorway nearby, often almost alongside) is great. Often a good response to unusual cars as well!
2) Speeding - 20 years ago you would see people going very fast but as some have said earlier they have tightened up considerably with very narrow tolerances and at higher speeds pretty draconian penalties - not that you said you would be planning to speed. There are also helicopters looking for speeders, mobile phone users... Again, you used to see truckers having 3/4 of a bottle of wine with a 2pm lunch, then getting back on the road at 5pm, but I think that, like here, social mores have changed and police have clamped down on that.
3) I've found standards of driving to be good, and middle laners far less of an issue than in the UK, possibly because most motorways used to be only 2 lane, so people tend to stay in lane 1 unless overtaking. Out of big cities the lack of traffic on many National roads (if there is a motorway nearby, often almost alongside) is great. Often a good response to unusual cars as well!
Thanks to all for your tips. Just got back, I can see why everyone said it wouldn't be a problem. Once I got used to the gearstick being on the other side it was nice and straightforward 
Amazed at how quiet the roads were. The only time we hit traffic was when we hit the outskirts of Madrid at rush hour on our way back to the airport. Elsewhere we could go for miles without seeing another car. Also enjoyed how much more laid back it was, most people kept to lane 1 on motorways/duel carriageways unless overtaking, and there wasn't the aggressive approach to roundabouts we often get over here.
So all in all, looking forward to doing it again next year *
* although we'll pay a bit more attention to the advice on car hire next time as we did get stung a little by Avis for the insurance excesses
Amazed at how quiet the roads were. The only time we hit traffic was when we hit the outskirts of Madrid at rush hour on our way back to the airport. Elsewhere we could go for miles without seeing another car. Also enjoyed how much more laid back it was, most people kept to lane 1 on motorways/duel carriageways unless overtaking, and there wasn't the aggressive approach to roundabouts we often get over here.
So all in all, looking forward to doing it again next year *
* although we'll pay a bit more attention to the advice on car hire next time as we did get stung a little by Avis for the insurance excesses
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