"the quality of the road, which by and large have reasonable surfaces"
Don't agree I'm afraid - smoothness of surfaces is (except in rare cases) much better on the continent. We seem to be unable to lay flat tarmac even on new stretches of road (A1 Wetherby? M1 Luton South? M1 Nottingham North?). In addition on "minor" roads, we seem to prefer to spray a layer of tar and then bung some gravel on top; which does nothing to smooth out bumps and dips; and is a technique rarely used on the continent. We always remark on how much more quietly and smoothly our car runs in France (and Germany, Austria etc - but not Belgium!) - but it's not the car, its the surface. Our roads are now nearly as good as Yugoslavia in the '70s/'80s - and they were really, really carp. And as for concrete sections (eg A50 Uttoxeter - Stoke, M180, M18 etc) they are unspeakably uneven and noisy - and the spray when wet - awful.
All IMHO of course - (but I did do about 70k in UK and 12k in France last year!)
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