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Funny, I had the opposite experience. I spent about 2-1/2 weeks in southern Germany, Holland, and Belgium this past August, much of it on the road traveling from one place to another, and I never had a European driver flash his/her lights at me. It seemed like all drivers in the left lane on the superhighways are expected to keep one eye on the rear view mirror, and when you see someone coming up on you when you are in the left lane, you are expected to move to the right lane and let them pass. In fact, since I thought that flashing your lights to pass originated in Europe, I was surprised to see no one doing it, so I asked one of our German hosts about it. He stated that flashing your lights to pass is considered VERY rude, at least in his area of Germany. Drivers are expected to be aware of what is happening behind them as well as in front of them, and the rule is to move out of the way for faster-moving cars.
You're right about the road manners of European drivers, at least where we were. Much better than Americans. For example, people in the right lane of a 2-lane highway would actually slow down to let people entering the highway on entrance ramps into the flow of traffic. Same when a person in the left lane needed to move into the right lane to let a faster car pass - right lane drivers would slow down to create a space for the left lane driver to move into. Contrast that with the "How dare you invade my lane!" attitude of most American drivers. The European drivers seem to naturally do what is best for the overall flow of traffic, instead of what is best for thier egos. I actually enjoyed driving there, once I got a hang of the unwritten driving rules.
Incidentally, my wife, who made all the arrangements for the trip, arranged for the rental of a Renault "mini-minivan" (my term). I can't remember the name of the model, something like Scenia or Scenaca. It totally turned around my opinion of Renault cars, which had been formed by Renaults imported into the U.S. in the early 1960s and the late 1980s, before they pulled out of the U.S. market. This car was small on the outside but big on the inside. It held all four of us and our luggage comfortably, had a hatchback (great for loading and unloading - SAAB please note), was fairly tall for lots of headroom, had a nice (not cheap looking) interior, the ergonomics were great, it had air conditioning, and the car handled well and was lots of fun to drive. It had lots of neat features; here's one - if you had the windshield wipers on, when you put the car in reverse the rear window wiper automatically made two swipes of the rear window, clearing it so you could see well to back up. The car had a 4-cylinder turbo diesel engine with a 5-speed stick transmission, and the 5-speed was a joy to operate - short throws and great clutch action - smooth as butter! The turbo-diesel also changed my mind about diesels. It was very peppy, had no visible particulate exhaust (how do they do that?), cruised easily at 90 - 100 mph, and was very quiet - only when standing outside next to the hood could you hear a faint diesel knock. Inside the car, you couldn't hear anything to indicate it was a diesel. In fact, the sound insulation in this car was outstanding - roll up the windows and you felt like you were in a cacoon - you could talk to each other with normal voice levels at 90mph! Best of all, the turbodiesel got the equivalent of about 40 - 45 mpg, which made me happy. Over nearly three weeks of driving, we never got tired of or annoyed with anything about the car - quite a compliment!
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