I know we have a lot of cosmopolitan world-travelers here, but has anyone tried to, say, get a German or Korean DL? They don't give a flying hootenanny if you think you need a car to work. If you don't have everything stamped off, every test taken and every official paid, you get bupkis.
Nope. Now that you mention it, the only countries I ever drove in other than N. America were UK and NZ. Taxi or local driver everywhere else. No friggin way am a taking on driving in Seoul or Tokyo.
And yet they still are deliberately insufficient to qualify for a simple border-crossing into Canada or Mexico. In other words, they are not a credible or reliable proof of US Citizenship.
I agree, I miss visiting our neighbors with only a driver's license. There was a few different times where we went from Seattle to Victoria on the spur of the moment.
I drove around Amsterdam before. I don't remember having to get any special permit though. Got an iron boot put on the car too. Boy was that a pain in the ass!