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I'm no Spanish native speaker either (only some years experience), but I'm pretty sure your example would be translated to:

> Subimos al coche y condujimos a través de la isla

> We got in the car and drove across the island.

Making it explicit that you drove across the island :)

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I think it sounds a bit weird to use the verb 'conducir' like that (which is why Google translate chooses not to do so). In any case, there are many other such examples of Spanish tending to encode path in the verb rather than manner, even if this particular one doesn't work.

Native Spanish speaker here.

If I had to translate "We drove across the island", and make the car explicit without the first clause giving context, I'd say:

> Cruzamos la isla en el coche

> We crossed the island in the car

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