Four of us are heading to London in late November / early December for 4 days/nights, then York for 2 days/nights, and finally Birmingham for 2 days/nights, before flying back out of Heathrow. The dates and the places are set. Two of us have been to London before, none of us have been to York or Birmingham. We settled on those last two for various reasons, including lodging, Christmas markets, etc.
We don't need a car in London, and we'll take the train to York. Considering we're only in York for 2 days/nights (apartment near York Minster), I don't think we need a car there either. The primary reason we're considering getting a car is to drive through the Cotswolds on one of our days in Birmingham. However, is there much benefit to renting the car in York and driving to Birmingham, or should we just take the train to Birmingham and rent a car while we're there?
The question of driving from York to Birmingham is whether there are places worth seeing or stopping at on the way and/or scenery we'd miss via train. However, considering we'll only have 1ish day in Birmingham (plus the day in the Cotswolds), any time we take to stop on the way uses up part of one of those days.
One other question - If we have the car in Birmingham, should we return it there or at Heathrow, e.g. because there are worthwhile stops on the drive between Birmingham and Heathrow? Our flight out of Heathrow isn't until 4pm on that final day.