car vs rail

You might look into point-to-point tickets as well. With good planning, you can get some very good bargains on train fares. Second, if you rent a car in England with the thought of turning it in in another country, you definitely won't like the extra charge for turning in a car with a steering wheel on the other side. Very expesnive to get it shipped back to England.

We don't plan on driving in Gr Britain. We drove on the other side of the road in New Zealand. We did OK, but would rather not again.
The reason we are thinking of rail pass vs car is the freedom these choices give us. We are going to be winging it, without planning much.

It is very expensive to pick up a car and return it in another country. Even shopping around, I was just quoted a 500 Euro drop off fee to pick up in Belgium and drop in Germany!! Yikes! (Needless to say, we'll be picking up in Germany.) In "the old days," drop off fees were minimal and made the rental an easy choice. One agent told me that the rental agencies have gone nuts hiking these fees way up over the last 2 years. Kind of a bummer. So I guess my advice would be to use point to point tickets, supplemented with short rentals here and there if you really feel you need a car for a certain area.

'Wandering around' with rail passes should be easier and less costly than driving. If you decide to visit some of the larger cities, the congestion, lack of parking spaces and one way streets could drive you buggy (along with $9.00+ for a gal of gas).
Could give a better response if you gave the airports you're going into/out of and what countries you are most interested in seeing.

On the mainland, we are interested mostly in Germany, Austria, Czech Rep, France, Croatia, Hungary, Spain, Portugal, then we want to leave it open to add more places if time allows. We probably won't be flying much, if at all, except when we fly out of one of the major hubs to come home. We haven't booked the flight, so don't know which airport. We plan on doing Gr. Britain first, then crossing the channel to the mainland.
Yes, we see the convenience of the rail pass, and the headaches of driving, such as parking, etc. But given the advantages and disadvantages of both options, we are torn betw the two.

How many is "we"? Obviously, the more people, the more cost-efficient a car becomes. For me, the main determiner would be what kind of places you want to see. For cities, a car would be an expensive and useless headache; for small towns and rural areas, it's very useful and sometimes necessary. Remember that in France, a rail pass is not always a help these days. TGV trains, which are the only way (or the only practical way) on many routes, have a quota of tickets available for pass-holders, and the pass-holder fares are not always cheap. So, even if there are seats on a train, you may not be able to use your pass in France. As long as you're informed about the charge for dropping a car in a different country and are prepared to pay it, you can certainly do this (again, with more people, the per person fee for the drop charge is not so bad). Also be aware that many rental agencies won't allow you to take the car to the Czech Republic, and probably have restrictions on other parts of the former "Eastern Europe" too. Or, yet again, they may allow this only upon payment of a supplemental charge. Be sure to investigate this before assuming you can take your rental to all your intended countries.

I agree with most of the others, that renting a car for the entire time (excepting GB) would not provide any cost benefit. Especially if you will mostly be in cities. You might want to take a composite approach. A car is valuable in some circumstances, especially for flexibility and more rural areas. You could do shorter term rentals staying within one country or in a region where you can easily return the car in the country of origin. But getting a rental on short term will likely mean only standard transmissions. As long as that is ok with you, keep it in mind. Or you could do a car lease, but I don't know about drop off costs with that. Point to point rail tickets have the best value with advanced purchase. The closer to departure time, the less you get any discounts. So a railpass might be worthwhile if you are winging it as you go. I've never had a problem using passes, but some do report issues with Thalys and TGV. Ultimately you might be best served with a combo of pass and P2P tickets. Maybe a flexi-pass with as many days of travel as you know you will have for long trips. Use P2P tickets for short runs. Remember that the more countries you add to the pass, the pricier it gets. So you'll have to think hard about the best balance. And certain countries have cheaper tickets than others.

As someone else mentioned, part of the answer depends on how many "we" is. More people, the more cost-effective the car becomes. The salient points have all been made. In cities, cars are a hassle. In the countryside, they can be a boon. Your best bet may be a bit of both. Since you aren't planning a whole lot ahead of time, it might make sense just get a car when you are planning on staying in one country for a few days. In other words, when your travels take you someplace where you think you'll need a car, just rent one for a few days and return it to the same place, being mindful of possible country restrictions as others have mentioned. Personally, I have thankfully not had an issue using passes - and I suspect neither will you as long as you are aware what your pass does and doesn't cover before you leave. My vote (assuming its two of you going): train primary, to be backed up as required by short-term car rentals.

Speaking only to the car portion: I think what's going to happen is that you'll have a whole new outlook when you start to refine your plans. You're chomping off more than you can chew. Call it six weeks with one in Britain - - that leaves your five on the continent. The central european segment works out nicely for a loop so you can pick up and drop the car in Germany. That'll save close to a grand. The problem is that just to hit the capital cities (neglecting Berlin) and do a little bit of wiggling you're looking at twenty-five hundred miles, or something more than a hundred miles a day. Stay in one place a couple of days and the number starts climbing. Figure a minimum of twenty-five bucks a day for parking in a major city and nine bucks a gallon for gas in a small car that will get you fifty per. If you do a Spain/Portugal loop with the same logic as above and it covers Madrid, Andalucia, Algarve, Lisbon, Alentejo, Avila, Segovia, Madrid, essentially. You're looking at about the same amount of driving per day with the same restrictions and expenses. That will get you two decent-term car rentals. A bunch of little one (as in one for each country) will way more than double the cost.

Thanks for all the great advice from everyone!. We have a lot to consider. The "we" is my wife and me, so not a lot of people to share the costs of a car.