Driving- Frankfurt to Colmar

Thanks for the reply... yes, I budgeted $1.50 per liter of diesel. And we're going about 400 miles in a 1 series BMW. Should be cost effective. I hope.

According to benzinpreis.de, diesel in Germany is currently $1.67/l (€1.149/l).

"The car is actually cheaper"

I've looked at rail vs rental car prices in Germany for quite a few years now, and I have never found renting a car to be cheaper than using trains. Where did you get your rail prices? I hope not from RailEurope, because they don't come anywhere close to showing the true cost of train tickets in Germany. There are a lot of discount rail prices available in Germany, but you can only find them on the German Rail website.

Consider: you can go from Frankfurt to Heidelberg to Kehl, just across the river from Strasbourg, in one day for €39 for two people. You probably can't rent a car for a day for that little. If you do it in two days, your rail cost would not be twice as much (Heidelberg to Kehl would only be €28 for two with a B-W ticket), but rental costs probably would be.

Thanks for the advice...

Re: taking trains... I'd like to visit Heidelberg in the AM, then get to Colmar. I'd like to visit other areas of Alsace then travel to Mainz. It seems as though travel by car is less hectic and allows us to be on our schedule.

I'd appreciate more advice on how to make this efficient and effective.

Again, thanks much for your reply.

Snow is always a possibility in the winter that nobody can predict in advanced. But at least, this is generally one of the warmer areas of Germany in the winter. Also, in my experience, unless there is an extraordinary blizzard, German road crews clear the highways as efficiently as any in the northern US- meaning, the roads are clear in a few hours.

Anybody seen the condition of the autobahn and roads in Germany for the past 2 weeks? It is a disaster over here. Accidents all over the place, they have had to close the autobahn down is places. If you would like photos, visit "The Local", the English language news source in Germany.
http://www.thelocal.de/

We once had a 4 hour trip from Bavaria to Frankfurt last over 8 hours due to snow and ice on the autobahn. Not a fun way to spend precious vacation time. Trains are more fun and relaxing anyway.