Initally, I thought we would train from Granada to Madrid at the end of our trip. But then upon studing more .. Not only is it $$ (if I don't get the web fare) but long. So, now, I'm thinking of just keeping our car and returning to Madrid, via Jerez and having a little leg of trip, I hadn't anticipated. Plane home would be next day. Any advice ??

I dont get the idea of your itinerary...You mean driving Granada to Jerez and then to Madrid?

Well, I guess my thinking got a little fuzzy. Jerez, came from the thought, we would take fast train out of Cordoba to Madrid, rather than train out of Granada. Anyway, how would you travel back to Madrid from Granada ? Thank you.

I am not exactly sure what you are considering. We have driven Madrid to Granada and it was fine, however the last time we took a regular inexpensive but very good train between Madrid and Jaen, picked up the car in Jaen
in this case we rented from Avis, so we took a taxi from Jaen's station to Avis ( a few euros) from there we drove up the hill to the Jaen Parador which is beautiful stayed there two nights ( there is free parking in the Parador) and then we drove from Jaen to Granada ....
This way we avoided driving out of Madrid plus the fare to Jaen was very inexpensive.

Are you really sure about Jerez?
Or could it be that you have mixed that up with a similar sounding town between Granada and Madrid?

IMO, driving Granada-Jerez-Madrid is as wild as driving Granada-Jerez-Cordoba-(train Madrid).

Maybe you should consult a map Spain or viamichelin.de to see how far apart these places are.

If you want to keep your car from Granada to Madrid there are far more suitable sights or stopovers on your way north than Jerez, e.g. Baeza/Ubeda or Toledo.
Or if you have not seen Cordoba until then, you could also drive Granada-Cordoba-Madrid. It's a bit of a detour but not as far away as Jerez would be.

I would drive Granada to Madrid, easy for me as I know the route. For you, it depends where in Madrid you are going: to the airport to take your plane (what time check-in?), or to a hotel to spend the night (which hotel?)?

I'm soory for my confusing post. We plan to fly into Madrid, then take train to Cordoba, for a look, get back on train and spend nite in Seville. Have 3 days here. Rent car, then go to Ronda - 2 nites, Nerja 2 nites and then Granada and home .. How best to get back up to Madrid - train or car and ease of returning car ? We will be staying by airport - Hotel Clement Barajas. Thank you all ..

I think you better drive from Granada to Madrid. The signs to the airport are clear, and I dont think you'll find any difficulty to get to your hotel and drop car at the airport.