If you are driving through Austria you will need a "vignette" for your car. Purchase it at any gas station.
Many of the larger gas areas on the autobahn have nice rest areas and some have pretty decent restaurants as well.We always use our credit cards for gas and have had no problems.

Emily, you only need the vignette if you will be driving on the Autobahn in Austria. For the lesser roads, it is not required.

Ditto logos - diesel and manual are definitely the way to go, cost-wise. Both still very common and cheapest as car rentals go. Navis are lovely as well, just don't put all of your faith in them - have a good road atlas as well!

You won't face any problems by paying by credit card (VISA and MASTER; don't take AMEX or DINERS!).

There won't be anybody who offer you window cleaning or checking your tires :( It's simply something Germans have extinguished ages ago

Don't expect any service except

- good shop incl. good selection of magazins, news papers, swets, drinks etc
- decent toilets - have a 50€cent coin ready for paying that service at the Autobahn but save the ticket because you can exchange towards goods at the shop
- don't expect oberwhelmingly (but not really honest) "how are you doing/have a great day" or similar
Germans like to limit their "interaction" to the absolute necessary - except they figure you are a foreigner. Then they might start talking ;-)

Nevertheless - our country is great and you will enjoy it:)

SV

Hi; Just returned from Germany on the 17th of September. We used AXEX at every gas station and most other places, like restaurants. So, the vast amount of our charges were using AMEX. We did had to use our Visa a few times. Great time, great people. Richard

During our 3 week trip, which we are still on, we have found that most of the restaurants we've visited do not take credit cards, but the gas stations do. Of course, we have been in mostly small towns so maybe it is different in the larger towns. We've gone thru lots of cash but have had no problem finding ATM's everywhere that accept our card.

Hi bettyk: We were in the larger towns/cities. Regensburg, Bamberg, Tubingen, Landshut and Munich. They most all took our credit cards. One small restaurant in Polling, Austria only took cash. [100 euros for seven people] In cash, we only used about 600 euros for this trip. Richard

P.S. Sorry, I should have said, 'enjoy the rest of your trip.'