My husband and I will be travelling to Austria in June/July 2012. It is part of a home exchange. We will be staying in the Voralberg region for 10 days. Our itinerary may look as follows:
20 June fly into Zurich from South Africa: We have 3 nights to either see Switzerland highlights (very expensive) or Lake Constance and Bavarian towns.
23 June - 4 July Voralberg region. (can be flexible here with a day)
5 and 6 July Villach (to visit our friends)

7,8 and 9 July Salzburg region: Faistenau (From here we will do sightseeing)
10 July: Munich
11 July Zurich
12 July: Leave for South Africa
Normally we pick up our rented motor-car at the airport.
Any recommendations will be appreciated.

Well I would avoid flying into Zurich if at all possible - do Munich or something instead - but I assume for you this is a much cheaper option. (And car rental is usually much cheaper in Germany than Switz - so consider that.)

One other comment. Have never seen "motor-car" in print. Is this local terminology? Otherwise it sound like 1900 (I remember my grandmother telling me about when she first saw a motor-car - versus horse-drawn trolley - but in was in 1901, when she was 5.)

Thank you for your advice. Our tickets are booked. Yes, motor car is local terminology in our country and not strange at all. An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor.
Any advice on my itinerary would be very helpful.

Here is an idea.

Stay in the Lake Konstanz area - Meersburg and Lindau are terrific spots in the area - if you think Switzerland will be too expensive. You will be seeing some of Bavaria as you drive from the Vorarlberg to Villach, so you might as well stay somewhere "else" the first three days.

It is a 4.5 hour drive from Lech (Vorarlberg town picked randomly) to Villach, however, so that is the better part of a the day. It would have to be a "scenic drive" with maybe a short Bavarian stop along the way.

Have you researched rental cars? It may be cheaper to rent in Germany than in Switzerland, too. It is easy to take the train from Zurich airport to Konstanz, where you could pick up the car and take the quick drive to the ferry over to Meersburg, for example. That would mean that you probably have to drop the car back at Konstanz rather than the Zurich airport (staying within Germany for the rental locations is most likely cheaper than returning the car to Zurich - but you never know....). It saves you driving into Zurich and then out to the airport for just the one night - you could take the train from Konstanz directly to central Zurich after dropping the car and then take the train to the airport.

Alternately, drop the rental car in Munich take the train straight to Zurich - that is probably the cleanest solution - saving 2 days rental, parking, and gas expense probably covers the train fare plus you get the convenience.

Thank you very much for taking the time to share your information and good advice with me! We will consider the train option, sounds like a great alternative.