Car travel in Austria and Hungary
 

I am planning to tour mostly Austria and a little bit of Hungary by car in May. Given the refugee crisis affecting these countries what problems might I and my wife encounter? We will arrive by plane in Vienna, rent a car and proceed to various towns in the two countries.

You probably will encounter absolutely no problems in that regard.

Make sure that you have the vignette for the limited access highways.

Thank you Michael, that is reassuring. Yes I am aware of the vignette, and also have gotten my international drivers permit thru AAA. Appreciate your response.

Be sure you have read the T&C small prints regarding bringing a rental car from Austria into Hungary.

For example, Autoeurope mentions a rental from Austria requiring €72 additional fee payable locally, only selected vehicles are allowed, and it must be explicitly noted in the rental.

We live in Vienna and have been routinely traveling around the neighboring countries since the refugee crisis began. At the very beginning there were delays to cross borders as authorities were spot-checking vehicles. Now, we only see one or two police at the borders, if even that, and haven't had any delays.

Be certain to obtain the appropriate vignettes for Austria and Hungary. The Austrian vignette must be affixed to your windscreen immediately; the Hungarian vignette is a paper receipt that you can purchase as you near the border.

Hi,
Not so easy anymore.
While you are in Austria or Hungary, no problems at all, however border crossings can be a bit of challenging.
Just recently most of the Schengen countries introduced random (getting permanent) checks at the borders.
Recent example: last week, the Austrians stopped and checked all the cars at the Sopron-Klingenbach border crossing during rush hour in the morning. In a matter of minutes they caused a 4 miles line of cars, resulting in serious waiting times.
They repeated the same thing the very next morning.
This can happen anywhere/anytime. POSITIVE on that. It's just getting worse and I don't even mention the Brussels events.
So take it into consideration as well.
However May should be OK. There won't nightmarish hordes of Turkish and other Balkan countries Migrant workers on the highways.

Since Hungary and Austria are both in the EU and Schengen treaty as well, there are no limitations on taking your rental out and in to any of those countries.
At least if your rental company not one of the EL-Cheapo types:)

Thanks, okszi, for your input. In the last three weeks we have crossed Sopron-Klingenbach, the Nickelsdorf-Hegyshalom, and the E75 exchange near Rusovce (SK) without delays or checks of any kind. There has been nothing at the AT-SK border along the Autobahn, either, and we haven't seen "hordes" of migrants on the highways in weeks. The best advice, I presume, would be to, "Be Prepared."