It's a load of fun. You should definitely get a car. Adjusting to the other side is no big deal. Many of the rental cards are standard transmissions.

Make sure you know how to deal with roundabouts before hitting the road (you yield to traffic already inside the roundabout). The rest is a piece of cake and a lot of fun. The speed limits are in mph, but don't seem to be enforced on the motorways outside the big cities. If you're someone who is lazy and hangs out in the fast lane, this won't go over well in Europe -- and you should be ashamed of yourself.

The other drivers are much more capable than in America, which makes the whole thing a lot more pleasant.

You simply can't match the freedom of having your own vehicle, even though the train system is pretty good. If you want to get somewhere out of the way, you'll be spending more on taking taxis from train stations than you would renting your own car anyhow. Except in the big cities (where they have good public transit), the train only stops in one place.

Finally, find out if your employer has a corporate agreement with one of the major rental companies, and then make the reservation using their corporate code. This could save you a very significant amount of money.

While I'm carrying on, here's one last tip: get yourself some currency for your destination before you leave. I bring about $200 in local currency so I have cash in my pocket and don't need to deal with airport currency exchange, which is a major screw-job. Put all your expenses on credit cards if possible, which gets you the market exchange rate with most cards. That and the $200-500 in cash you bring with you and you'll avoid the ridiculous 5%+ vig.

FWIW,

Jim