Driving a car as a U.S. citizen visiting Germany

It's me again, US citizen planning on living in Germany for 3 months (as a tourist).

I realize the public transportation is great in Europe and automobile fuel costs are very very expensive but I was really hoping to buy a car or motorcycle over there for some ease of sightseeing and traveling with the baby and just in general. I am a car nut and have seen vehicles that suit by purposes between 200-500 Euros and I can maintain them etc. So my main questions are:
1. Can a US citizen own a car in Germany?
2. Do you use titles or something similar as the US and can I apply right through a German DMV (is there such a thing?) and do I need to get Auto Insurance before going to the DMV (which is the way it works here).
3. Will I be able to get German Auto insurance as a US citizen and do you have any idea if it's super expensive or similar to US prices (max US price I've seen for 3 months is $600 US)?
4. Will I even be able to legally drive in Germany? I have a NY US 'DM' liscense (motorcycle and car) and have read about International Liscenses that I should be able to get valid for 1 year right from a German Consulate in the US by having a valid US driver's liscense. Is this needed and will it cause me any issues when presented to the DMV or an officer? That is, can I get by with just my US liscense (does Germany or other Europe countries recognize it) and even if they do, are there benefits to getting the International Liscense and what exactly is involved, how long the wait, do I do it before I leave for Germany, etc, etc, etc.
5. Is there a road test or primer I could take at the consulate or in Germany/Europe (is all Europe ISO standard?) to get familiar with different road laws and road signs.
6. What about safety laws, are car seats required, are they required in the backseat, facing forward or back? What about seat belts?
7. Will a car be worth it? Can my Germany VISA, International Driver's liscense and US Passport allow me to visit every country in Europe? Will there be exceptions where it will be illegal to drive and where I may require a Visa application before entering the particular country, etc. If you have a list of such things that'd be prefered, I'd really like to see as much as I can, the main spots I know we'd really like to see are Greece, Italy, Belgium and Denmark but I would really like to get to Norway and Sweden if I can too.

Thanks so much for bearing with me with this question, I have not seen it asked anywhere on the internet and cannot reach my local German consulate for whatever reason (see my other thread for that). Besides the answers to the above, let's see a show of hands for who thinks I'm crazy for wanting to buy a car for 3 months and deal with heavy gas prices :-) . I'm not too worried about selling a car I only have a few hundred Euros into on the cheap and my fiance and I know a couple Germany friends (that were exchange students in the US) that I could probably give it to. Besides I really want to drive on the Nurburgring at least once.

Again I am sorry for the crazy length of these questions and if I'm against the forum rules in some way or you can think of a better board in the forum to post on please let me know. Also if you want to practice German or offer to show me whatever particular city you're in or whatever, I'm a true sightseeing tourist that would like to see everything the way it is from the non-tourist side. Also I don't speak any German, my fiance has 3 years of it, I have 0 and am along for the ride :-).

Thanks!,
Chris

Save yourself the hassle and rent a car!

Belated April fool's? the name "itjstagame" seems like a give-away

Driving in Germany ...

Its the car thats insured over here usually.

Ok, so the one site made it clear that US driver's liscense is OK for 6 months. Any idea how surrounding countries look on this?

Looks like owning is fairly straightforward and so is insurance (I'll just shop some companies when I get there). So the only hassles left are make sure it has a valid TUV inspection for 3 months (or can pass one) and standing in queue at the TUV to register and making sure I have a caution triagle and first aid kit.

Also renting cars is really really expensive, especially for 90 days. To me it looks like the only hassle to deal with is the TUV registration and I can find good running cars (one offered by a friend of mine) for 300-400 euro.

Am I missing anything?

I had a quick glance through miwild's link and it doesn't seem to mention that you will need to have a registered address here. If you're planning to flit about from hotel to hotel then I can't see anyway that you will be able to register the car. Cars are registered in the town/city that the owner lives and get a numberplate specific to that place. If you move the car has to be re-registered so I can't see how you could buy a car and be of "no fix abode". Maybe I've missed something in your plans, but without a fixed address I can't see how you could do this.

Thank you for the reply. You're right I didn't see mention of that, do you know how the address is used, will anything be sent there? My fiance is going to college at Uni Wurzburg so we will have an apartment in Wurzburg for 3 months. Will a short lived address like that be sufficient? What if the apartment is only available from May 15th on but I want to register on May 2nd, do they need to verify that it's my address somehow or mail me anything immediately to get registered?

The car is just for weekend traveling so I won't really be hotel hopping, just staying in the odd one every other weekend or so. I will probably not have the money for a hotel after paying for fuel anyway so any trips we do may just be absurdly long day trips back to Wurzburg at night. I have no idea though, no real 'plans' fleshed out.

So, any suggestions for good times or how long the queue times are at the Autozulassungsstelle? And anyone know for sure they'll let me register with an apartment address and US driver's liscense? Everything I've read says it'll allows me to drive and own a car, so I was just kind of 'assuming' the registration part. And lastly, any suggestion on Insurance companies to look at that might be more geared toward expats (or current pats) and would care about my US driving record and give a good rate, etc. Or can someone offer a 'normal' ish rate for 3 months of fair coverage with normal numbers but not comprehensive, so I have a point of comparison for a 'good price'?

Thank you for your suggestions you have all been very helpful.

If you have an address you should be ok, but you will need to be registered as living there. You'll need your registration papers to register the car. The insurance people would send stuff to the address, but the car papers will be sorted out at the car registration place,get there very early, it can take forever. The most important thing with German car insurance is proving how many years you have been driving accident free. So you need a letter from your US insurance stating that you have been driving for x number of years without a claim. The more years the better otherwise you'll start off as a beginner and that will cost you!