Comments on: Your Next Road Trip: Is it Better to Rent a Car or Take Your Own?

By: -> On Your Next Vacation Save Hundreds Of Dollars On Your Car Rental By Finding And Stacking Discounts | Bible Money Matters

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:10:59 +0000

[...] Your Next Road Trip: Is it Better to Rent a Car or Take Your Own? [...]

By: Sharon

Sharon — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:40:01 +0000

My husband and I have been discussing this very thing only with a different twist. Is it more economical to drive junkers around home (say $4000 to $5000 cars you can pay cash for ) and then rent a car for trips? We tend to drive cars/vans until they are on their last legs but not trustworthy to take out of state. We did, however, drive our 1988 Caravan from Ohio to FL once with 200,000 miles on it.

By: Samantha

Samantha — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:11:07 +0000

THANK YOU!! This actually helped a lot. These were the exact questions I have been asking. I am making a long road trip from L.A. to Phoenix to Tulsa and back again. I will be away from home for 2 months. I was worried that the wear and tear on the car would be too much as I have already taken it on long road trips. However, it’s the best little car and I get amazing gas mileage!! I take very good care of it with regular maintenance. Thank you for taking the time to break it down for us and for adding those links!! And if anyone wants a great vehicle check out the Toyota Echo. Seriously amazing gas mileage. On the highway 38mpg easy. It’s little and fits everywhere but is still roomy with a surprisingly roomy trunk for a small car. I am going to use your links to find out just how much wear and tear I will actually cause it. Thank you again!! Well written article.

By: The Carnival of Money Stories: The ‘It’s All Stories’ Edition — Almost Frugal- a frugal blog

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:02:23 +0000

[...] Money: Your Next Road Trip- Is it Better to Rent a Car or Take Your Own? My friend David asked me about his recent car rental experience and whether I thought it helped him [...]

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:29:14 +0000

Great article. I think renting is a great way to travel on vacation especially if you need a bigger vehicle than you need on a daily basis. I drive a Toyota Corolla daily that gets 33+ MPG but it’s not necessarily our first choice for a family of 4 plus our golden retriever for a long road trip. The initial buy-in, maintenance, and fuel to own and run a large vehicle daily far outweighs the rental costs when it comes to renting a larger vehicle. This very conclusion is what led me to start my own rental company but I have added the benefit of ‘going green’. I currently have a Ford F-250 truck running on BioDiesel. It’s a four door so we can fit the two car seats and the dog inside while all the luggage stays dry in the bed with a cover. I had a customer take it to New York and back earlier this spring to bring his son back from college and was very pleased. I’m in the North Dallas area if anyone needs to haul a load of lumber or take a long family road trip.

Ben
http://www.rentmybiotruck.com

By: S. B.

S. B. — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:03:57 +0000

This is a great article. As I was reading the original comments from your friend David, I was mainly struck by the line about 20 cents/mile for depreciation, as that seems to be the main contention that the rental car scenario could be cheaper. My immediate reaction was “No, that’s not right” because that’s not the correct comparison to make regarding incremental costs or savings.

His personal vehicle is still going to depreciate whether or he takes it on the trip or not. It is true that it will depreciate faster if he runs off an additional 2,500 miles, but it’s still going to depreciate even if it sits in the garage the whole year. In fact, I’d bet the “time factor” part of the depreciation equation is much bigger than the “miles factor” part of auto depreciation. However, I was perplexed at how to measure that.

I was glad to see you came to the same conclusion and took that line of thinking much further than I did. The Edmunds hack is very clever and I believe it’s actually a pretty sound approach to making a fair comparison.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:37:38 +0000

Sure, you are accounting for a theorectical deprecieation amount and I applaud you for that.

However, i can tell you from first hand experience that my 2001 Hyundai Santa Fe will depreciate far more than what Edmuinds will reflect simply because once you have large repair items, the car rapidly decreases in value on the open market. It is far more valuable to me than to anyone looking to buy it, simply because at some point, the cost of repairs will outstrip the value, forcing me to find an alternative vehicle – which becomes more costly. If my car my car only depreciates by $50 with 1000 more miles put on it according to Edmunds [and that is if I could actually get that amount for an suv in this market], but my engine blows or my ac compressor gives out and it is a 2500 repair, i am screwed. This is the opportunity cost that you haven’t figured. If I drive my car and it breaks down, my true cost for those miles is exhorbitant. With newer cars, not a big deal, with older unreliable brands, renting a car may be cheaper.

Again, I give you credit for your analysis, i just wish there were resources online to help you determine what the actual costs for the actual car you have are.

By: PT Money

PT Money — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:21:27 +0000

@Jason – I disagree that basic is bad. The difference in edmunds.com true market value is as close as you’re going to get to true cost of wear and tear. I think it’s pretty genius that I thought of that actually. I’m typically not that smart.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:49:52 +0000

Good article, however I would love to see a more scientific approach to help you determine the true cost of driving your car – specifically one that allows you to input the brand, age, existing miles, distance driving, and current condition of existing vehicle.

I think your attempt to determine the cost was good, but very basic and leaves out a lot of factors that actually impact your decision greatly…

I own a brand new Accord and an 8 yr old Santa Fe. We want to go from Phx to San Diego next month and I am trying to determine if renting is the way to go. My accord won’t hold my kid and all our stuff for her and for the beach – otherwise i would drive that more than likely [due to the fact it gets 27 mpg already and that it is under warranty]. The Santa Fe is questionable. I certainly believe that the wear and tear on that vehicle will be more damaging than that on my accord. Therefore, the cost would be vastly different. I found that I could rent a similar sized car for $540. The question is what my Santa Fe will cost me if I take it. I am not sure there is an answer for that…

By: karla (threadbndr)

karla (threadbndr) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:54:39 +0000

I’ve rented for a couple of trips just before the motomobile gave up the ghost. I’ll completely admit it was for the peace of mind. When your mechanic says “sometime in the next 10,000 miles, your transmission will give out”, you do NOT want to be halfway to Memphis at that point.

I knew that I would be buying, not repairing (since that wasn’t the only issue with my old car). And I did use the opportunity for the extended test drive. I narrowed my ‘list’ of cars to consider buying and re-ordered the list based on comfort, design convience. (Little things like controls, cup holders, sound system are not deal breakers, but given two vehicles with similar mileage, value, tax and insurance stats, I’ll buy the more comfortable, better appointed one.)