Rent car or drive car?

pete6032

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2010
7,949
3,442
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I need to make an 850 mile round trip over Thanksgiving. It would cost me $275 to rent a car and drive including gas round trip, or I could drive my own car round trip for $100. My car has 140,000 miles on it and is very reliable and gets about 30-40 MPG highway. A rental car would get the same, so I figure gas will be $100 regardless of what car I drive.

It's no extra hassle getting to the car rental place.

Which would you pick?
 
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Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
30,890
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126
tagged -- Interested in seeing responses as I will have a bunch of longer road-trips this summer for baseball tournaments and debating on renting vs driving my own car.
 

NoTine42

Golden Member
Sep 30, 2013
1,387
78
91
I'd only rent if it were for a specific feature, size or some expense book advantage to the rental.

I guess I would also rent if my car needed a repair (like brakes are low) and you couldn't schedule the time.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have a problem taking my 133k or 150k vehicle on that trip.
 

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
42,808
83
91
I'd only rent if it were for a specific feature, size or some expense book advantage to the rental.

I guess I would also rent if my car needed a repair (like brakes are low) and you couldn't schedule the time.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have a problem taking my 133k or 150k vehicle on that trip.
+1

I've rented cars for similar trips, but only because my car at the time wasn't the most reliable (it wasn't outright unreliable, but it was a 10 year-old car with enough quirks that I didn't want to find myself stranded on a 1-lane mountain road in Middle of Nowhere PA)
 

Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
30,890
5,001
126
+1

I've rented cars for similar trips, but only because my car at the time wasn't the most reliable (it wasn't outright unreliable, but it was a 10 year-old car with enough quirks that I didn't want to find myself stranded on a 1-lane mountain road in Middle of Nowhere PA)

"You sure got a purty mouth...."
<banjos>
 

Kelvrick

Lifer
Feb 14, 2001
18,422
5
81
I've done a lot of both. It is nice being comfortable in your own car, but it is also nice not giving a fuck about what happens to the rental car. If anything goes wrong, you just get a new one. Business purposes, I almost always rent just to accrue rewards points. My next personal rental is for a week from 12/22/15 through 12/29/15 and is only costing me $156.23 for a midsized through Avis.

My car takes premium and only gets like 24mpg highway though, so going to a 30-40mpg car that takes regular is nice.
 

kt

Diamond Member
Apr 1, 2000
6,031
1,346
136
Drive your own car. Another 1k mile isn't going to hurt the car.
 

jlee

Lifer
Sep 12, 2001
48,518
223
106
I would drive my own car unless a rental was exceptionally more appropriate/comfortable.
 

SearchMaster

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2002
7,791
114
106
I'd probably drive my own car just because it's a hassle otherwise (picking up the car beforehand, making sure it's full of gas afterward, then returning it). At this point accumulating miles on your car means very little in terms of resale value.
 
Dec 10, 2005
27,480
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If it is a long trip, you may be wary of renting. One car I rented for a long trip a few years ago didn't have cruise control. It had a fucking dashboard water-bottle chiller but no cruise control.
 

wabbitslayer

Senior member
Dec 2, 2012
533
1
76
OP, how are you calculating the cost of the rental? Does it include mileage?
The "unlimited mileage" you get with most rental companies is only valid for the state you rent the car in and any adjoining state. Plan on getting whacked if the GPS unit in the car shows it was taken out of that area.

May not be an issue b/c 850 miles for the round trip isnt' that far. I inquored about a rental a couple of years ago for a 2000 mile round trip and the cost was ridiculous.
 

DrPizza

Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Mar 5, 2001
49,601
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www.slatebrookfarm.com
Under the assumption of similar gas mileage, my own car. I'd rather drive that far in something I was more comfortable and familiar with. Nothing sucks more than being in an unfamiliar car and realize you don't know how to operate the wipers - not that you can't figure it out, but that things like that aren't automatic with very little thought.

However, my car is a big truck. 850 miles is nearing where I might just consider a rental car in order to keep the miles off my truck and possibly even save a little money.
 

gamefreakgcb

Platinum Member
Sep 2, 2004
2,354
0
76
OP, how are you calculating the cost of the rental? Does it include mileage?
The "unlimited mileage" you get with most rental companies is only valid for the state you rent the car in and any adjoining state. Plan on getting whacked if the GPS unit in the car shows it was taken out of that area.

May not be an issue b/c 850 miles for the round trip isnt' that far. I inquored about a rental a couple of years ago for a 2000 mile round trip and the cost was ridiculous.

??? I've never ever had this happen or heard anything about this. Its either an unlimited rental or limtied mileage. I have hear about keeping it in the country you rent, but never a limit on which states to drive. Heck, I took a one way rental from Montreal to NYC.
 

dullard

Elite Member
May 21, 2001
25,765
4,291
126
It depends on the car you drive. Often the wear/tear, extra depreciation, etc. is less than 15 cents per mile (unless you have some expensive or exotic car). This includes lost tire tread, chance of a windshield chip, chance of an accident, chance of breaking parts, lower resell value, sooner oil changes, sooner maintenance work, etc.

I drive a lot (about 30,000 miles per year on my car alone and probably another 5000+ per year on my wife's car) and have done the calculations several times on several different types of cars over the years. My cars run closer to 10 cents per mile but I tend to drive cheaper cars to operate.

So $0.15/mile * 850 miles = $127.50. If the rental costs more than $127.50, it likely isn't a good choice. That is, unless you get extra value from the rental (such as the ability to carry more people that must go, etc.) In your example, the rental costs $175 more than driving your own, so it probably isn't worth it. But heck, if you get $50 of enjoyment out of renting the car, do it.

Adjust the $0.15/mile as you see fit for your own vehicle, but at least it gives you a reasonable guess. And remember if an 850 mile trip causes your engine to die, it was probably going to die anyways. You can't just think of the worst case scenario and assume it only applies to this one trip. You need to use average costs for an average trip.
 
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M0oG0oGaiPan

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2000
7,858
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0
digitalgamedeals.com
if you think the wear and tear is worth the $175 or you wanted something more comfortable. My friends did that for some trips to VT.

in vegas there was only like 4 states you could drive the rental to so there can be limitations. ut, az, na, ca?
 

Phoenix86

Lifer
May 21, 2003
14,644
10
81
Drive own unless you wanted something sportier for fun, or bigger for storage or the like.

Easy decision.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
69,733
13,351
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www.betteroff.ca
I think I'd rent. It's kinda like an insurance too as if anything happens to the car the cost is not on you, and think they even have some kind of road side assistance where they'll come and give you a new car, but I'm not positive on that. Generally for the service you get renting a car is pretty cheap.

Though for that distance I'd fly before driving, personally. Flying has become so cheap now that I find it's worth it. Here it used to be over a grand just to leave the local airport never mind the next connecting flight. Now it's a bit over 100 bucks thanks to Porter giving Air Canada some competition. There's something awesome about being able to be in Toronto within an hour instead of 8.
 
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