How Much Car Should I Buy?
The Benefits of Renting a Vehicle as Needed vs Buying another Car
Stick with me here for a moment. “Sometimes I drive to the coast”. “Sometimes I go camping”. These sound like good reasons to “sometimes” have a bigger vehicle, but do you really need to drive the Family Truckster to work every day?
I’ve been telling people for some time that they should buy the smallest, simplest car they need for weekly duties. Cheaper to buy, cheaper to repair and certainly cheaper to fuel every week. When it is time to take Grandma and Grandpa to the Grand Canyon, simply rent a larger vehicle. If you don’t need a large vehicle daily, why fund one daily – with your hard-earned money.
A rental car company will provide you with a relatively new, clean vehicle of all shapes and sizes for your trip. It’s unlikely to break down and even if it did, they would get you a replacement vehicle – and off you go, instead of interrupting your trip to find a reputable car repair shop in a strange town – or worse yet – in the middle of nowhere.
When you return – with Gummi Bears stuck to the seats, Mocha Lattes spilled on the carpet and the cargo area full of San Diego sand – you just walk away and they clean it up for you.
If you do the math, computing the difference in payments, insurance, registration and upkeep of driving more car than you need on a daily basis, you can drive something really nice on occasional trips…with money to spare.
