Anyone have experience with renting a car for at least 30 days or longer, yet still have what you would consider reasonable rates? I will have some family flying in and staying for a few weeks, and being my "extra" vehicle doesn't fit their needs, I'd like to help find them a decent ride. A basic 4 seat passenger car with auto trans and air conditioning would pretty much do it. Is there a rental car equivalent of PriceLine or Zhivago?
3-6k carmax car, then resell back to them? might break even if you do it right.
-J0N
Priceline does in fact do car rental
IIRC Kayak does car rental as well. IIRC car rental rates go up significantly if you rent over something like 4 weeks. Might be a good idea to break the rental into multiple subrentals. Say, change the car every 2-3 weeks.
Try to rent from and return to a neighborhood location. If you rent from an airport or similar you will often be hit with additional "tourist" taxes which can be as much as $15 per day.
Where? I have a car you could buy for cheaper than that if you're in Chicagoland
Priceline. I've gotten a couple good deals for two and three weeks it doesn't hurt to try for more.
jmthunderbirdturbo wrote: 3-6k carmax car, then resell back to them? might break even if you do it right. -J0N
Caution.
Where I live on Ohio, a car purchase will cost you 7% in sales tax. On a $5k purchase that would mean $350 in sales tax. Even if you could sell it back for $5,000 (good luck) but you'd not likely sell it back for 7% more than retail purchase.
In addition, if you own the VIN, it will require its own insurance policy.
If you were to rent for $15 per day ($450 per month) your sales tax commitment of 7% would be $31.50 and the car could ride on your existing insurance policy.
I would try Priceline with a second to smallest car for $12 per day ($360 per month).
In dealing with this frequently, I'll say the best bet is just go to Enterprise, Budget, etc... and see who gives you the best price. They all do 30 day contracts...they have many customers who rent vehicles for 6+ months, so it's nothing new to them. You'll often get a discount rate for a monthly rental as opposed to daily.
We are currently wandering around Arizona for 28 days with a rental from Budget via Priceline. The whole process went off without a hitch, although I'll reserve judgement until we return it. My only other observation is that if they offer you a "Chevy" Sonic, run away! :(
In reply to Turboeric:
If you genuinely do not like the Sonic, try this...
Stop into any Budget office. Be quit honest with them and let then know you are not comfortable in the Sonic.
The day you picked it up, they gave you a car that fit your order. You might find that when you revisit, they will have something else that fits your order.
Be clear to them that you are not dropping a problem off on them, just uncomfortable. Try to have the Sonic as clean as possible which thereby makes it easy for them to put the Sonic back out on the road.
Be clear that you want no changes to your price/terms and all should be good. Most places will do this if they have a car available at least this was my experience in years past when I used to be in a rental car for about 26 weeks a year.
Isn't there an Air BnB for cars? People can rent our their own personal cars through an App? Mostly for desirable cars, but who knows? Maybe someone has a 4-Door Cobalt on there for $5 a week.
Costco has good deals for members.
maybe look at swap a lease or one of the lease transfer services. you might be able to find one with only a month or 2 left that someone does not need anymore.
There's Turo and Getaround, car sharing/rental apps, that you could try out.
I would NOT want to take on the end of someone's lease. You could find yourself liable for thousands of dollars in repairs the dealer might require at lease end to bring it to acceptable condition.
A co-worker drives 200 miles a day (long commuter) and hasn't owned a car for several years. She rents by the month, has a friend in the business, and pays something like $300 a month. She always has a new car, doesn't pay for insurance, does zero maintenance. All in it actually seems like a pretty sweet gig. I assume cultivating the right friendship is the tricky part but otherwise....she's driven Cadillacs, Camaros, Buicks, and more not just the econobox dregs.
In reply to KyAllroad:
That's brilliant. I need to make a friend in rent a cars.
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