I second this. I rent cars between 5 and 20 weekends a year, and have been doing this for about 6 years. It works out fine. The car is always in perfect condition, and it is not that expensive. It is true though that some trips that do not reach the importance threshold don't happen.
I do a lot of 600-1000 trips. I definitely prefer to rent. Driving long distances messes up your car, especially the interior. But, usually I’m going some place for many weeks and renting is too expensive.
Rent a car for the weekend? It's like $50/day, so only $3k/yr to do it once a day per week. (Not factoring in the added cost of gas, or the discounts you can get by regularly renting a car and getting your own non-owner insurance)
Wouldn't it be cheaper to rent a car if you're only going to use it once a week or so? I mean, with the payment itself, plus insurance, plus gas, regular maintenance, is it worth the price?
Cars can be rented for weekend trips. It depends on the math of your specific situation, but if you have to pay for parking you'd probably come out ahead just renting a car for a couple days the ~12 times a year or so that you need to drive out of town.
I know multiple people that own a car and will rent something for long trips. A lot of that is for peace of mind and being able to rent exactly what they need. Peace of mind is they don't worry the car will break down. And they can rent a car that is large enough or small enough for that particular trip. One trip it's them for a weekend. Other trip it's them and four other people for a week.
I've noticed that people that do this tend not to be 'car people'
If you are going to be driving a considerable distance (500-700 miles) in a short amount of time (such as a long weekend trip), renting a car makes sense. I have done so a few times, at a cost of barely more than $100 each time.
I've switched to renting cars for large mile trips. Unlimited mileage rentals are so cheap it's worth it to avoid wear and tear even on my older car or my girlfriend's nicer vehicle--and removes the risk of my old car breaking down in an inconvenient place. Last rental was an SUV for $65/week that I put hundreds of miles on. Some of the rentals I have put 1k+ miles on for <$100.
By my calculation, my car (including running costs) comes down to about 300 eur/month assuming I keep it for 5 years and get at least 1000 eur back when I sell or scrap it. (Reality: I'll probably get more out of it, or keep it longer)
Rentals start at around 28eur/day, so if I rented one every weekend (saturday+sunday), that'd be 224 eur plus fuel. Hardly cheaper.
Of course I don't travel every weekend, but when I do, it's more likely to be friday+saturday+sunday, and I do make week-long trips (and longer) a few times a year so it balances out, more or less.
Owning a car means I don't worry about making reservations, fetching and returning the vehicle, etc. It's always near the door, and I can go on a whim if a sudden need comes up, like it did just today.
Yeah, if you get unlimited miles, it makes A LOT of sense to rent. I've done weekend trips covering 1000km and wondered that I should have rented for the weekend because it would be more economical to put the meterage on vehicle that isn't my own. Plus if I have a mechanical issue, it's the rental companies problem, not mine.
More like a couple times a year for me. It sound viable, but it really isn't because the cost is so high - it is cheaper to have a (used) car that works for everything than to spending $800 to rent a car for a week. I visit family out of range of an electric car for many holidays - cheaper to buy a car just for those trips and park it than rent a car for those trips!
I'm not against renting a car, but it is far too expensive in practice to do for a regular vacation.
When I rent a car it’s reliability. I don’t need one very often, when I do I fill in the form, pay £20 a day plus £10 for delivery/collection and the car is dropped off at my house and picked up when I return it.
Not all subscriptions are frivolous, but some are less essential to fulfilling your everyday life than others. The company you're renting the car from is keenly aware the value of cars may diminish with time-- the risk is built into the cost.
I'm curious, what's the point of renting 300 cars in a year? Why not just buy a car? That's close to renting a car daily, no? Unless you're flying to different places and renting cars there every day?
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