Rentals for trips

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I was curious how often do you all rent a vehicle for vacations or long trips. For me, if the round trip exceeds 1000 miles, I consider it.
 
Unless we fly somewhere (I've never been on a plane), we drive our own vehicles. If I don't trust my vehicles to take me 1,000+ miles, I'll be getting rid of it for one I do.

Just looked on enterprise... a minivan rental is ~$530/week
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Yeah, I'll still drive 3000-5000 mile round trip in my own vehicle. Even if my vehicle(s) are >10yrs old, I still trust them as I've kept up on maintenance. However, we'll still rent vehicles if we get low plain fair & rental vehicle cost as compared to what it'd cost extra for hotels, fuel etc. just on the way to our destination. 10 hrs/day is about my max for driving or even being in the car.
 
A guy at work always rents something to drive on long trips. He wants to keep the miles off his cars (funny since he's a high miles driver) and if there's any car trouble 1000 miles from home a phone call brings him a new car to drive rather than try to get something fixed. He recently rented a VW something to go to a family function and since he was alone he did 8 or 9 hours straight no stops. I've rented a van to take a trip and bring my parents along but never considered it otherwise.
 
Last Monday, I drove a rental 500+ miles, on a one day rental. That day, my truck accumulated 5 miles... to the airport and back home. Car was a 2020 Dodge Charger that I nearly doubled the miles on, in one day. The keys were handed to me with 600 miles on the car.

Rental fee was $34/day with unlimited miles. Gas mileage was 30mpg for the day. My truck would have gotten 16-17mpg. The savings in gasoline alone paid for the cost of the rental. Plus, it had comforts that my truck doesn't have, such as remote start and heated seats, on a cold and blustery day.

The bonus was that the car was a white Charger. Indiana State Police uses white Chargers. People had the tendency to stay out of my way on the interstate.

So yes, when I literally get a free rental, I will always use a rental on a trip. Put the wear and tear on some else's car.

My personal record for miles on a rental car, during one 24 hour rental, stands at 900 miles. That was to go fetch a new Goldwing in Mississippi.
 
I recommend renting to EV owners that do not have another car as an option.
Sometimes it makes sense as a hedge against charging...
Plus, it can be fun to drive something different, but you have to incur the cost.
 
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For those folks who are trying to get 200,000 miles on their vehicles, renting for the longer trips makes a lot of sense. It totally gets rid of the anxiety of having a breakdown. The important thing is to have your own rental call insurance, not the rip-off package from the rental company.
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If my vehicles aren't reliable enough then I wouldn't keep them. I get the idea of renting to avoid problems but I routinely drive 100 miles from home so I kinda have to have reliable and high mpg vehicles--if I only ever drove across town I might be able to rent on the rare occasion.
 
I had an uncle who assembled a gaggle of customers all over the country.
He'd get an unlimited mileage rental and "drive the wheels off their car" when the time came to do his "circuit".
Auntie would have the use of their one car while he was on the road.
The circumstances were there so it was a no brainer......before no brainers were invented!
 
Originally Posted by gfh77665
I was curious how often do you all rent a vehicle for vacations or long trips. For me, if the round trip exceeds 1000 miles, I consider it.


When my son was a student at South Carolina my wife and rented a Fiat 500 to visit him because we were considering an Abarth.
A couple of years later we rented a Charger R/T to visit him for Thanksgiving in Charlotte, but that was just for giggles.
 
The only time I rented a car in this sort of scenario is when I was considering buying a Camaro (late '80s). had it for one day, put 250 miles on it, and decided it wasn't the car for me.

Otherwise, I drive my own vehicles, unless I fly somewhere, and then I rent at the destination.
 
Never. Like skippy said, if I don't trust my car to get me across the country and back without any worries then I'll be trading in that vehicle asap. I like the fact that I know how my car drives and maintenance-wise I've been on schedule so there's a large degree of trust that I have in my car.
 
We've been renting for a couple of years on the four trips/year we take to see our grandkids. Have paid anywhere from $160 for an Altima/Camry to $260 for an AWD SUV. Our trips run 4 days with 1,500+ miles.

My main motivation is my OCD about my cars (imagine that, here on BITOG!). I don't have to worry about rock chips dodging semis on the interstate, door dings in over crowded hotel parking lots or young kids scrambling all over the back seat while not understanding "the rules."

10 - 15 cents per mile is pretty reasonable peace of mind for us. After picking up the rental, I always adjust tire pressure, check fluids and check wipers. I've actually changed wipers and been reimbursed.
 
Always. I used to do a five hour drive to STL once a month and could snag a car for around $25 a day. The prices are higher now, but I'm still doing in. I had a three day 1100 mile trip recently. Ended up with a Q3, which was an OK car. Probably the only time I'll ever drive one.
 
When commuting a while back I was renting small but peppy rental cars to do the 400 mile round trip through the mountains of Banff and Kootenay National Parks. They were Friday afternoon to Monday morning drop-off rentals. They were really cheap as I picked them up in downtown Calgary and these cars were really meant for weekly business rentals. They were just trying to keep them from sitting all weekend.
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Nope, unless the vehicles I have are not up to the task, but with a minivan, there aren't too many taks it cannot do.

Personally I don't get the idea of saving your own daily driven vehicles. Saving them for what? Another owner, the auction lot? Because sure as heck they will not last forever and those extra long trips are not hurting anything. In actual fact, they may be a benefit for those that short trip a lot.
 
A couple times. Did it twice for road trips to GaryCon-in 2014, I didn't have a practical vehicle for 3 people and a bunch of gear at the time. 2016 we took my Crown Vic, 2018 we had 4 people and even more stuff, so rented a Caravan.
 
I trust my personal vehicles for long road trips. Have taken them both on several trips over 1500 miles each, no worries. Rentals are a matter of convenience only, when my personal vehicles are not suitable for the trip for some reason. For example, in 2 weeks I'm going to Death Valley with 6 other people. At first we were planning to take 2 of our personal vehicles, piling 4 into one and 3 into another. But when we realized these cars we'd be taking are, ahem, not very nice cars, we decided to rent a 7-passenger Dodge minivan from Enterprise for $404 including taxes, fees, and 1 additional driver. 5 day trip, unlimited mileage. Amazing rate. Gas not included
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If I have to fly I obviously rent a car, but otherwise I always drive my own vehicle no matter how long the trip is.
 
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