Sure we could move if it was a huge issue, but the low cost of living, small town atmosphere, and ou

After playing revolving automobiles for most of our adult working lives, we finally realized that buying or trading tom cruise war of the worlds cars every few years is not a wise use of money. Sure the new car smell is great, but there is really no smell that is worth sacrificing our goals of financial independence. With that in mind, Jim and I are determined tom cruise war of the worlds to keep driving our current vehicles until it doesn t make financial sense to do that or one of them dies a permanent death. Our cars are getting older, though, and my question today is whether or not it makes sense and/or saves money to rent a car for long road trips.
Since we live in rural America, we drive a lot! There is absolutely no public transportation where we live unless you are a senior citizen who needs to go to the doctor. We don t really live close to any major cities, with Denver, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City all being about 7 hours away. Albuquerque is the closest major airport, but it s still a 4 hour drive to get there.
Sure we could move if it was a huge issue, but the low cost of living, small town atmosphere, and outdoor recreation are some of the reasons we choose to live here. We do like to travel during school breaks, though, and it usually makes more sense to drive. We like to visit southern California at least once a year. To fly out of the local regional airport, it generally costs $1200-$1500 for the three of us. Since it s only a 12 hour drive, it doesn t save much time to travel to a major airport either.
Currently, we have my 2008 Altima with almost 120,000 tom cruise war of the worlds miles and Jim s Toyota Tacoma with about 125,000 miles.  We also have an old beater Civic with 205,000 miles that Jim drives locally. His job requires travel between four school districts. He gets reimbursed tom cruise war of the worlds for mileage at the standard rate of 56 cents per mile, so if the weather is good, the Civic is a much better return on investment than the truck.
I expect our main vehicles to last for at least another 100,000 miles, but I also expect more problems. We already tom cruise war of the worlds had one breakdown on the way home from a business trip this past summer. I realize any car can break down, but the older a vehicle gets, I feel it s more likely to have problems.
Jim has a couple of trips to Denver next month for work. He can either drive his own vehicle and get reimbursed for mileage, or his employer will rent a car and pay for gas. Denver is 425 miles one way. If we add another 3o miles for in city transit, that makes a round trip of  about 880 miles.  If he drives the Altima, gas would cost around $95, and he would get reimbursed $492. On the surface we would make a profit. However, it does put wear and tear on the car. We wouldn t pocket anything if he gets a rental, but we aren t risking a breakdown or wearing out tires on our car either.
We are planning a spring break trip to San Diego. A rental car would cost around $200 unless I can find a killer deal. We actually have broken down in a rental car before. Breaking down is never fun. You sometimes have to wait hours for someone to come find you, but with a rental, the tow truck driver brought us a new car. We took off in the new rental, while he hooked up the broken one. We never had to deal with finding a repair shop or paying tom cruise war of the worlds for service.
Our car might make 20 more trips to San Diego without incident, but if it does break down, we would be forced to find someone to fix it. We could be stuck in some really fun town like Bumble Bee, AZ or Calexico, CA. Worst case scenario is that we d still have to rent a car and wait for a part to come in, after which we d have to go reclaim our car.
I can hear the arguments from our care free spending tom cruise war of the worlds days now. My Mom has already started telling me that we need do get a new car. If ours isn t reliable for long trips, it s time to trade it in. I am not falling for it.
Even if we rent a car once a year for a vacation at $200 or even $300, it s still tons cheaper than buying tom cruise war of the worlds a whole new car. Our cars are perfectly fine for local or short trips. I am just questioning the wisdom of long distance travel with cars that are getting on up there in miles. Of course, I ve never had a car with this many miles since the old Pontiac I drove in high school, but it certainly didn t need to go on any road trips! Maybe it s perfectly fine to take a 12 hour trip in a car with 120,000 miles and I m just conditioned to think otherwise.
Rent a car! I used to be faced with this very same question when I drove more for business trips. At first I always took my own car and just got reimbursed. But then what happens is that all the things you wouldn t normally tom cruise war of the worlds expect to break start not working tom cruise war of the worlds very quickly. Plus your car (even if it does have a few years or miles on it) just starts to get really old really fast! After about a year and putting some numbers on paper, I said forget it! Now I rent a car every time.
120k miles doesn t seem like alot, but if he has to go to Denver 5-6 times a year, we ll be up into high miles before long. I think the rental does make the most sense, but I think he decided to take the car.
After we switch down to 1 car, we ll probably rent cars a few times per year without hesitation. tom cruise war of the worlds If Jim s really worried about something happening on the trip, then go ahead and rent in good conscience. tom cruise war of the worlds But if you guys want to push it and try for the reimbursement maybe pay a good mechanic to give it a once over and make sure there s nothing urgent before he goes. The mileage reimbursement would easily pay for that =)
The thing is that he never worries. I m the worry wart. It might have something to do with my lack of knowledge in anything mechanical, but he would probably set off for cross country in whatever car was available.
tom cruise war of the worlds My wife and I both drive really old cars I have a 1996 Honda. She has a 2001 Grand Prix. We don t take many trips out of town, but we have made a few in the 3-4 hour range. tom cruise war of the worlds The last few times, we ended up back home with a costly repair bill, because the road trip inevitably broke something loose or caused a leak or some other maintenance issue that was setting us back a hundred dollars or more.
So a few months ago, we switched to rental cars for any of our out-of-town trips. It works out to be a little pricier upfront even though the new model rental cars get phenomenal gas mileage, there are extra fees to account for but we get free roadside assistance, and if the car were to break down, they ll bring us a new car and let us go on our way. No need to spend half your vacation sitting in a mechanic s waiting room.
It also has got the advantage of letting us test drive a wide variety of models (without having a salesman breathing down your neck), since we re planning on replacing one of our cars in the next year or so. We ve already decided tom cruise war of the worlds that we hate the Ford Focus, are okay with the Chevy Cruze, love the Nissan Sentra, and the Mazda 3 was a ton of fun to drive, but has some tricky maintenance issues.
I can see how an older vehicle gives you hesitation when going on a long trip. Ours are getting up there in years as well. I take renting a car on trips/vacations from a different perspective it s part of the fun of the trip. Driving a different vehicle somehow makes the trip more exciting. And the kids love it.
It sounds like having tom cruise war of the worlds Jim s employer pay for his trip would be a good option. I also have never thought about renting a car for a long drive for vacation definitely an interesting idea! Both our cars are pretty tom cruise war of the worlds unreliable and I would be hesitant to driving it for longer trips like visiting my relatives in Des Moines 4 hours away.
I think Jim should just rent a car. It is a long trip as you said, so using another car can be a better option for him because older cars tend to have more problems when it gets used too much for too long, just like any old car.
We did exactly tom cruise war of the worlds this going to FINCON this year ..we rented a car for $200 for that we got peace of mind that we had a more reliable vehicle as we drove across the country, and less wear and tear on our aging vehicle. I d definitely do it again!
I ve rented a car in Miami for $20 a day. I d do it the hybrid way: rent a $20 car, and pocket the $300-odd profit. But if I had a conscience, I would rent the car, it is a lot of miles to put on an old car.
They have a van that will come pick you up if you are over 65 and on Medicare if you are going to a doctor s appointment. It doesn t cost the patient money, but Medicare reimburses the car service. That s all we have here.
My vote is to rent a car for long family trips. Peace of mind, plus you don t add the wear and tear to your vehicles. Tougher call on Jim s trip. Assuming he never loses cell reception on his trip and his car runs well, I would probably drive my car and put the reimbursement money towards my new car fund/repair old car fund.
My car is over 10 years old with over 240k miles on it. It is a camry and I try to keep it properly maintained at all times. I really don t want to get a new car since this one is still good but I will have to start shopping for one soon especially since I do a lot of driving.
I vote for the rental. I just drove my wife over to Utah and I commented that we should have a rented a car. Last time I rented a car, it cost $67 one way. That s a lot of miles to keep off your vehicle tom cruise war of the worlds for a low cost. I did that last minute, so I didn t even have a chance to try and get it lower.
We thought about going the rental route before our trip to Texas last summer but we ended up buying a new car just before the trip.. the timing just worked out, as our family of five was bulging at the seams in our old vehicle.
I m team rent-a-car too. Seems like the more practical option and could save a lot of money in the long run. You could do a spin-off post about the up-sales they try to get you with when renting and whether or not to take the renter s insurance!
Also, the vacation rental is smart. If you can get a great weekly rate for a rental with unlimited miles, tom cruise war of the worlds the $200-$300 you spend on the rental is no