Over 300 Miles - Rent a car
Yesterday, I caught part of a conversation that could turn out to be a money saver.
The men in conversation were talking about a study that revealed that it is cheaper to rent a vehicle on a drive of more than 300 miles.
Evidently, when wear and tear is calculated on your vehicle in comparison to the cost of a rental car, it is a better deal to rent.
I have never heard this before. I find it fascinating. How could paying money to rent a car, be a cash savings? After all, what does it cost to jump in your personal vehicle and go to visit family? When planning a family drive to my Dad's in Michigan, which is over 300 miles one way, renting a car never even crossed my mind.
Just how do they calculate the savings - oil life, rubber wear, the depreciable cost of a high mileage car???? What could this amount too?
Oil less than $20 ever 4 months or so - about $5 a month. How much could does one trip really cost. Plus it is road miles, everyone knows that this is better for a car than city driving.
Rubber Tire Wear - I guess we change tires roughly every 50k miles or so. About a year and a half for me. Last time, my tires cost about $450. So, that's about $18 dollars a month.
As far as depreciation, my vehicle is a high road miles vehicle, I doubt depreciation is going to take a bite sizable enough for me to notice.
Have rent-a-car's gotten that cheap? $23, $50, $100.
What am I missing? I just don't see the benefit of a rental. Where is the savings? Have any of you heard this? Can you point me somewhere to read up?
2 comments:
I have heard that it costs approximately $0.53 per mile to operate your car including gas, oil, wear and tear. I think this number depends heavily on the type of car that you drive.
But if it is true, a 300 mile trip would cost $159. You can easily find a rental for $20-$30/day depending on location and demand. So, if it is a two or three day trip, this may actually make sense.
Then again, you are including fuel in your $0.53 per mile, as far as I can recall, when you rent a car, you still pay for this.
I would estimate fuel to be the largest portion of that mile cost - don't you think?
So, if I pay $2.75 a gallon and get 24 miles to the gallon this is about $0.11 per mile - correct? So then, the cost would be $0.42 per mile. or $126 for a 300 mile trip.
I also venture to guess, and I do not rent cars, that a weekday rental would be cheaper than a weekend. Playing a bit with the numbers as well.
Anyway, thanks for posting. Your $0.53 starting point was necessary for my brain to figure this out.
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