Help a cross country traveler

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Bflotomny

Recycles dryer sheets
Joined
Nov 2, 2015
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A new grandchild necessitates a trip from the East coast to the West Coast. Just in the planning stage now. Trip is planned for June.
I'm stuck with a question of using my personal vehicle (leased 2020 Camry) or renting. Like the idea of using my own car; familiar, comfortable, space. But I'm concerned about wear & tear on the car and the biggy for me accidental damage that would delay the trips progress and cost to me of a ripped tire from highway trash or broken suspension bad enough that it delays the trip a few days to a week.
I did some very preliminary looks at rental and it looked like $2000 for a 3 week trip. But it does provide insurance if anything should go wrong.
Any insight into how to proceed would be welcome.
 
In retirement, I've done a number of multiweek road trips from the Boston area to New Mexico, to Arizona, to the Florida keys, etc. I've driven both my Mustang convertible and my F-150. No particular problems.
And I buy new vehicles so I can wear them out, so long trips help...
 
Bflotomny said:
A new grandchild necessitates a trip from the East coast to the West Coast. Just in the planning stage now. Trip is planned for June.
I'm stuck with a question of using my personal vehicle (leased 2020 Camry) or renting. Like the idea of using my own car; familiar, comfortable, space. But I'm concerned about wear & tear on the car and the biggy for me accidental damage that would delay the trips progress and cost to me of a ripped tire from highway trash or broken suspension bad enough that it delays the trip a few days to a week.
I did some very preliminary looks at rental and it looked like $2000 for a 3 week trip. But it does provide insurance if anything should go wrong.
Any insight into how to proceed would be welcome.
Click to expand...


Take your own car.
Even if you go over the mileage limit at lease end it probably would be no where near $2000 in added fees. How is a rental going to speed up the trip any if you get a flat? Still have to deal with whatever happens on the rental as well.
 
Why not fly and rent at the airport? It's been our best bargain for longer distance traveling preCOVID. Hotels and fuel won't be cheap and you are looking at least a 4 if not 5 or 6 day, each way trip. All those hotel rooms, meals on the road, etc is a lot of exposure to disease than a 5 hour flight in my opinion.
By June, we are promised every American who wants a shot, will have a shot, so really no worries about virus. COSTCO is a great deal on car rental reservations.
 
skipro33 said:
Why not fly and rent at the airport? It's been our best bargain for longer distance traveling preCOVID. Hotels and fuel won't be cheap and you are looking at least a 4 if not 5 or 6 day, each way trip. All those hotel rooms, meals on the road, etc is a lot of exposure to disease than a 5 hour flight in my opinion.
By June, we are promised every American who wants a shot, will have a shot, so really no worries about virus. COSTCO is a great deal on car rental reservations.
Click to expand...

+1
Yes, fly and rent is cheaper and faster.
 
skipro33 said:
Why not fly and rent at the airport? It's been our best bargain for longer distance traveling preCOVID. Hotels and fuel won't be cheap and you are looking at least a 4 if not 5 or 6 day, each way trip. All those hotel rooms, meals on the road, etc is a lot of exposure to disease than a 5 hour flight in my opinion.
By June, we are promised every American who wants a shot, will have a shot, so really no worries about virus. COSTCO is a great deal on car rental reservations.
Click to expand...
I tend to agree and do this myself quite often: fly/drive.

The advantage of a roadtrip is a number of recreational sightseeing stops going and coming. I have dozens of these marked on google maps for future trips.
If you're not going to stop frequently along the way, then it could be a driving marathon...no fun...
 
The only thing I would be concerned about is the mileage limit on your lease. Can you drive ~6000 miles and stay under the limit? If so, drive the Camry.
 
$2000 for 3 weeks sounds pretty high. I just looked at a 3 week rental starting June 1 with unlimited mileage for a full size (F class) under $750 using my ex-mega-corp leisure rental cdp code.

I would look around for rental discount codes w/unlimited as an option.

I am planning a trip this early summer similar to you and will likely take my vehicle, but only because DC (who will be 19 years old) will be with me and driving, so that makes a rental much more costly. (Most won't allow under 25 and even more so under 20 drivers).
 
Not sure of your location, but pre Covid, DW and I would visit SIL and BIL near Ft. Myers in Spring and Fall. In the Fall, we would rent a car and drive to FL, and take several side trips along the way. Rental car companies are trying to reposition cars from up North to Sunbelt states for the snowbirders. Rates were extremely cheap, unlimited miles. We would use points and fly back home. In the spring, we always did the opposite, flying down, and driving back, as now they were trying to reposition cars back up North. We didn't do it last year, as there was a glut of cars in FL already. Perhaps a return to normal this spring may help you, but you would have to fly one leg of your trip.
 
You can cut your cost of a rental car almost in half if you cover the rental under your own insurance. Back when I traveled a lot and rented cars every week I had extra coverage added to my personal insurance policy for rental cars. Cost was very low for that coverage.

Only used my insurance on a rental once, when a rock hit the windshield and cracked it. The claim was covered no problem and wasn’t an issue.

I just checked and prior to adding insurance and taxes, a monthly rental for a full-size from a large national rental agency is right around $1,100.

Happy travels.
 
Although you have to be careful doing this, one way to save money is by NOT using the airport rental car places. Instead, take a taxi or Uber to an "off airport" location...this will save you all the airport fees, which can be quite hefty.

We have done this several times. There are downsides such as paying for the Uber, waiting for the Uber, if you have lots of luggage, inconvenience, etc. Another watchout is their business hours...if your flight arrives at 2 AM you might have to wait until they open at 8 AM to get your car.
 
Finance Dave said:
Although you have to be careful doing this, one way to save money is by NOT using the airport rental car places. Instead, take a taxi or Uber to an "off airport" location...this will save you all the airport fees, which can be quite hefty.

We have done this several times. There are downsides such as paying for the Uber, waiting for the Uber, if you have lots of luggage, inconvenience, etc. Another watchout is their business hours...if your flight arrives at 2 AM you might have to wait until they open at 8 AM to get your car.
Click to expand...

^This. I learned this the hard way in Tampa for a bowl game 15 months ago. Would have saved literally 30% going off site. Tampa is set up to get as much $ from tourists coming through the airport as possible.
 
We have now taken 3 trips from MI to AZ/UT in our own car. Had no problems. Highway mileage is not as wearing on a vehicle. The lease miles issue is valid though.
 
A lease would preclude the idea of a 5,000mile round trip, unless you know this is a one off and typically drive far less annual miles to absorb the slack.

Then again, unless I was planning for multiple siteseeing events along the way I can't see wanting to drive that much anywhere. I'd definitely fly and rent a car locally. The idea of facing that return trip in a car would be a non-starter for me. So I'm assuming the OP has ruled out flying for other reasons.

In that case, with all the uncertainty of a long trip, your own brand new car is probably preferable to a rental.
 
TheWizard said:
I tend to agree and do this myself quite often: fly/drive.

The advantage of a roadtrip is a number of recreational sightseeing stops going and coming. I have dozens of these marked on google maps for future trips.
If you're not going to stop frequently along the way, then it could be a driving marathon...no fun...
Click to expand...

Agree, I would fly. However, as pointed out, a road trip can involve recreation. You’re retired, if you’re willing to drive, just take your own car and take your time and enjoy the trip.

Take a look at your lease and see what your over mileage charge is. Probably a lot cheaper than renting. Also, keep in mind what a lease is - renting miles. You can always turn your car in early. For example, I used to lease cars for two years 50K miles. So if my payment was $600/mo, that’s $14,400 or about 29 cents per mile. If I drove 50K miles in 20 months, turned in my car and paid off the lease, that’s still about 29 cents per mile. Also, paying off the lease early will save a few bucks, not a lot, but there’s interest in a lease so paying off early will save a little.
 
Flying is cheaper unless you have a lot of people or a dog.
Me and the pup have driven coast to coast in a 2014 Camry three times. Plus a couple of 1500 mile trips with no issues. If you have the miles to spare on the lease it's an interesting week.
 
Bflotomny said:
A new grandchild necessitates a trip from the East coast to the West Coast. Just in the planning stage now. Trip is planned for June.
I'm stuck with a question of using my personal vehicle (leased 2020 Camry) or renting. Like the idea of using my own car; familiar, comfortable, space. But I'm concerned about wear & tear on the car and the biggy for me accidental damage that would delay the trips progress and cost to me of a ripped tire from highway trash or broken suspension bad enough that it delays the trip a few days to a week.
I did some very preliminary looks at rental and it looked like $2000 for a 3 week trip. But it does provide insurance if anything should go wrong.
Any insight into how to proceed would be welcome.
Click to expand...


You might be able to get hired to drive a car cross country if you are the enterprising type...
 
Finance Dave said:
Although you have to be careful doing this, one way to save money is by NOT using the airport rental car places. Instead, take a taxi or Uber to an "off airport" location...this will save you all the airport fees, which can be quite hefty.

We have done this several times. There are downsides such as paying for the Uber, waiting for the Uber, if you have lots of luggage, inconvenience, etc. Another watchout is their business hours...if your flight arrives at 2 AM you might have to wait until they open at 8 AM to get your car.
Click to expand...

Actually if you are in a large enough city you may find offices of the major rental cars accross the city. If near enough you could then swing by home ti pick up the luggage etc, after picking up the car. (Hertz svis etc)
 
If you’ve had your vax, fly and rent. If you haven’t had your vax, drive. This is what I’d do, and in fact did it this past September and again in November, except that we were going from AZ to ID instead of coast to coast. Even with two x 2000 mile trips, I still didn’t hit 10k miles for the whole year because we literally went nowhere and did nothing because of COVID.
 
DrRoy said:
We have now taken 3 trips from MI to AZ/UT in our own car. Had no problems. Highway mileage is not as wearing on a vehicle. The lease miles issue is valid though.
Click to expand...
As a prior auto mechanic, I can verify this is true. I would estimate a factor of about .4 for highway miles compared to city driving. City driving is especially hard on brakes, transaxles, and suspension/steering parts.

I did suspension/brake/alignment work in the late '80s for about 4 years...and the worst car conditions I ever saw were newspaper and pizza delivery people's cars.
 
1242Vintage said:
You can cut your cost of a rental car almost in half if you cover the rental under your own insurance. Back when I traveled a lot and rented cars every week I had extra coverage added to my personal insurance policy for rental cars. Cost was very low for that coverage.

Only used my insurance on a rental once, when a rock hit the windshield and cracked it. The claim was covered no problem and wasn’t an issue.

I just checked and prior to adding insurance and taxes, a monthly rental for a full-size from a large national rental agency is right around $1,100.

Happy travels.
Click to expand...

Yep, just add an inexpensive, use of non-owned car (UNOC) rider to your auto insurance:

https://www.mymoneyblog.com/state-farm-auto-insurance-rental-car-coverage.html
 
Congratulations on the birth of your grandchild!
Coast to coast round trip is quite a bit of driving. Plus cost of hotels and eating out.
My first choice would be to fly, you don't mention that.
If driving is your only choice, personally I would feel more comfortable in my own car.
If there were any breakdowns, expense on repairs would be covered by insurance on own car or rental, and the time to repair would be the same.
Safe travels, whatever your choice is, and enjoy that new baby!
 
Just a catch-up. DW is starting movement towards flying. She is still uncomfortable with the safety of flying and everyone keeping their masks on. She has mentioned reconsidering flying when we get closer to June and more people have their VAX. We both received ours recently.
We got caught last year by Covid and our annual trip to FLA. Southwest has about $1000 of our money from that canceled trip. I'm looking forward to using those funds.
We are also talking about driving back thru AZ,NM,TX,
 
When I worked, I would drive at least 1,000 miles per week on business. That's week after week. And let me just say that ultra long distance travel is very tough on drivers and passengers physically. Moving from place to place got in my head, and I was very antsy on weekends when I stopped.

When we travel long distance now, it's downright painful just getting out of the car at pit stops--with me being very, very stiff.

Coast to Coast travel is best done by airplane, and it's so much cheaper. We just booked flights to Las Vegas the end of May for $140 round trip. That's hard to top.

The price you've been quoted on the rental car is much too high. And most people don't realize that the CDW insurance rental companies sell is most often a rip because your own car's insurance usually covers rental car damages in the U.S., Canada & Mexico. Check your policy. Many also have rental car coverage on the credit cards, but I understand some big banks are dropping this benefit right away.
 
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