Rent a Car or Drive Own Vehicle?

[thlarock]

Hi all,

Trip planned for May, driving from NJ. Trying to decide if I should spring for a rental car or just drive my own vehicle. I currently own a Hyundai Santa Fe that will have around 65,000 miles by May. Pluses I see of renting is less wear and tear on my vehicle and lower mileage vehicle. Minus of renting of course would be cost. Pluses of my vehicle, lower cost and more familiar with my vehicle (comfort - I am tall so that is consideration as well). Minus of my vehicle wear and tear, possibility of something like a breakdown happening.

Thoughts?

Thx - Tom

 

[Stacybaeasm]

I personally prefer to drive my own car instead of a rental whenever I can (I travel for my school a lot and we go back and forth over whether I need to use a fleet vehicle.) Yes, it's wear and tear on my car BUT I know my car. I am comfortable with my car. And I never worry about if I have enough insurance on the rental to cover an accident. Just my two cents.

 

[redheadk]

We only rent a car if we need to do so for space. I have a mid-size SUV and it is not enough room to travel with our dogs if we are bringing them. If we are bringing them on vacation with us, we rent a minivan. If we don't need the space, we bring our own vehicle if roadtripping.

 

[Stratman50th]

We did the MD to Disney run once-twice a year for many years. Always used our own vehicle. I guess it boiled down to comfort, convenience, I knew my vehicle. Never even dawned on me to rent. Cost wise, I don't know but it seemed like I would be paying a car payment for a car I didn't own, the rental for one trip in addition to paying for one I did. (Actually we owned our cars outright-no payment but the premise is the same).

 

[sam_gordon]

I would only rent a car if my car was WAY up on mileage and I was worried it might not make the trip. 65K miles (IMO) is basically nothing and I'd have no problem using my vehicle. Heck, we've made the trip to Florida (13 hours one way) in our Siennas with 150K+ miles on them.

 

[OKW Lover]

Stick with your own car. With 65K miles on it you should be in good shape as long as it's been properly maintained. The drive from NJ to WDW and back should be about 2K miles - just a blip in your total miles.

 

[EACarlson]

I've paid to rent a car for a road trip when I didn't trust any of the vehicles I had at the time. A vehicle with 65,000 unless you have some serious issues I would be driving and not even thinking about it. If you break down, then you rent a car for the rest of the trip and deal with it.

 

[Mikey15]

Just took my car from <40k to >42k miles driving from Ontario to WDW and back. This was our first time driving, but if you're driving anyway, renting just wouldn't cross my mind. For us, no small part of the decision to drive instead of fly was to avoid the cost of a rental while down there.

You know your own car. You know it's maintained (if it's not, that's a separate issue). Meanwhile I've had rental cars with tire issues, needing fills every couple of days for air leaks, sidewall bulges from renters hitting potholes, bald rear tires on a rear-drive SUV (all fine until it rains!). Your own car won't surprise you with that; won't try to ding you with fees for using their transponder; won't try to nickle & dime you on insurance coverage...

 

[_19disnA]

Unless this is a lease vehicle where you are going to exceed your mileage allotment, I would prefer to use my own vehicle. My guess is if you already have 65,000 miles, it is not a lease vehicle. The cost to rent is likely much more then any incremental depreciation to your existing vehicle. I agree as others have mentioned, driving your own vehicle you know how well it has been maintained and how the various features work. Even when renting from one of the major companies have occasionally had 'issues' over the years with cars that were obviously not very well maintained. People renting vehicles likely don't treat them as their own so there is generally a lot more wear/tear on them. The only other time it would make sense to rent would be if none of your vehicles are large enough for the number of people/luggage going on that particular trip.

 

[disneyseniors]

We did the MD to Disney run once-twice a year for many years. Always used our own vehicle. I guess it boiled down to comfort, convenience, I knew my vehicle. Never even dawned on me to rent. Cost wise, I don't know but it seemed like I would be paying a car payment for a car I didn't own, the rental for one trip in addition to paying for one I did. (Actually we owned our cars outright-no payment but the premise is the same).

We are thinking of doing the same, We live in N, Minnesota and are planning to drive to Orlando, with stops with relatives along the way. We will rest up and recharge our batteries for a few days at my brother's in Tennessee, and stop to see a cousin in Cape Coral, Florida for a day. Then off to Orlando to stay at Universal.
I suggested we fly into Tampa and rent a car, but my husband vetoed that. He would rather drive our car and take our time. We are retired so time isn't a problem for us.
I'm surprised so many who live far away like us drive their own cars.

 

[Stratman50th]

I'm surprised so many who live far away like us drive their own cars.

Those drives made for good memories, but I must admit we live about 30 minutes from Orlando now.

 

[loveswdw]

We are in the camp that rents when we drive. We don't like to put the extra miles on our vehicles. For fall break, we took a trip to Hilton Head Island, SC. We live close to Louisville, KY so it's a decent drive from here. Ended up that our neighborhood Enterprise didn't have a vehicle to rent us. (We live around 30 miles OW from the airport so we rent locally.) Somehow, they had rented all their vehicles and couldn't honor our reservation. So we ended up driving our SUV instead. I put 1700 miles on my vehicle that trip so I wasn't thrilled. Enterprise supposedly is going to give us 3 free days rental the next time but who knows if they'll have a vehicle for us anyway?

 

[Jerseyprincess317]

We will be driving our own car from NJ when we visit later this month. The last time we rented a car the tires were bald and we didn't feel safe driving it. Had to go back and return it for another car. You never know what issues your rental can have. Not worth the headache.