Renting a smaller vehicle rather than using your larger one

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With gas prices getting up there, I decided to try renting a smaller, more fuel efficient car for a 3 day weekend to drive a few hundred miles away.

Weekend rentals are inexpensive enough that the offset in fuel costs nearly make up the difference in the rental costs, plus, it saves wear and tear on your own vehicle.

Might be worth your while to do some calculations, since you can look it up on the rental car web sites. (The more miles you are willing to drive in a day, the greater the differential.)

At the very least, it is an inexpensive and entertaining way to try out some of the more fuel efficient cars being made now.

[PhreeZone 15]

I've done this a few times in the past and it works out great. We were looking to do a 1400 mile round trip on a 3 day weekend and even though we own fairly effecent cars already it worked out that we were able to save the entire rental cost in gas plus some money.

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[squirrel 0]

i drive an older jeep daily, so when we want to road trip, we rent a fast, quiet car or SUV...not only is the mpg better, the fact that I have never had car payments is even better.

________________________________
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[jcd11235 0]

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Weekend rentals are inexpensive enough that the offset in fuel costs nearly make up the difference in the rental costs, plus, it saves wear and tear on your own vehicle.

Aside from the savings due to fuel consumption, there is a reduction of about 5¢ - 10¢ per mile in depreciation as well as (as you alluded to) a savings in maintenance costs, about 4.5¢ - 5.9¢ per mile, for a total non-fuel savings of 9.5¢ - 15.9¢ per mile by renting. That savings (on average) is almost twice as much as the savings due to increased fuel efficiency of renting a car that gets 30 mph instead of driving a vehicle that only gets 20 mph.

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[RkyMtnHigh 0]

What make/model did you rent? What is your larger vehicle?

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What make/model did you rent? What is your larger vehicle?

Supposed to be a Nissan Versa or Kia Rio at 30+? MPG, but there are about 7 size classes at Enterprise. Mine is a TownCar at about 19 MPG on the highway.

Not a problem for everyday use since my office is in my home. I only spend $45 a week even going to the normal DZ.

[ltdiver 3]

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With gas prices getting up there, I decided to try renting a smaller, more fuel efficient car for a 3 day weekend to drive a few hundred miles away.

My how times have changed.... I have a friend who always used to rent an SUV for his family's summer vacation and leave the little family car at home...

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[mdrejhon 8]

In my city of Ottawa, I use a carsharing service called VRTUCAR - www.vrtucar.com. It is similiar to ZIPCAR, although cheaper.

Essentially I get a universal key to 45 cars throughout Ottawa. I reserve online, go to the car, and use it for approximately $3 per hour plus about 10 to 25 cents per kilometers. Taxes, gas and insurance included - I don't even need to fill up the gas (except with the provided gas station card they provide in the glovebox)! No worries about maintenance, they worry about that.

Often, it's cheaper than taxi, especially if driving two. If I want to roadtrip on a weekend, it costs $35 per day. Various modern cars such as Toyota Yaris, Matrix, Echo, as well as Honda Civic Hybrid.

I only need to pay my bill at the end of the month. It's 100% agentless -- just go straight to the parked car.

Sometimes I have to reserve further in advance if I'm using a car for several hours in advance.

The shortest trip was a 30 minute trip, that cost me less than $5. Where else can you rent a car briefly for less than $5 including taxes?

The longest trip I had was a 7-day reservation with a 2000 kilometer round trip. It cost $400 including taxes, gas, insurance, everything -- and I only needed to pay at the end of the month, phone-bill style.

I can use it as little or as much as I like, drive as little or as far as I'd like. Some monthly bills are pretty low if I decide to take public transit more, other bills are higher if I use it frequently like weekend roadtrips to the dropzone. I try to carpool to the dropzone, but at least it gives me an option.

It's much, much cheaper than the monthly payments of a similiar car, if you don't need to drive as much. Even if you own a car, it also makes a handy "second car", so you can own one car, and carshare a second car. It's agentless, far more convenient than a car rental, so you bypass that, go straight to the car and use your own universal key that you always keep.

[ryoder 1,400]

I called it "borrowing the GF's car".
Mine got 15 mpg (CJ-5 w/ 304 V8);
Hers got 41 mpg (Chevette w/ 4cyl).

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

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With gas prices getting up there, I decided to try renting a smaller, more fuel efficient car for a 3 day weekend to drive a few hundred miles away.

Followup-

I wound up with a PT Cruiser which must have been a free "upgrade" from "compact". The PT has a lot of leg room and was very comfortable on the trip, but gas mileage at 75 MPH with air conditioning was only 21 MPG. That's not much better than my TownCar.

So I only spent about $20 more to use that car, and of course the wear and tear was not on my car. I think it was fun and worthwhile.

Now here is the question. Why are these new cars such pieces of shit? How can a new car with a whiney little engine get only 3-4 MPG better gas mileage than a 1984 TownCar? (5 liter, throttle-body fuel injection.)

It cruised OK, and I could "cruise-pass", but there is no way I could tromp on the accelerator and quickly pass someone. It can't happen. The engine shudders and vibrates.