178 days trip around america starting Miami in January
Hi guys.
I have been reading teh forum for some time and havenow got to a point where I would like to ask for some help and direction? Before I ask questions hereis the story so far
My girlfriend and my self are taking a road trip around America. We will start in Miami and go clock wise around the country back to Miami.
We have 180 day visas.
We have book flights for mid january
We have looked at renting a car but we can not rent more than 30 days. If we do not return rent car back to original location we get charged more.
Trian and plain will not give us what we are looking for on our trip.
I have purchased road side america. I have a links to the free wifi websites and to cheep gass sites.
We will use trip advisor and ouur luck to find places to stay and book as we go.
I have Skype and plan to buy a pas as you go (prepay) mobile so that we have an America number to book ahead as we move around.
here is a link to google/maps with some lines on it.
So with this all planned I need you r help with regards to cars
We will buy a car. I understand we need to get plates (tax??) and insurance. I have read on the forum about these things but no one has made any conclusions. Has any one worked out how easy it is for a non USA person to get these things?
Any advise or pointing in the correct direction would help.
Regards
Edd
That would be a good resource
Quote:
Originally Posted by
RoadTripper Edd
I'll report back on my mission. I want to note it all downa nd share the info once I have mastered it so that we dont have to go through the same issues over and over again.
With road trips there is no ONE SIZE fits all -- but we welcome any discoveries you can make with respect to this very popular query on this Forum!
Mark
A Roadmap worth Considering!
Sorry for not replying sooner but I have made some head way on the whole car thing.
Right if you are going for more than 30 days these are your options and some quick nut shell explaining
Lots of 30 day rentals
Pick up and return to the same place is the cheepest option. That means you are limited to regions. So you would have to do florida on one rental then fly/train/bus to the next location and then do that as another drive around.
point to point delivery
Thsi is where you deliver a car for some one. You have to follow their route and you have a time limit. I've not really looked into this becuase its their dictated route you have to follow.
buy back
There is lots of talk about this on the forum. So I will not bore you all with it again. Wheels9.com & Camper site & Camper USA all give this option. The idea being that you buy their car/van/camper and they do all the paperwork for you. At the end they will give you some money for the car/van/camper. This is offset by how many miles you do. Miles before this happens varies but I saw about 13K before every 100 miles they start dropping the price. I rang some of the places up and they already did not have cars for january. It's interesting to note these places also do long term rental. Most booking is done by quote through thier websites. Dont just ring them. It saves time.
buy and then sell on
I'm sure this is more simple than it look. You buy a car, you get plates, you get insurance you drive around, you sell the car at the end of the trip. So buying the car is the easy bit. The rest is a pain.
So my example is I am going to start in Miami so first I went here
DMV of Miami to check what the law stated. I didnt get much out of the website but it might help some one else.
I then emailed The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles
they said
Quote:
Temporary or non-residents are not subject to Florida’s titling and registration requirements. Florida law requires the payment of sales tax in the amount of 6 percent, on a vehicle purchased in this state. The payment of Florida sales tax qualifies you for issuance of a 30 day temporary license plate. Proof of insurance, is required.
so to add to the cost of buying are car you have other hidden costs and then there is the insurance.
We worked out this would be very expensive if you want a good car that will be good for 20K road trip.
long term rental
You can do it. You have to go to the US sites of some hire companies and deal with them direct if your an outsider. Budget long term rentle was the cheepest I saw but then you had to pay for all their insurances. In the end we went with a company called Carhire3000 based in the UK. They are a broker and got us a deal on a 6 months rental of a Neon. These people also throw in all the insurance crap that you get with hiring a car for free.
So to conclude the cheepest option we found was to rent. Maybe this will bite us in our actual trip but we think we have saved nearly £2000 in all maybe more.
I hope that all this information helps
regards
Edd
