Car Rental or Buy

[Rupert Lhoyd-Owen]

I am planning to do a coast to coast trip and back next year (including via Canada). Is it worth my while buying a car rather than rental? I am a UK resident although I do have a Canadian passport as well (but no residential address in the US or Canada). I am planning to drive about 10,000 miles.

I am 28 and have a clean driving record.
Does anyone know any links that could point me in the right direction. Thanks vm :)

[Mark Sedenquist]

This is the subject of a number of postings on this forum -- if you use the Gray Search button above and enter keywords like leasing or car car rental you will find scores of comments. One thread on Buy-Backs is at http://www.roadtripamerica.com
/roadtripamericaConference/Index.cfm?CFApp=44&Message_ID=4008)

A 10,000 mile road trip that is trying to be coast-to-coast is a bit skimpy. (Still worth doing tho!)
True, you can drive a straight line from one coast to the other in just over 3,000 miles, but a more complete coast to coast run would easily exceed 50,000 miles.

For 10,000 miles, unless you have wads of extra cash -- I would not purchase a car, unless it is one that in an older model and one that you plan to fix along the way a few times.

A fellow Brit wrote a book about roadtripping in the USA and addressed the pros and cons of this very issue. For more information about that book check out: http://www.roadtripamerica.com/read/uk.htm

[Rupert Lhoyd-Owen]

Thanks for coming back

The 10,000 miles was plucked out of the air, could easily do a lot more than that.

I was thinking about buying something used like a Dodge Grand Caravan which is a couple of years old. My budget could stretch to that. Basically, looking for an auto that has plenty of capacity but something we could sleep in the back of if we could not be bothered to pitch a tent after a long drive (I would leave all the back seats at a friends)

What do you think? Are these good cars or is there one more reliable in the same price bracket?

[S]

I'd think a minivan would have enough carrying capacity and also some room to sleep in the back if you needed to if you took the seats out. They're reliable cars, just not popular nowadays, so you should be able to get a deal.

The Caravan is good, you may also want to look at the Ford Windstar, Honda Odyssey, and Pontiac Trans Sport. Check reliability ratings on edmunds.com while you are at it.

[5-Oh]

at least when renting a car the maintianence is their problem, including break dows, we always rent a car.