3 months on the road, rent or buy?

[MrJess]

Hi.

We are 4 students from Norway who are going on a 3 month road trip coast-to-coast. We want a car wich we have planty off room in (SUV or VAN).

My question is: Is it cheaper to buy and sell or to rent one?

How much should we expect to pay for a car and how much is insurance?

We are planing to start in Salt Lake City and go west to SF and LA then cross in the south, and then north along the coast to NYC.

If you have any other tips, please don't hesitate to tell us :)

[Haydee King]

good question.

about five years ago, i did a three month road trip. and i also debated on buying or renting. i ended up buying a 15 year old minivan. ugly, but it was only $2000. insurance was about $60 per month. the car broke down once in moab, utah. but only cost about $150 o fix, thank god. so adding all that up it cost almost $2500 for an automobile.

renting a car will cost more than that, especially a bigger one. but you won't have to worry about your car breaking down.

so the question is, do you want to save money? or do you want reliability and security?

a cheap, used, good minivan is pretty easy to find, in my experience. an SUV will suck up more gas.