3 Months roadtrip - costs?

[DonnaR57]

I wouldn't feel comfortable driving an older vehicle across the country like that. The peace of mind alone might be worth it to rent a car.

That would depend on a lot of things, I'd imagine. First, your sense of upkeep with your vehicle. If your vehicles are well maintained, why not? Second, your sense of adventure. If your vehicles are well maintained, and you know you could have a breakdown in your driveway, 5 minutes from your house, at work, or across the country, and you don't mind a delay for a repair, why not? Third, your willingness to take a membership in a roadside assistance plan, such as AAA, Good Sam Travel, etc., and count on them to get you towed (if needed), and a decent mechanic worth his salt who won't take you...why not?

Finally, for us, it's faith. Our last 3 trips have been taken in older vehicles with more than 100K on them, out of warranty. On the 2011 trip, our worst problem was a couple of burnt out safety lights. On the 2012 trip, we had a little "oopsy", then an alternator that was "going south". Easily repaired, and faith and prayer (we believe) got us to the city where it could be repaired without issue. On our 2014 trip, we had a problem that is still not completely solved, though we know now we won't need a new fuel-filter/water separator for awhile, or a #8 injector, or one other part. Yet we will take that same vehicle on our 2016 trip.

I've never used Priceline, but we did use hotels.com a couple of times. Just do yourself a favor before hitting ACCEPT on a "deal" from there or Priceline....go to Google, TripAdvisor, or whatever ratings place you like, and check it out FIRST. One place we took on a Hotels.com deal, gave us a hotel which was smelly, and very rundown. We didn't look at the TripAdv reviews first, and for that, I blame myself. Another time, my daughter and her family took a "deal" which said "5 minute walk to Disneyland". It was more like 15 minutes at the fastest pace. My son-in-law said that if he'd read the reviews FIRST, he'd have found that out.


Donna

[lmking1224]

That would depend on a lot of things, I'd imagine. First, your sense of upkeep with your vehicle. If your vehicles are well maintained, why not? Second, your sense of adventure. If your vehicles are well maintained, and you know you could have a breakdown in your driveway, 5 minutes from your house, at work, or across the country, and you don't mind a delay for a repair, why not? Third, your willingness to take a membership in a roadside assistance plan, such as AAA, Good Sam Travel, etc., and count on them to get you towed (if needed), and a decent mechanic worth his salt who won't take you...why not?

Finally, for us, it's faith. Our last 3 trips have been taken in older vehicles with more than 100K on them, out of warranty. On the 2011 trip, our worst problem was a couple of burnt out safety lights. On the 2012 trip, we had a little "oopsy", then an alternator that was "going south". Easily repaired, and faith and prayer (we believe) got us to the city where it could be repaired without issue. On our 2014 trip, we had a problem that is still not completely solved, though we know now we won't need a new fuel-filter/water separator for awhile, or a #8 injector, or one other part. Yet we will take that same vehicle on our 2016 trip.

Well, my last car was a 2014 model (purchased brand new in late 2013) and had 80,000 miles on it (all put on it by us...think I'm on the right forum? ha!), so although it was "new," it did have a lot of miles on it. However, I was anal about performing maintenance on it and felt very comfortable traveling in it. It was under a powertrain warranty, so we did have that at least, but the bumper-to-bumper coverage expired at 60k.

The OP, however, is talking about buying a car -- which I'm assuming (which could be wrong...you know what they say about that) will be a cheaper, used car. I would not necessarily feel comfortable driving across the country in a used car that I purchased from someone else because I wouldn't know squat about how it's been maintained and driven. Maybe if I had had it for a while and knew about any potential problems...

When I look at the risk and the potential costs of buying a car like this (putting it on someone else's insurance and dealing with those possible implications, having to get the car road trip-ready, taking a loss when selling it, etc.), I feel comfortable advising the OP to rent a car instead.

I don't necessarily mean that no one should drive an older car on a long road trip (although that may be how I came across in my post), but in this particular situation, I think renting might be better.

I've never used Priceline, but we did use hotels.com a couple of times. Just do yourself a favor before hitting ACCEPT on a "deal" from there or Priceline....go to Google, TripAdvisor, or whatever ratings place you like, and check it out FIRST. One place we took on a Hotels.com deal, gave us a hotel which was smelly, and very rundown. We didn't look at the TripAdv reviews first, and for that, I blame myself. Another time, my daughter and her family took a "deal" which said "5 minute walk to Disneyland". It was more like 15 minutes at the fastest pace. My son-in-law said that if he'd read the reviews FIRST, he'd have found that out.
Donna

Yikes!

I definitely understand the value of hotel reviews!

Sometimes, I do "Name Your Own Price" or "Express Deals," in which you cannot see the name of the hotel, and therefore cannot check out reviews. It's definitely risky! I did download a browser extension for Chrome that helps you figure out which hotel the "Express Deals" might be for based off of amenities, etc.

So far, we haven't been burned. However, when we are staying somewhere "special" or are going to be spending multiple nights at a hotel, I do search very carefully for the right one. I use these types of deals more for nights on the road, when we'll be crashing for one night and hitting the road the next day.

Frankly, we couldn't afford these three-week-long trips if we had to pay $100 a night for hotels. I definitely know it's a risk we're taking, though.