The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

Does anyone who does not have a car already or is not being given one by a family member have any thoughts as to what to do about having a car for the summer?
Renting, buying, etc?

I'm thinking of renting it...but it seems so expensive. If you have the funds buying then reselling wouldn't be a bad option. You should end up getting a similar resale price since it's only 12 weeks.

I got a good used car as my other one was falling apart. I'm going to do a road trip to my SF and back.

I am currently on internship. I am renting a car for $2000 for the entire 12 month time period from Hertz. You can call and ask for long term rates. I recommend this. If anything is wrong with the car, Hertz will fix it and give you a new one. If the cheap car you buy and plan to resell 12 weeks later breaks, you will be on the hook for the repairs.

KY502 wrote:I am currently on internship. I am renting a car for $2000 for the entire 12 month time period from Hertz. You can call and ask for long term rates. I recommend this. If anything is wrong with the car, Hertz will fix it and give you a new one. If the cheap car you buy and plan to resell 12 weeks later breaks, you will be on the hook for the repairs.

Also, it wouldn't have been so expensive if the taxes in this state weren't so high.

Problem with renting a car though is anyone under 25 has a huge fee on top of the rental agreement, bumped my price up from $1500 for the 10 weeks to $2400. Also anyone under 21 can't rent a car period.

kbl2017 wrote:Problem with renting a car though is anyone under 25 has a huge fee on top of the rental agreement, bumped my price up from $1500 for the 10 weeks to $2400. Also anyone under 21 can't rent a car period.

Certain car rental places have deals with certain insurance companies. Hertz allows anyone above the age of 18 to rent a car with no fee as long as they have AAA. That's how I've been renting a car

I second renting from hertz. I rented from them last summer for around $1500 with a triple AAA membership. I was under 25 and they wave the "under 25 fee" with AAA. If you don't have AAA, it's worth paying for it for at least a year to save on your car rental, otherwise you're probably looking closer to about $4000 for a rental. Also, another tip to save money is to rent the car from a Hertz location that's away from the airport. You can take a taxi/uber from the airport to the rental location and save an average of $1000.

The problem with buying is arranging for purchase and sale on the exact times you need it. What if you can't sell it before you leave? You also have to pay for car insurance and repairs in case the car breaks down. There's a lot of little extras to consider when buying a car.

I think I'll just get myself a unicycle.