No car, moving for a 3-mth assignment, cheapest car option?

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AndroAsc
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Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 6:39 am

No car, moving for a 3-mth assignment, cheapest car option?

Post by AndroAsc »

I live in an area where public transport is pretty good and provided for free by my employer, and so I don't have a car. I don't have car insurance too.

Over summer, I will be away on a 3-mth assignment. The place I am moving to requires a car to get around. From a financial perspective, what is my best option?

a) Try to get a month-to-month lease/rental for a car. I've google a bit and it still works out to $700/mth. Total cost over 3 months will be over $2k! Question: Do I need insurance if I am driving a rental car?

b) Buy a car before I leave, drive there, use it for 3mth, drive back and sell it. If I buy a cheap used car for under $5k, how much can I sell it back for after 3mth? I'm pretty sure I will need insurance, is there an option to just buy 3mths of car insurance or do I have to commit the entire year?

c) Any other suggestions?
Joe M
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Re: No car, moving for a 3-mth assignment, cheapest car opti

Post by Joe M »

Your work wont pay/reimburse you for th expense?
Topic Author
AndroAsc
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Re: No car, moving for a 3-mth assignment, cheapest car opti

Post by AndroAsc »

Joe M wrote:Your work wont pay/reimburse you for th expense?
Not directly, no. I am getting a lump sum for relocation, and I would hate to burn it all on car expenses.
MathWizard
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Re: No car, moving for a 3-mth assignment, cheapest car opti

Post by MathWizard »

Yes, you will need at least liability insurance, or in some states post a bond if you self-insure.
This is often a legal requirement.

A used car for $5K nowadays is probably not a car you want to drive.

I figure at least $3K to 4K/yr. for a decent used car purchase. That does not include maintenance.

The $700/mo gets you into and out of the car easily, and with no maintenance costs.
I'd go with that.

The bigger costs would be where are you going to live for 3 months, a motel?
Topic Author
AndroAsc
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Re: No car, moving for a 3-mth assignment, cheapest car opti

Post by AndroAsc »

MathWizard wrote:Yes, you will need at least liability insurance, or in some states post a bond if you self-insure.
This is often a legal requirement.

A used car for $5K nowadays is probably not a car you want to drive.

I figure at least $3K to 4K/yr. for a decent used car purchase. That does not include maintenance.

The $700/mo gets you into and out of the car easily, and with no maintenance costs.
I'd go with that.

The bigger costs would be where are you going to live for 3 months, a motel?
What do you mean by $3-4k/yr? I was planning to lump sum the car purchase should I go to that route.

Short-term accommodation are being arranged, and those are reasonable at $1k/mth. So the car costs itself would almost be as much as housing!
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Ged
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Re: No car, moving for a 3-mth assignment, cheapest car opti

Post by Ged »

Cars Direct has an interesting blurb on this:

http://www.carsdirect.com/auto-loans/ca ... or-1-month
BuckyBadger
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Re: No car, moving for a 3-mth assignment, cheapest car opti

Post by BuckyBadger »

Perhaps you could take over someone's lease for 3-4 months? I don't have any first hand experience, but I know that people use sites such as this one:

swapalease.com

to get out of leases early, or to get into a very short term lease. I think I only know about it from this board, actually. Someone was needing a car for a few months only and this was suggested.

I would imagine that you would need to get insurance, though.

Good luck.
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Chan_va
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Re: No car, moving for a 3-mth assignment, cheapest car opti

Post by Chan_va »

Depends on how much time/effort you want to put into it.

Financially speaking, buying a used car and selling it after 3 months will work best. This assumes that you work with private parties on both ends of the transaction, spend a bunch of time finding the right buyer and the right seller. And then you have to deal with the potential maintenance issues.

You will need at least liability insurance if you own the car. For a car rental - check your credit cards. Some cards offer rental car insurance if you rent with that card.

All in all, I personally would rent. Especially if I had a card that covered the insurance.
sport
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Re: No car, moving for a 3-mth assignment, cheapest car opti

Post by sport »

There may be places where you can rent/lease a used car on a short term basis. This should be inexpensive.
Jeff
FinanceDoctor
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Re: No car, moving for a 3-mth assignment, cheapest car opti

Post by FinanceDoctor »

Some Toyota dealers do daily/weekly/monthly rentals that, if I recall correctly, are pretty reasonable.
jon-nyc
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Re: No car, moving for a 3-mth assignment, cheapest car opti

Post by jon-nyc »

When I was in a similar situation I would do monthly rentals from Hertz or Avis. Much cheaper than their daily/weekly rentals, and insurance all included.
Professor Emeritus
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Re: No car, moving for a 3-mth assignment, cheapest car opti

Post by Professor Emeritus »

3 month Dealer leases in our area are often very attractive. Package includes all services and insurance. Some of the cheapest are on trade ins they took.
mikep
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Re: No car, moving for a 3-mth assignment, cheapest car opti

Post by mikep »

In college a friend went somewhere for a job for 6 months. He bought a car for $500, put no money into it and sold it for $550 at the end of the 6 months. That was impressive :-)
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