I am in a situation where I require an extra vehicle for 4-5 months. I imagine rental car companies will be the most expensive option. I’m wondering if any one has any ideas for potential short term rentals/leases. Thanks in advance.
Swapalease - You might have to eat a couple months if you truly don’t need it past 4-5 months but rental cars usually run ~$1K a month or there abouts with all the obscene taxes that is associated with them. You should be able to find a pretty cheap lease to takeover with 6-12 months left on it.
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Are you talking about 4 wheels and a driver seat? A truck? A van? What are your conditions of satisfaction for this car?
What do you think it should cost a month?
I have relatively new Subarus (Forester, Ascent) currently so something similar would be ideal.
Yeah look for the cheapest Toyota or BMW with 6 months left.
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Turo and maybe consider uber or Lyft depending on what you’re doing any given day
Or hack some sort of unicorn deal then offer it up for transfer when your done with it
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Definitely worth checking out.
If you are a Costco member, see what Costco travel says a 1 month rental of a full-size. Likewise see what a monthly from Silvercar (Audi owns and leases off-lease) is.
Could take over a lease with 6+ months left. Zip Car and services like that are also an option and worth running numbers.
I’ve done long term travel to the same city, and met others in a similar boat who lease something new and swap out when done. Everytime I’ve run the numbers, I ended up renting from a rental car company, but Turo wasn’t a thing the last time I did. Most of my travel last 2 years are to cities with insane parking rates, so I’ve taken a lot of Ubers and Lyfts.
One of them has a monthly subscription now, Lyft maybe?
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Where are you located and what is the closest airport code near you?
When would be the start date and return date? And how many miles do you need?
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I am in the Charlotte, NC area. I don’t know the exact dates yet but would most likely be around 3/15 - 8/15 … miles most likely 900-1k miles a month.
I 2nd @joeblogs recommendation of Turo!
But another option that cross-checks all rental car options is autoslash.
Go to autoslash, and enter your info along w/ all affiliations you have and see what they can offer you.
I used CLT for the pickup airport did a 5mo and 1mo search w/ my affiliations and got the following rates;
1mo rental ranged from $682-1100 for the entire month, all options had unlimited mileage
5mos rental ranged from $3800-5500 for the entire period, all options had unlimited mileage
So maybe you can find a better long term rental on Turo, otherwise a 6mo on SAL is probably best option. Good Luck!
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If you are planning on a lease takeover, with such a short term, you may want to look into brands that have a low transfer fee. Ford for example is only $75. Toyota (TFS) $200.
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Definitely check Autoslash, but search non-airport locations for pickup.
Taxes and fees are generally dramatically less.
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Very good point. Better selection in airport locations, but the airport taxes are typically 12-15% extra. Also once you short list, the manager of an in-town rental company has A LOT of flexibility to make a deal.
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you may also want to look into the monthly discounts at the ‘local’ locations of Hertz, Enterprise, etc. AAA discount may be substantial at that point as well (may be worth getting a membership if the discount is good enough).
Also, if you’re going that route, make sure to get a credit card that gives you collision / comprehensive PRIMARY. Most are secondary. If you get the primary coverage, you can downgrade your car insurance to liability only for those 4-5 months, that’ll net you some savings. Also, consider changing your liability coverage to non-owner operator coverage (this covers any car you drive and is more flexible in coverage).
If you have the time (to do weekly rental pickup/dropoffs), you may also want to consider renting cars Friday-Monday with the weekend special (Enterprise for example) and using Uber/Lyft on Monday-Thursday. I did this for about 2 years about 7 years ago. Note that this usually only applies for the non-summer months (Memorial Day - Labor Day they sometimes don’t do the weekend specials).
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I saw recently that participating Toyota dealers will rent new Toyotas under their loaner program. That may be a viable option
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I am not sure of all the details, but I know you can rent/lease cars from Uber. It might be something to look into if they offer month to month rentals/leases.
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