insurance, car rental vs buying question

[turnipmonster]

hey everyone,
I can't seem to get a straight answer via google so I'm hoping someone here can either point me in the right direction or know something about this stuff directly.

my wife and I are taking a cross country road trip in the fall. we currently do not own a car, or have any kind of car insurance or anything like that. if we buy a car, we do not plan on keeping it. we do have AAA which someone gave us for a gift.

I have basically two choices:

1) rent a car

hertz gives unlimited mileage in all 50 states, and before insurance this option will cost about 2k. buying insurance from hertz however is very expensive:

Loss Damage Waiver 22.99/day
Liability Insurance Supplement 11.99/day

question: do I need either of these things? obviously I need some type of insurance, I need to check if our credit cards carry auto rental insurance. if auto rentals are insured through one of our credit cards, do I still need either of these things?

2) buy a car from someplace like carmax, and sell it when we get back.

carmax doesn't really sell any cars for less than 10k. this is not that big a deal, but I am not sure how much money I'll lose if I buy a car from them, put 7k miles on it and then sell it back. also, if I buy a car, I have to get car insurance also right? what's the minimum amount of time I can buy a policy for, and how much will that cost?

thanks for your help/advice.


--turnipmonster

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

I'd just go talk to an insurance agent and see what they'll give you. I think that if you cancel your insurance, before your term is up, that you can get a pro-rated rebate on it. If you're just getting some $10k hunker, then it might not be all that expensive.

My guess is that you're someone from New York or somewhere similar where you don't have a need to drive. If you're moving away from there, it's my guess that you're going to want/need to drive. Maybe I'm way off, but maybe you're going to have to think about buying something and getting insurance anyway?

edit: for some reason I had it in my head you were moving across country and not just taking a trip. I guess you can just forget about my second paragraph.

[FouTight]

wow, someone gave you the crappiest gift ever, if I knew someone that didnt' have a car, that would be about the last thign I would buy them... at any rate, I don't like the buying a car option...

you may get stuck with a crappy car that breaks down, thats a pretty long trip, then you are out a lot more then the rental.

[sfer]

I bought a car for $1 and drove it with 2 friends from NJ to SF when I was 22. That doesn't help you much but I just thought I'd post it.

[swede123]

I'm not sure if you have considered this, but certain credit cards actually include insurance on vehicles rented using the card. This might be worth looking into before you get down the road of buying...

Swede

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not sure if you have considered this, but certain credit cards actually include insurance on vehicles rented using the card. This might be worth looking into before you get down the road of buying...

Swede

[/ QUOTE ]
It looks like he did indeed think of this. From the OP:
[ QUOTE ]
obviously I need some type of insurance, I need to check if our credit cards carry auto rental insurance. if auto rentals are insured through one of our credit cards, do I still need either of these things?

[/ QUOTE ]

[turnipmonster]

the person knew we were taking a road trip and would need AAA. I thought it was thoughtful.

[TStoneMBD]

why not just buy a crappy car for 1k/2k and put it on the market when you get back for a lower price then you paid for it? itll be like renting a car for $500 as long as you buy a car that people would want to buy at a $500 discount.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

[ QUOTE ]
why not just buy a crappy car for 1k/2k and put it on the market when you get back for a lower price then you paid for it? itll be like renting a car for $500 as long as you buy a car that people would want to buy at a $500 discount.

[/ QUOTE ]
The only problem with this is: do you really want to take a $1k-$2k car on a cross-country trip? Rental cars aren't the greatest thing in the world either, but you can generally count on at least getting a new and reliable car.

[turnipmonster]

I considered this, but breakdown factor is high. apparently carmax will buy back any car you buy from them, so I'd like to figure out how much money I'll lose if I drive it back on the lot with +7k miles 2 months later.

2k is nothing for the rental, but insurance is primarily what I want to figure out. if I need full insurance, that could easily double the cost.

[turnipmonster]

the other advantage of renting seems to be I can get a replacement if something happens to it relatively easily.

[turnipmonster]

I checked with geico, and a 6 month policy is ~1k for me. this is a stupid question, but if I get regular car insurance I should never have to buy rental insurance, right?

--turnipmonster

[MrTrik]

My wife who is in insurance says that car insurers will sell short term policies. If you have renters insurance or homeowners ... start there it might be as simple as adding a short term rider to the policy. It's not common so you'll have to deal with an agent. They'll sell insurance on anything for a fee, including JLo's ass, and it'll probably end up cheaper than the car rental company's rates.

[lucas9000]

[ QUOTE ]
I considered this, but breakdown factor is high. apparently carmax will buy back any car you buy from them, so I'd like to figure out how much money I'll lose if I drive it back on the lot with +7k miles 2 months later.

[/ QUOTE ]

i bet a used honda or toyota would depreciate much just because of another 7,000 miles. when you can get like 200,000 out of one, buying it at 100,000 and selling at 107,000 probably won't make much difference.

[turnipmonster]

say I decide to buy a car, is there any advantage to leasing one? or is this also a dumb question?

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

[ QUOTE ]
say I decide to buy a car, is there any advantage to leasing one? or is this also a dumb question?

[/ QUOTE ]
The advantage to leasing vs. buying is that you have a lower monthly payment. The disandvantage is you get bent over and take it in the pooper in the end.

[astroglide]

is "pro-rated" an originally legit spelling or just an evolution of "pro rata"?

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

[ QUOTE ]
is "pro-rated" an originally legit spelling or just an evolution of "pro rata"?

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't know, but people say pro-rated all the time.

edit: I guess it's wrong - there's no hyphen (http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=prorated) in prorated.