<p>We have a third car for our two daughters to share, but this summer they will both need a car so we are considering renting a fourth.</p>
<p>Both my husband and I have standard transmission on our respective cars, and our daughters do not know how to drive a standard. (Also, neither daughter is on the insurance for our cars.)</p>
<p>What is your experience doing this? How expensive is it?</p>
<p>We live in the Boston area.</p>
<p>^^ We were talking about the same need this summer and haven’t really started looking into it. I’m interested in the responses to this thread also. Here’s a site I just found but I haven’t inquired into pricing yet. [Long</a> Term Car Rental - Enterprise Rent-A-Car](<a href=“http://www.enterprise.com/car_rental/deeplinkmap.do?bid=020&cnty=US&language=en]Long”>http://www.enterprise.com/car_rental/deeplinkmap.do?bid=020&cnty=US&language=en) One other option is to buy a used car and resell it at the end of the summer – although that’s a riskier alternative in terms of cost.</p>
<p>It may depend on how old your D’s are. In our state, no one under age 21 is allowed to rent/drive a rental car. For renters between 21 and 24, there is an extra surcharge added to the reg. rental fee for being a young driver.</p>
<p>^^ Is that a state law as opposed to a rental car company policy? It’s usually just a company policy to not rent to under 21, not a law, and if one tries hard enough they may be able to find a company still willing to rent although it probably wouldn’t be a mainstream one.</p>
<p>Renting a car is expensive. I’d look for a used car that’s a reasonable deal and then sell it afterwards. Since Carmax buys cars as well as sells them it’d be interesting to see what the difference would be between their sale price and purchase price if one kept it for 3 months.</p>
<p>If you were thinking about upgrading any of your cars you could buy the extra one, keep it, and then sell one of your other cars.</p>
<p>We are in a similar situation. We have 3 cars, 2 very old and 1 that needs lots of work (about 1K). I was thinking of upgrading and getting rid of the 1 car that is dying but don’t really have the cash flow for an upgrade. Plan B is to put the 1K into our clunker (the clunker we know) or buying one for 2-4K (the clunker we don’t know) and selling it at the end of the summer. We’re leaning towards putting money into the clunker we know.</p>
<p>I also checked out rent-a-wreck which seems most geared towards long term rentals: <a href=“http://www.rentawreck.com/hotdeals.htm[/url]”>http://www.rentawreck.com/hotdeals.htm</a></p>
<p>Ask this old Tom and Ray.</p>
<p>I had to do a 3 month rental for D. One of the big cost factors is the under-25 issue. The extra fees charged per day made this our biggest barrier. If you have certain affiliations (ie, USAA), some rental companies will waive this fee. However, in our case, even with this waiver, Hertz and Avis were still more than Enterprise.</p>
<p>I was able to get the fee waived by negotiating a “corporate rate” with Enterprise. This was possible because the hospital where D was doing her clinical rotation had a corporate arrangement with Enterprise. In addition to finding the best rate $($583.95 per month, unlimited miles on a Kia), the corporate affiliation meant there was no additional under-25 fee. She had to rent at a neighborhood location, not the airport. Airports charge lots of extra taxes so if possible, do not set up a pick up/return at an airport. D needed a car in LA, so note that these prices reflect that market. I set up paperwork so that my credit crd was billed rather than D’s. </p>
<p>Your best option, if you are unable to find a way around the under25 extra fees, would be to rent a car for yourself or your husband and have your D drive one of yours. That’s what we did another summer when we needed an extra car for D for one month. It sounds like that may mean teaching them to drive a stick! Good luck with that!</p>
<p>One other time, D needed a car for 6 weeks. By checking with some friends of my sister’s, she was able to negotiate a really low rental for the 6 weeks with a woman who had an extra older car not being used. That was our cheapest option of all but the downside for the renter is that the insurance affected in the event of an accident will be the owner’s, not the interim driver’s. That alone makes this solution not a popular one. Turns out this particular lady really needed the extra cash so she was willing to take the risk.</p>
<p>PS Some of the Rent a Wreck locations will consider waiving the under age 25 fee but this was location specific. Unfortunately, in the 3 different cities where D needed a car, Rent a Wreck was only an option in one of them.</p>
<p>Have you considered a lease takeover? Sometimes there are good deals to be had on leases with only a few months left when the current leaseholder needs to get out from under the monthly payment or wants a new vehicle. There are no downpayments and you know the remaining miles available going in. I think there are a few websites that specialize in that sort of thing.</p>
<p>This is all great information!</p>
<p>Thanks so much to everyone for posting!</p>
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<p>This was our solution…we knew D would need a car of her own eventually and had been putting money aside for it. Hadn’t expected to buy until sometime next year but came across a very good deal on a used vehicle which had been completely gone over mechanically, new tires, brakes, etc. and got the thumbs up from our mechanic as well. The owner, who is a mechanic, needed to sell quickly so he had priced it around 4K under book and gave her a service warranty. I took a small loan to cover what we hadn’t saved up yet. It’s worth the peace of mind not to have her driving a “clunker”, she’s very happy, and the required monthly payment is small. I think we’ll keep it until she graduates in 3 years but, looking at the local used car listings on Craigslist, believe we could probably sell it fairly quickly and recoup our investment if she wanted to.</p>
<p>I was just gonna post that I think Enterprise rents to people under 21 but it looks like that’s been posted already… It probably would be cheaper for you to rent one for yourself and let them drive your car… because they usually charge more for drivers between 21 and 24 from what I’ve seen. Look for coupons if you decide to do this. Entertainment Book, AARP, etc. They always have coupons for car rentals. I rented a Jeep Liberty for a week in Myrtle Beach for only 70 dollars.</p>
<p>This is just a long shot… but maybe there is a student in the Boston area that needs to leave their car there for the summer. But thinking more on that I guess it could get messy insurance-wise etc.</p>
<p>Ask your insurance agent about your D driving one of your cars (if she learns to drive a standard). Even if not on your policy, I heard it can be legal to lend out your car and still be insured.</p>
<p>Agree with fendergirl that it might be easier to rent for yourself and teach the girls to drive a stick and let them use your car. That is a useful skill to know. Besides, if, heven forbid, one of the girls is in an accident, dealing with a rental car agency can be a PITA.</p>
<p>There are lots of discount rental car codes out there, but I dont knowif they work on long term rentals.
Do
the both need a car allthe time or can you rent a week at a time, as needed? We did that when DS was home and we were down a car b/c DH had totalled his and we were playig musical cars. It worked out fine.</p>
<p>My D was back home doing a summer internship several years ago. I called around all the local companies and finally found Hertz to be pretty reasonable for monthly rental rates. I also checked into buying a used car and then selling it after wards, but it wasn’t worth the hassle because the sales tax would have been high in CA.</p>
<p>I remember the rates were negotiable also, just pit several quotes against each other.</p>
<p>Hey cebreeze!! How’d that rental deal we found in… Maine I think it was, work out???</p>
<p>Hmmm… I needed a summer car for myself last summer (we have a summer place in Maine, but both of our cars are on the west coast now). I didn’t like any of the monthly rental prices I found (should have posted here; folks seem to be doing better than what I came up with 
).</p>
<p>Anyway, the long-shot worked out for me. I started spreading the word and found that one of DS’s high school friends (last summer they had already graduated college) would be spending the summer away, leaving his car in Maine. He was more than happy for me to pay him his car pmt +a premium. And it was a good deal for me, about 1/3 of any rental rates I found.</p>
<p>We talked over the ins and outs of expenses - obviously I paid gas and kept my own insurance as well as he keeping the car insured. We agreed that minor repairs (none came up) would be at my expense, but anything significant would be his. A good relationship helps - as there are grey areas of course.</p>
<p>Worked great for us. You might be surprised if you put out the word.</p>
<p>jmmom - sounds like a win/win!</p>
<p>Same here. Both sons will need cars.</p>
<p>I may have to have my son drive my car and I’ll use a rental.</p>
<p>Son #1 will need a var for fall grad school, but we’d be happier getting it locally (to the school) then at home and registering it here, insurance, etc and driving it to new location.</p>
<p>Sticky situation.</p>
<p>Keep your ideas coming and moving this link up…</p>
<p>We just bought a very good conditioned (under 100k miles, no problems) 15 year old car for $1000 because we need an additional one for a year (while our kid learns to drive and doesn’t want to learn on a standard). We will resell it at the end. </p>
<p>Runs great, no rust, good gas mileage. Even has a sunroof! AAA Inspection revealed it had nothing needing repair that was mechanical. Seemed cost effective to us. </p>
<p>Found it on craigslist after a week and looking at three different cars. We focused on owner-sellers rather than dealers (and be careful of those pretending to be owners…type their phone number into google and if they are selling more than one car you can avoid them).</p>
<p>Good heavens, starbright, where do you live? That is a fabulous deal on a used car!</p>
<p>We recently bought a used car off CraigsList (50k miles, 9 years old), but it cost $5k and here in suburban Boston we were lucky to find it and be first in line to have the option to buy it.</p>
<p>I agree it is best to focus on owner-sellers. I went to several used car lots and it was a waste of time. The car lots buy junkers at auction and leave them until someone shows interest, whereas owner-sellers have had incentive to keep their cars in good working condition.</p>