Author Topic: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?  (Read 7720 times)

rothwem

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Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« on: November 29, 2016, 06:43:00 AM »
About a month ago, I got a new to me mustachioed manual transmission vehicle and sold my automatic BMW. Two weeks later, I was mountain biking and managed to break my (right side) collarbone.

I was on pain meds for a couple days and I couldn't drive, so the manual trans wasn't a problem, but now I need to drive to get to work and around town.  Public transportation is a joke in Raleigh, so that's not really an option.

I've been swapping/borrowing my girlfriends car, but she hates driving a manual, so that's not a good solution either. I've got another three weeks in the sling minimum, maybe more if my collarbone isn't all the way healed by then.

Renting a car costs a damn fortune, probably around $3000. I figure that for $3000 I could get another vehicle for temporary use.

So how would the mustaches of this forum handle this? I'd like to spend as little as possible obviously.

Oh and here's an awesome X-ray pic from after my surgery:


terran

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #1 on: November 29, 2016, 06:55:10 AM »
Are you saying renting a car for 3 weeks will cost $3000, or are you figuring a longer time period? Are you under 25 years old?

If you're over 25 and want to rent for 3 weeks in Raleigh I'm seeing Economy (Kia Rio) and Compact (Nissan Versa Note) from Enterprise for $772. I wouldn't be surprised if you could find a rental for less by looking at the other rental companies too.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #2 on: November 29, 2016, 06:56:00 AM »
Ouch! What a rough situation. I will tell you what my husband did when he had surgery, but this in no way condones the behavior. He's left handed. He would just brace the wheel with his knee or his right hand, and reach across and shift with his left. Miraculously he didn't get into an accident....

A couple non-car purchase ideas. Is there a coworker you could carpool with? Could you explore a temporary work from home situation? If you WFH and got it down to a couple days a week of transport, something like an uber could potentially even be cheaper. Anyone you can borrow from? If you're part of a faith community or a large family, I highly encourage you put the word out and see what comes your way. Friends too- I'm always amazed what connections people have in times of need. Ex, my mom didn't drive for over a year while going through chemo. There's a handful of my friends she would have been completely happy with me loaning her car to during that time (not that I did), and we *did* loan it to a couple relatives.

Barring that, trolling private sale used car listings and hoping you can recoup your money on resale is probably the best way to go.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #3 on: November 29, 2016, 07:05:16 AM »
I would hop on your local craigslist and look for people selling cars that cost $1-1.5k in good running shape.

I would then offer $200/week to rent the car. If I were selling such a car, I would let someone rent it in a heartbeat. As long as you have the funds to pay off the car if something were to happen you are golden. Maybe a similar arrangement with a family member/friend?

rothwem

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #4 on: November 29, 2016, 07:52:58 AM »
Are you saying renting a car for 3 weeks will cost $3000, or are you figuring a longer time period? Are you under 25 years old?

If you're over 25 and want to rent for 3 weeks in Raleigh I'm seeing Economy (Kia Rio) and Compact (Nissan Versa Note) from Enterprise for $772. I wouldn't be surprised if you could find a rental for less by looking at the other rental companies too.

I honestly didn't even look at exact prices for rentals, but the last time I rented a car (a fucking pt cruiser) for a week and it cost close to a grand. I'm extrapolating that into 3 weeks. Maybe it's cheaper now? I'm 30 years old, I think I was maybe 27 when I rented a car the last time? It wasn't the base rate that cost money, there's a ton of extra hidden fees that get added in at the end.

ketchup

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #5 on: November 29, 2016, 08:05:32 AM »
Are you saying renting a car for 3 weeks will cost $3000, or are you figuring a longer time period? Are you under 25 years old?

If you're over 25 and want to rent for 3 weeks in Raleigh I'm seeing Economy (Kia Rio) and Compact (Nissan Versa Note) from Enterprise for $772. I wouldn't be surprised if you could find a rental for less by looking at the other rental companies too.

I honestly didn't even look at exact prices for rentals, but the last time I rented a car (a fucking pt cruiser) for a week and it cost close to a grand. I'm extrapolating that into 3 weeks. Maybe it's cheaper now? I'm 30 years old, I think I was maybe 27 when I rented a car the last time? It wasn't the base rate that cost money, there's a ton of extra hidden fees that get added in at the end.
I've dealt with a bunch of car rentals recently, and the cost varies wildly.  Check out Hertz and Enterprise (look at a few locations nearby).  I've gotten as low as $102 for a week from Hertz (with AAA discount), and $233 all-in for two weeks from Enterprise.  Everything at an airport is more expensive, including rental cars, so stay away.  GF recently paid $100 for a car rental of a whopping ONE DAY from an airport, and recently we paid $327 for a week at PDX.

ender

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #6 on: November 29, 2016, 08:18:33 AM »
When you call, ask if they have any special rates for someone in a medical situation like this.

You may be surprised by what rates they can offer, particularly if you tell them your situation and how your situation happened.

My old employer had an insane rate with Hertz, too, so I'd make sure your employer doesn't have any sort of discount at rental places.

Malum Prohibitum

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #7 on: November 29, 2016, 08:25:47 AM »
Are you saying renting a car for 3 weeks will cost $3000, or are you figuring a longer time period? Are you under 25 years old?

If you're over 25 and want to rent for 3 weeks in Raleigh I'm seeing Economy (Kia Rio) and Compact (Nissan Versa Note) from Enterprise for $772. I wouldn't be surprised if you could find a rental for less by looking at the other rental companies too.

I honestly didn't even look at exact prices for rentals, but the last time I rented a car (a fucking pt cruiser) for a week and it cost close to a grand. I'm extrapolating that into 3 weeks. Maybe it's cheaper now? I'm 30 years old, I think I was maybe 27 when I rented a car the last time? It wasn't the base rate that cost money, there's a ton of extra hidden fees that get added in at the end.


Well, in less than 30 seconds Google tells me that Enterprise in Raleigh, NC rents economy and compact cars for $203 weekly ($702 total), intermediate for $213, full size for $223, and compact SUV for $239. Event he full size SUV suburbans, cargo vans, and minivans did not come close to $3000 for 3 weeks.

Yes, there will be fees tacked on.  I assume you have your own insurance and credit card insurance as well.  There is no way the fees will increase the $702 to $3000.

bryan995

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #8 on: November 29, 2016, 08:30:20 AM »
Or if you have Costco, rent a car through Costcotravel.com

$621 for 3 weeks including all taxes and fees. 

Malum Prohibitum

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #9 on: November 29, 2016, 08:41:32 AM »
Or if you have Costco, rent a car through Costcotravel.com

$621 for 3 weeks including all taxes and fees.
  Cool!  I did not know about that!

Drifterrider

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #10 on: November 29, 2016, 10:08:24 AM »
I've been swapping/borrowing my girlfriends car, but she hates driving a manual, so that's not a good solution either. I've got another three weeks in the sling minimum, maybe more if my collarbone isn't all the way healed by then.

This might be a good opportunity to determine if girlfriend is a keeper or not.  If you two were married would you consider spending money to rent a car?

Dose she "hate" driving a manual more than she "hates" to see you spend money on a rental?

The answer might be predictive of your future together.

Villanelle

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #11 on: November 29, 2016, 10:23:07 AM »
Check for offbrand car rental companies.  My dad swears by two of them, but unfortunately I'm blanking on the name.  He uses them for business rentals (consulting, not reimbursed) when he travels.  I think Fox is one of them.

Also, consider Priceline's bid option.  Once you've located the cheapest option via regular means, go on Priceline and bid 15% less.  It's been a while since I bid on Priceline (and I never did rental cars), but it used to be that you could re-bid immediately as long as you changed a detail (like adding another departure airport or shifting your dates a bit), so you could hopefully try again if the first bid was rejected.  Also, there used to be websites that listed recent successful bids so with some research, one could have a pretty good idea of what would be accepted.  The Priceline site itself allows you to see recent winning bids.  Raleigh shows bids at #20, $23, $24, $28, and $30 (as the low end) per day.  It doesn't give the dates or lengths, but it's a place to start.

ender

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #12 on: November 29, 2016, 11:25:37 AM »
I've been swapping/borrowing my girlfriends car, but she hates driving a manual, so that's not a good solution either. I've got another three weeks in the sling minimum, maybe more if my collarbone isn't all the way healed by then.

This might be a good opportunity to determine if girlfriend is a keeper or not.  If you two were married would you consider spending money to rent a car?

Dose she "hate" driving a manual more than she "hates" to see you spend money on a rental?

The answer might be predictive of your future together.

Really? I mean, really?

Your first thought is to jump to this conclusion? That the GF (who you have no idea how long has been dating the OP) isn't a keeper because she won't let OP borrow her car for over a month (while having all liability for the car the injured OP will drive)?

Yeeesh.

patchyfacialhair

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #13 on: November 29, 2016, 11:34:32 AM »
Price out rentals: They can vary widely...my wife, who travels for work, has seen prices vary from $10/day up to $60 depending on the time of year and location and carrier.

Uber/Lyft: See if you can find discount codes or rack up some free rides. Not sure if ride share hacking is a thing.

Convince your GF to let you keep using her car: Do something nice for your her like a spa day if it means that it would be cheaper than other options.

Good luck. Injuries are no fun. I blew out my knee a couple years ago and managed to make it home in my car at the time, a standard transmission Jeep Wrangler. How I made it home is a mystery.

ysette9

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #14 on: November 29, 2016, 11:35:22 AM »
I'm presuming you don't have any family or close friends around you could swap cars with? When my dotée broke her left foot and couldn't operate the clutch, she was lucky enough to swap cars with my mother for the weeks/months it took to heal. That would obviously be the cheapest solution.

I also wonder if your insurance (medical, car) might poney up some money for a rental.  It would be worth asking the question at a minimum.

rothwem

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #15 on: November 29, 2016, 06:01:57 PM »
Thanks for the referrals about rentals. I didn't realize that they cost that little, that's actually somewhat affordable, although everything seems expensive right now due to the sting of paying for the surgery. 

As for my girlfriend--she's a keeper and she's been a trooper through my injury. She took a day off from work to drive me to surgery and then listen to my blathering while I was on crazy pain meds. She's the one who offered to let me borrow her car, and I know she would drive my car the whole time to try to help me, I just know she hates it. Since I love and care about her, I don't think it's right to take advantage of her kindness.  I'd rather handle my own shit rather than mooch off of her.

Anyways, I tried driving my car around the neighborhood this evening and I did okay. 1st and 2nd weren't bad with my left hand, but 5th was a bit difficult. If it were my left collarbone that was broken it'd be easy but it's my right, which complicates things.

I'm going to try driving to work tomorrow and see how it goes. It's only 5 miles...I'll update the thread with how it goes.

Dee18

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #16 on: November 29, 2016, 07:10:44 PM »
I ren at a car every summer for July.  This year I used autoslash.com and got the cheapest rate ever:  $500.  Any coworkers for the work commute?

Emg03063

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #17 on: November 29, 2016, 09:52:58 PM »
If your car is in decent enough condition, rent it out on Relayrides to offset the cost of your rental.  Should make it close to a wash.

Beriberi

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #18 on: November 29, 2016, 10:12:32 PM »
If you only need it for a few weeks, why not uber?  30 x 5 mile rides (three weeks to work and back) costs three hundred?  Cheaper than renting a car.

Drifterrider

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #19 on: November 30, 2016, 08:07:26 AM »
I've been swapping/borrowing my girlfriends car, but she hates driving a manual, so that's not a good solution either. I've got another three weeks in the sling minimum, maybe more if my collarbone isn't all the way healed by then.

This might be a good opportunity to determine if girlfriend is a keeper or not.  If you two were married would you consider spending money to rent a car?

Dose she "hate" driving a manual more than she "hates" to see you spend money on a rental?

The answer might be predictive of your future together.

Really? I mean, really?

Your first thought is to jump to this conclusion? That the GF (who you have no idea how long has been dating the OP) isn't a keeper because she won't let OP borrow her car for over a month (while having all liability for the car the injured OP will drive)?

Yeeesh.

You should learn to read in context and to not "jump" to conclusions yourself.  You should also read the words written, not the ones in your head.  The OP didn't say the GF wouldn't let him use her car; he said she "hated" driving his.

The question is:  does she "hate" driving a manual more than she "hates" seeing him spend money. 

If you don't get the connection.................... well.

rothwem

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #20 on: December 01, 2016, 06:52:06 AM »
Well I drove my car to work yesterday and today, shifting with my left hand. 

Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad! A funny thing that I found is that I rarely ever have to shift WHILE turning, my inner racer-boy already rev-matches the downshift before turning in, so I'm good to go there.  I can hold the wheel straight with my slinged-up hand while I shift. 

Its helpful that my commute is 5 miles and its mostly all 35 mph speed limits, so I only shifted past 4th once.  I wouldn't want to do an LA-style 45 mile stop and go commute, but I think I can get by like this for a while. 

Thanks for the suggestions guys. 

Malum Prohibitum

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #21 on: December 01, 2016, 11:15:23 AM »
That's certainly better than $3000.

Car Jack

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #22 on: December 01, 2016, 01:32:25 PM »
Do a search (expedia, priceline, etc) as a starting point.  I just did that using RDU for 2 months and without any other info, it got me $16 a day as the cheapest and 3 pages of cars for $20 and under a day.  You could also check around locally.  I know we have some body shops and used car lots that will rent me a car for $6 a day all the time.  There's no way you need to pay $1000 a week....unless you're specifying an Aston Martin or something.

rothwem

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #23 on: December 01, 2016, 02:16:00 PM »
That's certainly better than $3000.

You got that right. 

I guess I kinda panicked a bit, I'm glad I actually tried driving...it appears that I've saved myself a several hundred bucks!

HipGnosis

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #24 on: December 02, 2016, 01:35:49 PM »
If your car is in decent enough condition, rent it out on Relayrides to offset the cost of your rental.  Should make it close to a wash.
There's no way I'd rent out a car with a manual transmission.  To many people 'think' they know how to drive a stick but really don't.  They'll burn out the clutch, or worse.
BTW; RelayRides became Turo over a year ago.

HipGnosis

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Re: Temporary vehicle need? What's the cheapest way to handle this?
« Reply #25 on: December 02, 2016, 01:36:59 PM »
Well I drove my car to work yesterday and today, shifting with my left hand. 

Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad! A funny thing that I found is that I rarely ever have to shift WHILE turning, my inner racer-boy already rev-matches the downshift before turning in, so I'm good to go there.  I can hold the wheel straight with my slinged-up hand while I shift. 

Its helpful that my commute is 5 miles and its mostly all 35 mph speed limits, so I only shifted past 4th once.  I wouldn't want to do an LA-style 45 mile stop and go commute, but I think I can get by like this for a while. 

Thanks for the suggestions guys.
Glad to hear it!