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Old 07-12-2017, 09:41 AM
 
4,833 posts, read 5,675,740 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sinatras View Post
I always rent cars to take on road trips.

Last week I had to take an emergency road trip and did not have time to rent a car. On the freeway I got a rock on the windshield, which now has to be replaced. Also the interior of the car got very dirty as I had to entertain clients (one of whom spilled his leftover curried chicken in my car), hood got damaged from bugs at high speed, etc. Door got dinged (thanks to one of the clients). Reminded me why I always rent cars when I travel.

Now I have to:

Arrange to have windshield replaced
Have the car professionally detailed (although I doubt that the yellow stains from the curry will come out; seat cover will have to be replaced)
Hope that hood damage can be repaired
Hope the door damage can be repaired
Deal with insurance company, dealership, body shop, etc.


If the rental car would have sustained a chip and all the other issues, I would have returned the car and they (Hertz) would have had to deal with it, not me.

Renting a car for 10 bucks a day for 4 days would have been soooo worth saving myself this aggravation, not to mention the money and hours of my precious spare time. I am not even going to add up how many hours and dollars all of this is going to take b/c I would just get too pissed off.

Car rental prices are way too cheap to drive my own car on road trips and deal with the aftermath. Not to mention that if you get into an accident or breakdown, you can just get another car.
None of these are exclusive to road trips. You can get them anytime you drive on public roads. And honestly half of them are from your clients, not the actual road trip itself. With this rationale might as well rent cars anytime you drive on the highway.
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Old 07-12-2017, 09:43 AM
 
Location: South Tampa, Maui, Paris
4,443 posts, read 3,756,434 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by IShootNikon View Post
None of these are exclusive to road trips. You can get them anytime you drive on public roads. And honestly half of them are from your clients, not the actual road trip itself.
When I am in town and have to entertain clients, I do not use my car. I take cabs and meet the clients.

The rock on the windshield is something that would happen more than likely at high speed. I never use the freeway when I'm in town either.

Nobody is saying these things are exclusive to road trips. However cars are more likely to get damaged and dirty on road trips. It's just common sense. The longer you use a car, the higher likelihood of damage. My car usually sits in my driveway or putters a mile or 2 around town twice a week and that's it. Highly unlikely to sustain body damage, interior damage, windshield damage 99.% of the time under those circumstances.

Point is: All of the things that happened on my trip are no big deal if it's a rental. I learned my lesson. Next time I will make time for the rental.

Last edited by sinatras; 07-12-2017 at 09:53 AM..
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Old 07-12-2017, 09:52 AM
 
4,833 posts, read 5,675,740 times
Reputation: 5908
Quote:
Originally Posted by sinatras View Post
When I am in town and have to entertain clients, I do not use my car. I take cabs and meet the clients.

The rock on the windshield is something that would happen more than likely at high speed. I never use the freeway when I'm in town either.

Cars are more likely to get damaged and dirty on road trips. At least that is my experience.

Point is: All of the things that happened on my trip are no big deal if it's a rental.
But you understand that other people regularly drive on highways and so things hitting them while driving at high speed is a risk they have to take everyday. I don't think renting a car because they drive on highways is reasonable for most people.
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Old 07-12-2017, 09:55 AM
 
4,833 posts, read 5,675,740 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sinatras View Post
When I am in town and have to entertain clients, I do not use my car. I take cabs and meet the clients.

The rock on the windshield is something that would happen more than likely at high speed. I never use the freeway when I'm in town either.

Nobody is saying these things are exclusive to road trips. However cars are more likely to get damaged and dirty on road trips. It's just common sense. The longer you use a car, the higher likelihood of damage. My car usually sits in my driveway or putters a mile or 2 around town twice a week and that's it. Highly unlikely to sustain body damage, interior damage, windshield damage 99.% of the time under those circumstances.

Point is: All of the things that happened on my trip are no big deal if it's a rental. I learned my lesson. Next time I will make time for the rental.
Yes, cars are more likely to get damaged if you drive them. The solution is to drive them less (in your case twice a week) but that kind of defeats the purpose of buying a car in the first place, you know to drive them. Especially if you work 5 days a week. Anytime you share the road with thousands of other people there are inherent risks.
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Old 07-12-2017, 09:55 AM
 
Location: South Tampa, Maui, Paris
4,443 posts, read 3,756,434 times
Reputation: 5198
Quote:
Originally Posted by IShootNikon View Post
But you understand that other people regularly drive on highways and so things hitting them while driving at high speed is a risk they have to take everyday. I don't think renting a car because they drive on highways is reasonable for most people.
Yup, I get it. I'm not those people. If I'm driving the freeway every day then of course I'm expecting my windshield/hood to get shredded with bugs, rocks, debris, etc. But I don't have those same standards for my car. I have higher standards. Which is why I rent.
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Old 07-12-2017, 09:57 AM
 
4,833 posts, read 5,675,740 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sinatras View Post
Yup, I get it. I'm not those people. If I'm driving the freeway every day then of course I'm expecting my windshield/hood to get shredded with bugs, rocks, debris, etc. But I don't have those same standards for my car. I have higher standards. Which is why I rent.
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Old 07-12-2017, 09:58 AM
 
Location: South Tampa, Maui, Paris
4,443 posts, read 3,756,434 times
Reputation: 5198
Quote:
Originally Posted by IShootNikon View Post
Yes, cars are more likely to get damaged if you drive them. The solution is to drive them less (in your case twice a week) but that kind of defeats the purpose of buying a car in the first place, you know to drive them. Especially if you work 5 days a week. Anytime you share the road with thousands of other people there are inherent risks.
Unlike most people, I intend to keep this car a minimum of 15 years. The way I take care of it makes it highly likely that it will look and run great past year 15.
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Old 07-12-2017, 10:03 AM
 
4,833 posts, read 5,675,740 times
Reputation: 5908
Quote:
Originally Posted by sinatras View Post
Unlike most people, I intend to keep this car a minimum of 15 years. The way I take care of it makes it highly likely that it will look and run great past year 15.
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Old 07-12-2017, 10:17 AM
 
Location: South Tampa, Maui, Paris
4,443 posts, read 3,756,434 times
Reputation: 5198
On a related note, if anyone has advice on how to remove curry stains from a canvas seat cover, let me know!
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Old 07-12-2017, 11:05 AM
 
Location: Studio city, Ca
5 posts, read 5,065 times
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It has to be a very special set of circumstances for me to rent a car as opposed to driving my own vehicle.
I buy my cars to drive and because I like to drive them...a lot and often, not to sit and look pretty for some predetermined length of ownership until I buy another one to again sit in the garage NOT collecting miles while I drive something I've rented.
I also maintain my vehicles for the long haul and almost always keep them deep into 200k territory and beyond. I bought a 2011 Grand Cherokee exactly a year ago yesterday with 32k on the odo and have put slightly under 40k on it at this point with drives from where I live (Los Angeles) to Wisconsin and back twice, Eastern Montana and back (started the drive to Montana on the day I got it!) Salt Lake City and back many, many times, once on snowpacked roads last winter where most traffic was at a halt for over 100 miles. Just recently drove to Coeur d Alene Idaho where after my trip the entire front of my Jeep was literally covered, several layers deep, with dead bugs. I washed them off and moved on.
I've splattered many, many bugs on my hood and windshield but have never sustained any damage from a bug hitting my vehicle, that'd have to be one huge heavily armored bug to cause damage! While in Montana, driving downtown in Great falls at around 40mph, I saw a rock fly up in what seemed to be slow motion, from a truck some distance in front of me and put a nice crack in my windshield from the far left driver side to right about the middle...insurance covered it and I continued on!
I can sometimes understand why people rent cars and I would never "entertain" clients or anyone in my own vehicle and at the slight chance I had to there would be some ground rules layed down fast, of which "no food or drink allowed in my vehicle" would be one.
Again I can understand why some might rent cars, especially when they need a larger car for whatever reason but buying a car and then being afraid to put miles on it for fear of wear and tear or because you might get a few rock chips from actually using the vehicle for what it's for or because something else 'might' happen is like buying a couch then being afraid to sit on it because you want to keep it new and not put an assprint on it!
Lastly, if you buy your vehicles with the idea of keeping the miles off for resale value at a later point then you buy your cars for a completely different reason than me! To each their own I guess...
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