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Hello, all. Trying to make the final decision on whether to drive from NC to Seattle in July to visit my newlywed DD and SIL. I will be bringing their wedding gifts with me and plan to take my time - 4-5 days to and 4-5 back. So here's my dilemma: Do I take my own car or a round-trip rental? (~$400) I am starting to have 2nd thoughts about doing this with the cost of gas. I do have friends in MI and Chicago that I would visit and it's not my first long trip alone. Thoughts....
Unless your vehicle is a gas guzzler, I don't see how driving a rental saves you any money. You'll pay for gas either way - and you have to return the rental with a full tank.
It is a long drive, but sounds like it could be an adventure. Get your car checked out before the drive - maybe it needs it anyway.
I suppose the biggest deal with a rental is that many companies charge a fee for miles outside the state.
Yes, you have to pay for gas either way, but gas is a very small cost of ownership, that said, rental agencies *do* make money renting you a car, so the true cost in either case probably evens out.
What it generally boils down to is whether you want the comfort of you own car, or if you're ok with a rental that might not be exactly what you want.
Fly and rent a fun car while there. 10 days driving in a month is just insane when we have airplanes that will get you there in 6 hours. If you don't have a job or a family waiting for you at home, then I suppose it wouldn't be too bad.
What is the question exactly, I can see 2 potential questions;
1- You think your car would not last the trip, then we need to know more about the car and its condition, but generally hwy trips are light and easy on cars, so not much wear and tear relatively speaking.
2- You are not sure if you are up for the driving part, then I am not sure how the rental would save you money or headache. Flying is always an option but you will have to punch in the numbers and see the 8 days (10 minus 2 which is the difference between driving or flying) is worth it. Driving would be fun but then it also depends on how you do it.
If going all by yourself 10 days is a bit too much.
I love flying but I make my living as a trucker and love driving, too. Since you've already driven on a long trip, you know what that's like. If you don't get bored while behind the wheel and you want to see your friends enroute, I'd drive. Load up on some books on tape or take along a satellite receiver to make the trip a little more entertaining. For some of us, getting there is half the fun.
If you're not planning two WEEKS of road-trip fun just to get there...
and another week (at least) to meander home after the visit in WA (or the reverse of that)
Unless your vehicle is a gas guzzler, I don't see how driving a rental saves you any money. You'll pay for gas either way - and you have to return the rental with a full tank.
It is a long drive, but sounds like it could be an adventure. Get your car checked out before the drive - maybe it needs it anyway.
Rentals get returned with the same amount of gas they came with. I can't remember when I last got a rental that was anywhere close to full. The last time I rented for work I had to get gas within a couple miles of the rental company for fear of running out of gas.
OP-Maybe you're being a bit conservative in your time estimate. ~2800 miles to Seattle from Charlotte (for instance) is 550+ miles a day for 5 days. That doesn't include any lengthy stops to visit friends, or the extra miles to get to them. And that's a lot of miles for someone not used to doing it.
I would take my own car. I like it, I enjoy it, it's set up for me, and I'm comfortable in it. I bought it to drive it, and the extra gas it will burn vs a more economical rental isn't worth me enjoying the trip less. If that doesn't appeal to you, or if the other reasons given in this thread apply to you, then rent.
Absent an overriding need to transport a lot of wedding gifts or a desire for a major road trip adventure, the numbers of doing this drive compared to your time and costs don't seem to work from my perspective.
Consider:
A round-trip airfare with advance purchase and off-day departures from SC to Seattle is in the low to mid $500 range these days. You're in Seattle in a day's worth of travel with no motels and misc costs of your travel, and of your time allotted for this trip, most of it will be available with your family.
OTOH, a 3,000 mile adventure with a 30 mpg highway car will use 100 gallons of gas each way. If you travel 5 days, that's a 600 mile per day schedule, which I consider grueling if you are traveling for pleasure. Given time to eat, find lodging, misc stops ... it's pretty aggressive to do this for 2-3 days, let alone 5 days.
But, penciling this out for one-way travel:
1) Gas at $3.65, that's $365.00
2) 4 nights lodging @ $80 night, that's $320.00
3) Meals enroute, consider $20/day ... which is a very low budget, that's $100.00
Which points to a likely expenditure ONE WAY of $785, which is far in excess of airfare for this trip.
At a projected round trip cost of $1,570 ... can you justify the substantially increased cost and time spent on this trip compared to flying round-trip, even if you have to rent a car in Seattle for your stay there? You could pack and ship a lot of stuff for a couple hundred bucks, if that's what is needed to be in Seattle.
I enjoy motoring, too ... but there's times where there are much more efficient ways to travel major distances. You cannot beat the major airlines at these long distance trips.
I haven't even factored in the 6,000 + miles of wear and tear on your car's consumables ... tires, oil change, etc.
Even if you had a 50 mpg car, these numbers don't make sense to me if my goal was to spend time with the family at some distance away.
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