Family & Friends

Car shopping: a rental test drive?

I’ve heard lots of discussions about renting vs. buying big items, and I pretty much sum up the best advice this way: Rent things you use less than a couple times a year; buy things you use more.

Very straightforward. (Of course, there are probably some exceptions, but it’s a good rule of thumb.)

One piece of advice I read about when to rent caught my eye, though, just because I hadn’t seen it before: when possible, rent the car you’re going to buy for a few days before purchasing it. You’ll get a much better feel for it than on a quick test drive.

This assumes two things:

1. You’re going to buy a new car. That’s not usually a good financial move, given the instant depreciation and the fact that you can typically buy a slightly used model for thousands less, but some people will ignore that and buy new anyway.
2. You’re buying a car that rental places rent. Not all cars, and particularly not all packages, will be available for rental.

However, if those two things are true, and you’re at all picky about the car you drive (I’m not; we bought our last vehicle off of eBay because we spotted a great bargain), it makes a lot of sense to invest a little upfront to make sure the big investment is one you’ll be happy with.

© 2008 Something Epic.