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Van Rental vs Car Rental vs Buying
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I know this question has been asked 1000000 times. I've looked at Turo, I've looked at Outdoorsy.com and I've looked at all the expensive rental places. But I wanna hear it from you guys. I'm an Australian with a plan to spend 3 months from April to June in the States and am looking at car options. I'm looking to be doing as much of the 'circuit' as possible. Vegas, Indian Creek, Yosemite, and then eventually head up to Squamish. Are there climbing facebook pages where climbers are looking to lend out their vans for months at a time or anything like that? I'd rather give the hump of money to someone who I know is going to use it than some random company. Cheers! |
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I don’t know how the law works regarding taking a rental across the border, but Canadian customs will not permit you to take someone else’s vehicle across the border into Canada from the USA, unless the registered owner is accompanying it. I know this from personal experience. edit - this was at the Peace Arch crossing, between Blaine,WA, and Surrey, BC, a suburb of Vancouver. I have a CDN passport and am a US resident. |
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Its possible someone wants to rent out their van for the right price. I would start by joining the facebook group for climbers in your arrival city and asking around there |
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You can take rental cars across the border but sometimes they don’t allow it in certain places. For example, I used to rent cars in upstate NY and we would not allow people to take the cars to Toronto bc of a high rate of theft of rental cars there. But Canadians would take US rental cars and one way them to Canada all the time. |
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Id say avoid Canada back to US. Canadians working in the US have the been detained by pinche ICE for weeks |
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If you do Turo buy the full insurance, their deductibles otherwise are pretty high. You can do the math (add everything up and compare) and I'd guess it's more affordable to buy and sell than rent. If you have enough cash to buy one. The biggest sunk cost will be sales tax (~8.5%). If you know how to find a good deal (look at kbb.com for suggested pricing) you should get most/all of your money back. I'd look for a smaller van in excellent condition that's easy to sell and not expensive like a Nissan NV200 or basic sprinter. A van will be way easier to live out of and you can sleep in it. But a deluxe, fixed up camper van is a lot more $ and harder to sell. Just throw a mattress, a camp stove, a pee bottle, and a cooler in a van and you can live out of it. Facebook marketplace is where most private parties sell their vehicles. You can sleep in rest areas all over the usa for free. You can sleep in many walmart parking lots (the ones outside of cities as noted on this map) for free: https://www.walmartlocator.com/walmart-map/ So if you can sleep in your vehicle it opens up tons of free places to sleep. If you only speak Australian you should learn some American before you come. As mentioned I'd avoid crossing borders. Squamish is great but there's other great ones in the US: Sierra Eastside, CA, Joshua Tree, CA, (Red River Gorge, KY, New River Gorge, WV, The Gunks NY, these add a lot of driving though), Ten Sleep Canyon, WY, Smith Rock, OR. Here's an overview map |
Terry Ewrote: As a Canadian who lives in the US I haven't had that particular problem, but I agree that Canadians bringing US-registered vehicles into Canada often get extra scrutiny at the border. I think that customs officials want to be satisfied that the vehicle will only be in Canada temporarily and you're not trying to evade import duties. OP may have less of a problem since he's not a Canadian. See https://tc.canada.ca/en/road-transportation/importing-vehicle/temporarily-importing-vehicles. |
Gloweringwrote: Once upon a time this used to be feasible, but these days if you're in the US on a tourist visa you won't be able register a vehicle in your name or obtain insurance. And it'll be obvious to highway patrol if you're driving around in an unregistered vehicle, because no seller in their right mind will hand over a vehicle without removing their old license plates. |
Gloweringwrote: I met a number of European climbers who went this route back in the '80s and '90s. Just about all of them spent more than they expected on repairs to their vehicle. Add in the time it takes to get the vehicle repaired, and buying a used vehicle becomes even less attractive. Renting from the big rental companies reduces the odds of a breakdown, and if the vehicle does malfunction they just give you a new one. |
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squam Adds some challenges being from AK I normally do a healthy stint in my van in the lower 48 over winter. This year I didn’t feel like doing the drive down so I did a trial run with a rental mini van That I pick up from the airport in Vegas. I was very pleasantly surprised to see a month rental was only $800. You get a major discount on rentals after 30 days. We’ll see how it goes as I fly out in 6 days, but to me that was a steal. Cheap and reliable beaters are getting harder to find In my experience. |
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I pay $30-50/day to rent Chrysler Pacifica or Dodge Grand Caravans. Seats fold into the floor giving a lot of space for a bed and storage. Search on Kayak or Expedia and then look at the car rental company websites. I find Budget and Enterprise the cheapest. I have some discount codes you can use. If you have car insurance on your own car, you will need proof or if you have a credit card which pays insurance, you will need a letter from the credit card company. I will PM you too |
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I believe that there is no sales tax on a vehicle in Oregon. |
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There’s no sales tax on used vehicles in any state. Just tell dmv u paid $1. Probably done it 15 times now |
ZT Gwrote: What state did you do this in? California DMV will look up the book value if you declare a suspiciously low value, and assign your car a value that they think is more accurate and base your registration fees on that assigned value. |
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Yosemite to Squamish is the same distance as Melbourne to Brisbane, and aside from the hassle of crossing to border, you're going to be driving past a lot of good climbing areas. Maybe Red Rocks, Indian Creek, Yosemite, and Smith Rock? That puts your total drive at just shy of 3000 km. Its actually an equal distance driven to fly into Denver (pick your climbing in the Colorado Rockies), then do Indian Creek, Red Rocks, Yosemite, and Smith Rock. That order avoids back tracking. |
mark felberwrote: Michigan. theyve tried that with me and told me they’d fine me for lying. I looked at em and said “well i paid a dollar for it because it was basically a gift so if you want me to lie I can but I really paid a dollar” it’s also pretty easy in MI to tell them you inherited it. I did that once too |
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Perjury on a signed DMV form is easier to deal with when you're a citizen and better know the system. Getting caught up in the USA rush to send all the criminals back home would be a silly reason to end a trip during its first week. I had a climbing partner (Canadian) who was once in danger of losing custody of her children (in the US) because she had not camped in a designated camping area. In MA, one pays sales tax when buying a car; it's built into the registration system. And excise tax. Speaking of which, I wouldn't get a car in the US without having an address where someone would keep track of my mail and let me know when my insurance was lapsing or my excise tax was due or some other thing that if I'm pulled over I'm in deep doodoo for. |
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almost every used car that you cab buy at a reasonable price has someone else's problems that will need fixing. Just rent something unless you have the means to ship your own vehicle here... |
Nick Goldsmithwrote: I somewhat agree with you, Nick. On the other hand, I have bought several used cars from owners who wanted to upgrade and sold me cars that were in good working order with extensive maintenance records. Both of those vehicles lasted a very long time without needing significant repairs. On the topic of campers and vans, I know a Norwegian couple who bought a van in Canada, used it to travel for a year, and then sold it for more than they originally paid. I also met an Australia a few winters ago at a Sno Park in California, who had bought a camper and truck, sight unseen, from another Australian who had bought it in the US, traveled around the US for a year and then left it stored in Seattle. The key is to be able to find the right situation and the right people to buy from. |
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And be able to buy a good enough rig. If you are on a budget you need to bring your tools with you and know how to use them. I don't think too many vans exist under 10k that are not going to need wrenching at any given moment. I will go a bit further and say that any rig with over 150k on it will never be fully fixed. You will always have something on deck that needs wrenching. Heck I am the master of driving around with spare parts under the bed that stay there until I have no choice but to dive into it... |
Martin le Rouxwrote: In California I'm pretty sure the plate stays with the car when ownership is transferred. This used to be the case BITD anyway |
