WWYD - I need a car for three months over the summer, what’s the most cost effective option?

[Hexinthecity]

Anybody got any ideas?

I’ve taken a new job and will have a half hour drive there and back everyday. Dh needs the car we currently have to be able to ferry kids to and from childcare so I need wheels. I’m free lance and this is a short term contract.

What’s the most cost effective way of going about it? Hire a car on a long lease? But a banger and sell it on after when I don’t need it? Is there another option? Are there cars on finance for short contracts? Not really sure where to start!

We’ve been a one car family for years now and it’s always worked but this contract just threw a spanner in the works!

I would look into renting one as first option.

Buy something with a years mot and a reasonable service record. Strike lucky and you get most back when you sell.

I'd add the option of taxi/Uber in there too as may when costed out be the cheaper option.

Is there no public transport?

probably buy a cheap car & then sell it on.

in the US there used to be a company called 'rent-a-wreck' that did cheap long term rentals but I don't know if there is anything similar in the UK.

I looked up long term hires and it was in the thousands, Uber’s would be horrendously expensive there and back, no public transport as it’s out in the sticks.

I half have a notion of buying a really old cheap but impractical car, think old sports car.. the type of thing that’s totally unsuitable for family life just so I can swan about in it for a couple of months and sell it on after 😂

I half have a notion of buying a really old cheap but impractical car, think old sports car.. the type of thing that’s totally unsuitable for family life just so I can swan about in it for a couple of months and sell it on after.

Yes, do that. You may as well have some fun, just make sure you have good breakdown cover!

Cost up buying something under £2K vs a longer term hire car.

I assume public transport, dropping the kids to childcare yourself, or DH & kids walking/biking is t viable.

Yeah, if hire cars run into £000s then definitely an older outright purchase and just have a bit of fun! (Get good breakdown cover tho...)

Do you have any friends/family who are currently WFH and no need of their vehicle regularly? Lots of people with 2 cars who commute don’t need them at the moment. Would they put you on their insurance for a few months?

I would buy something cheap.

Or, is it possible to borrow a car from a family member during the week? Someone might be WFH and happy to add you to the insurance for a while.

Buy an old diesel workhorse with 11-12 months MOT, you should be able to pick something decent up around the 1-1.5k mark. Look for one with 100k+ mileage and a full service history. The miles you put on it in 3 months will be a drop in the ocean compared to it's total mileage and you will probably be able to sell on for what you paid for it, or only a little less. You'll need to factor in the 3 months tax and insurance but that's probably the cheapest solution.

I think you can do short-term leases. Pretty sure my brother leased a car for less than six months a couple of years back.

It's not car hire, like Hertz or Avis or whoever. It's more like normal leasing, except shorter terms. And your payment includes the car, plus tax, servicing (if it needs it), breakdown cover and I think you can add insurance as well.

If you're freelance can you lease a car through your business? Might be more cost-effective.

How far is the half hour drive and do you need to transport equipment?

If it's half an hour in a city, so up to 10 miles not 30 miles and it's just you and possibly a laptop, but not a boot full of stuff, would you be able to manage with an ebike?

It won't be dark and hopefully the weather will be favourable. You won't need tax, insurance, breakdown cover etc etc and you could probably get a credit deal on a new bike and sell it for 50-80% of the cost of new afterwards, so should be much cheaper than buying and running a car.

Or if a car is needed, I'm currently running a Mini Cooper as a cheap impractical car, it's great.

Both of my cars were only £500 first one lasted 3 years with minimal repairs and the second one is going strong after 18 months so for the sake of a couple of months I'd definitely just get a cheap banger.

Oh meant to say too that if I tried to sell my current car on now I'd easily get £500 for it so might not actually cost you much more than insurance, tax and fuel in the long run.

Definitely worth considering if you have friends or family working from home who would appreciate you giving their car a run. We did this recently for a friend who was without a car to get to work, she just paid the cost of adding her to the insurance.

I bought my Honda CRV for £1500 4 years ago, and it was a gem of a car, even for an 06 plate. So much so that when I decided to replace it with my dream car end of last year my neighbour asked to buy it, and paid me £1k, and if I'd sold privately I could have got back what I paid tbh. So I'd look for a solid car like that with a years MOT

Thanks all we’ve been offered a family members car which is fab and extremely kind, I’d worry though that since it’s hardly got any miles on it I’d be depreciating it on them! We’ve plenty to discuss tonight, I’ve looked online and there’s a few cars that wouldn’t break the bank that I think we could easily sell on after. Not is a sticky one though, we’re in NI and the not centres have been shut since last year so loads of cars are without mots and we’d probably end up having to eat the cost of getting one done over the summer when things open back up... there’s a huge back log, our own car hasn’t had it not as well so we’d have a double whammy on that front!

E bike not an option to the o who suggested it, I’d be driving out off the city to the countryside, big motorway drive kind of thing, and half hour drive would be before rush hour as I’d be leaving in the wee hours of the morning.

I wouldn’t worry too much about depreciation on your family member’s car - cars depreciate at a fairly uniform rate despite mileage, unless it’s unusually high for its age. Unusually low mileage doesn’t really affect the value of the car as much in a positive direction. If you’re only using it for 3-4 months how many miles would you add over that period? 250m per week? 4,000 a quarter? Averagely-low mileage is 8,000 a year, so if your relative doesn’t drive much it won’t make much difference over the longer term. I’d take them up on it, unless there are other reasons to say no.