My oldest daughter is graduating from High School this year and will be attending a school that does not allow a car for Freshman. My youngest daughter just turned 16. We promised to let our youngest have our oldest's after she leaves. That leaves about a 6 month gap. While they both attend the same high school they have very different schedules due to extra curricular activities. We need a filler car for about 6 months.

Here are the options I have come up with:
1) Do a month to month rental on Turo. I found cars for around $750 a month that will work.
2) Buy a cheap car around $5k that runs and use it until we are done with it then sell again.

I feel like option 2 is better because at the end we come out ahead because even if we end up selling for scrap we get some money back. The problem is we take on the liability of it breaking down and having to sink more money in to fix it. We also have to pay liability insurance where as the Turo car includes that.

Is there another option I am missing?

What would you do?

It is not an option to not let them both drive as the activities they are in for this spring semester requires them to be in different places during work hours that neither me nor my wife can accommodate with work.

What are you planning to do for your oldest daughter's sophomore year in college and/or when she is home for the breaks? May just bite the bullet get a permanent vehicle for her if you find the right deal vs buying, and selling, and then buying again. Sure, it'll sit during the semester but can use it intermittently to keep it fresh.

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does not allow a car for Freshman

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Is there a place to leave it off campus and she can walk to it and use it? Or is driving specifically a violation of the school's rules?

Otherwise, pencil it out: $750 * 6 = $4500. That money is spent at the end of the period. If you bought, say, a Corrolla for $5000, you'd have to insure it (let's just say $150 a month = $900), register it (I don't know for sure, but make it an even $1000 total with insurance), maintenance (probably $500 total) and, as you said, risk breakdown, repairs, etc. You'd have roughly $6500 spent. Worst case is engine or trans goes out and you salvage the vehicle for, let's say, a grand. Total spent: $5500. Likely case is you get your $5000 back if you put a little work on it -- detail, etc. A $250 detail job might make that car worth a lot more than what you paid, especially if you buy the right vehicle from a motivated seller. Balance: $1750 spent. Even if my numbers are off, you're still looking a bit south of $4500 spent going with the buy, provided you purchase smartly.

I know which way I'd go with those options.

Sounds like the oldest daughter is going to a prison

Picard said:

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Sounds like the oldest daughter is going to a prison

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Our daughter couldn't have a car for the first two years of college. The tradition was for upperclassmen with cars to loan them to the underclassmen.

It worked well for her, she eventually got to drive a Viper,




After she drove a Texan II and a Talon.

I've done some version of no. 2 a number of times and every time I've come out ahead

What is more important to you? Or more valuable? Time or money?

I value my time more so I would go the Turo route.

Don't have to shop for a car, get anything fixed on it, maintain another vehicle, detail and sell it. Saves you a ton of time.

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