Hello, everyone! I have not been out here in ages. But I have a problem, and you guys are the best hive mind I know!
Here’s the scenario:
Grad school kid (age 27) has an internship this summer in California (San Jose area, actually in Fremont).
She lives 2,000 miles from there and her car is a beater. She doesn’t want to buy a new one because it’s still a TERRIBLE time to buy a car (new or used).
She wants a car for the summer. We’ve been looking at various long term rentals. Best deal she’s found without pre-payment is via Priceline for a car thru ($2,700 for the 86 days she needs it).
Today we figured out that she has NO rental car coverage on her regular car insurance - it’s such an old car that she doesn’t have collision on it. Even if she did, that would probably only cover 2-4 weeks of the longer term rental.
Ideas we’ve kicked around besides biting the bullet to rent/pay insurance from a regular company:
Lyft/Uber/public transit during the week, zip car type rental if she wants to go somewhere on a weekend. Not sure how the public transit is there, and she doesn’t have an apartment yet. She’ll price this out once she knows what her apartment options are.
Maybe there are cheap used car rental companies in the area we haven’t identified.
My daughter had an internship in the Bay Area (she lived in Berkley) this summer and wanted a car as well. But she was only 21 so car rentals were nearly impossible because of the extra fees usually tacked on for younger drivers. Honestly we would have been thrilled with the $2,700 price you’re talking about. We ended up having her car transported there by a car transport company and then drove it back to Texas where she goes to school at the end of the summer. We almost rented through Kyte because they don’t charge extra for younger drivers and it was more affordable but then as we got closer to her start date the prices went way up. You might want to check them out. They have some insurance information online. I think they require liability and/or you can purchase from them but I haven’t really looked into it. Or turo which is like the airbnb of rental cars. I have never used them but I know others who have and they are less expensive than rental companies. I have no idea how insurance works with turo rentals.
She had a friend who had an internship in Palo Alto who survived without a car and ubered a lot on the weekends. But I think her work was mostly remote. I don’t think the public transport is great in that part of the Bay area. It’s better up near San Francisco. My daughter probably could have survived without a car but she really liked having one.
The company doesn’t help with housing, so she’s got to sort out finding a furnished apartment, too. So she doesn’t know yet. Maybe she can find one with public transit to right near her workplace. Maybe even pay more for it if she’s not going to have the car expense.
Scooter? Electric Bike?
In my home town, there is an independent company that leases cars. It is meant primarily for businesses - and I’ve never used them, but the rates posted seem decent for longer term rentals. Google ‘leasing cars’ rather than car rental?
A friend recently booked a car to use in the USA through Auto Europe which happens to be headquarted in Maine. It was for a vacation, however - not long term.
That’s a good point. The weather in the Bay area is fantastic in the summer. I don’t think it rained once when my daughter was there from June - August. It’s usually very mild weather too. So, biking or a scooter might be a fine option for work days. My daughter’s boss biked to work most days.
For “relatively” cheap car rentals in the Bay Area, try these fine folks. Cars are slightly old but totally fine:
And there should be lots of options for getting a temporary car rental insurance policy. Try credit cards and also search for companies that write these policies.
When I moved to NYC for my first real job, I had a car accident within a few months that took my car out of commission for repairs for over a month. I needed a car and insurance covered some pittance per day. I used Rent-a-Wreck. They have a daily mileage limit, I think, but are lots cheaper.
My kid used zipcars back in the day when she was in college! She only needed a car when she was doing an internship, so it was not worth for us to ship a car all the way across the country. Zip car membership came with liability and collision etc. insurance.
I just saw a headline on CNN that used car prices have plunged. May want to check into that option, especially as $2700 while likely not enough may be a good down payment particularly if she will need a car in the future.
I would first have her check on apartment availability near her employer. If there are any, then it may be possible to live without a car, but probably not ideal in Fremont. There are buses and it is on a BART line, but for non-work activities that can be tough.
Thanks for all the suggestions! Here’s an update. She ended up picking a car on Turo. It was the cheapest (cheaper than the Rent-a-Relic site) and it’s easy to add insurance through the site. Now on to finalizing an apartment!
One thing: I looked into Turo over the summer for college trips when car rentals were sky-high (perhaps they still are). I decided against it because of owner cancellation issues, which seems to be a problem with Turo. But, other than that, I’ve heard it’s a great service.
Ugh. I did (before I ever posted this thread) book her a more expensive car with Budget via Priceline. Maybe I’d better hang onto that booking. I can cancel it just a couple days ahead of time. That doesn’t solve the insurance issue, but at least she’d have a car locked in.
Also, I picked an “all star host”, which hopefully means he’s more reliable than some. But anything can happen (his car could get totaled before May, for example).
Yes, definitely hold on to any decent rentals you have from other sources, and remember to cancel when everything’s a done deal with Turo. In fact, I think it was on CC that I first read about the possibility of an owner canceling. But, I guess you face that with AirBnB etc too.
Your D will be fine. The nice thing about the Bay Area is that there are tons of transportation and transportation-sharing options.
I don’t know, once we looked at the address for her internship, there aren’t a lot of great options for transit to it. There’s one bus line that runs close (that’s it). Looking at a few apartments that appear to be within 5 miles or so, the bus commutes are still like an hour or more. And (OF COURSE) apartments are CRAZY expensive for short term/furnished. She’s a grad student, 27, and is really hoping to have a studio or one bedroom for the summer. She’s kinda done with roommates.