One possibility that complicates my search for the perfect vehicle for a family of 3 is the option of renting a larger car when needed and keeping my Civic Hybrid. We've survived with the car for 3 years, although my son's arrival (and all of his gear) 8 months ago has complicated going anywhere.
I'm guessing that while having a larger cargo space available every day would be nice, we probably
NEED a bigger vehicle for maybe 21 days a year. Most likely we'll go out for 3-4 weekend trips to the mountains or the beach, have one longer road trip, and maybe an extra day or two if we buy furniture or something else that won't fit in our car.
I wish I could rent an Escape Hybrid, Mercury Mariner Hybrid or Saturn Green Vue, but unfortunately I don't live in one of the 8 cities that EV Rental offers hybrids to rent.
Hertz has a"green" collection of cars that get 28 mpg or more, but no hybrids. I would think that hybrids would be perfect rental vehicles since they are often a tax write-off or a way for people curious about the vehicles to try them out. Hopefully all of the rental chains will get with it within the next year.
So let's look at the economics of buy versus rent:
Renting an SUV costs about $300 a week including taxes and fees. If I drive 1,000 miles on my trips, I'll be using about 55 gallons of gas (estimating 18 mpg), so at $2.70 per gallon (a likely price for next year), so that's another $150.
If I keep the 45 mpg Civic Hybrid and drive12,000 per year, I'll spend $720 for the year in gas. So my gas/rental cost for the year would be $1770.
But if I upgrade to a Subaru wagon that gets about 25 mpg, then I'm spending $1400 for gas for my 13,000 miles of total travel, so that seems to be the better financial decision.
If rentals were cheaper, or if the price of gas jumps above $3.50, then renting on demand would make economic sense. I'm assuming the wagon would cost about the same as the $19,000 I paid for the Civic Hybrid, so the car payments should be about the same.
I get the luxury of having a bigger vehicle everyday without the hassle of renting the car. Of course then my conscience has to deal with the additional 200 gallons of gas used (and all of the accompanying emissions) from reducing my fuel economy by half.
I'm surprised that renting an SUV as needed doesn't make economic sense for me, but it may for people who put more miles on their vehicles and only need the extra capacity on occasion.
