Rent or buy?

[steph_goodrum]

I think if you are going out of town you can reduce insurance from what I've read and then reinstate it when you come back.

[Sniff]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by steph_goodrum
I think if you are going out of town you can reduce insurance from what I've read and then reinstate it when you come back.
[/quote]
Here in Germany quite a few people have a second, fun car (like a convertible, or an oldtimer as they are called here) that they only want to drive in the summer. The insurance companies are quite flexible on this and you can get insurance that is fully comprehensive from April-Oct (for example) and then it drops to just Fire & Theft. Of course you can't drive it on the roads Nov-Mar but it's covered in case it gets damaged.

I bet there is something similar you can get in the USA

[wrpac00]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Frosty
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by roger
Our car insurance is around $950 per 6 months. That allows any driver and covers both our cars (that were brand new when purchased 2 years ago but age of car doesn't seem to make too much difference from what I can tell).

If I recall correctly the insurance for 1 car was around $650 per 6 months so adding the second car didn't double it. That's the best policy we could get. You can get lesser coverage but not worth the risk.<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Frosty
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by wrpac00
We bought a munfactured home 7 years ago with the sole reason being spending at least 3 months a year in it which we have been able to do since last year. I try to rent it out for the months we are not there to help with the running costs but pottering around doing bits in the house are all part of the vacation.

As far as buying a car is concerned it is touch and go. Its costing me almost $2500 this summer for 91 days, insurance is not that expensive but you do have all the upkeep so its hard to decide on whether it costs in or not.[/quote]Out of interest, what do you class as not expensive for car insurance?[/quote][/quote]Yes thats more or less what we have.
I think thats expensive, especially if you wanted to have a car doormant in the garage for most of the year.
So as per my original quote, i think the OP would be better of renting than buying.

I was asking wrpac00 what he considered "not that expensive" as per his advice.[/quote]About what Roger quoted.

[SDJ]

You can put your car on 'vacation leave' when you are not in Florida. The reason the insurance starts high is they don't take any 'no claims' you have in UK so you start at the high level and it gradually decreases. It took us 3 or 4 years - can't quite remember to get down to the reasonable rates.

[ellie]

If you need to rent out your home in order to pay for it then having a car in the garage for 9 months of the year could be a distinct disadvantage. What do you do about it when you have guests in your house? So it might be easier to hire one.

[appinlad]

Hey thanks guys for the advice.

[Andrena]

when you are not using your car you just keep the minimum legal required insurance, ours costs us $14.72 per month and then you just up it to fully comprehensive when you plan to use it. We find it very economical much cheaper than renting for periods of more than a month at a time.

Andrena