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Thread: Car Hire V Car Purchase

  1. #11
    Florida Expert autumnc's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by No Shoes View Post
    I am bumping this thread up the listing again as I am staying nearly 6 months this winter and the car hire is the biggest cost of the whole trip.
    I did investigate insurance and found someone who would cover me. It was however for 6 months at a time but you still had to keep it current for the whole year to cover the car while it was parked.
    What other costs are involved? I understand you have to 'buy tags' does anyone have experience of this as a non resident?
    Does anyone keep a car that is not in a garage?

    Thanks
    We don't keep ours in a garage, it's left on the driveway and we drop the insurance down to the minimum when we leave.

    Make sure whoever you got an insurance quote from is fully aware it is a British license and get them to double check again. I know one or two owners who have been quoted only to find down the line they weren't covered without a US license. There are very few auto insurance companies who actually offer insurance for British license holders. We initially had insurance with State Farm and we informed them it was a British license and they said no problem. However, a month later they wrote to us, cancelled the insurance and said they'd made a mistake, they don't insure British driving licenses.

    We've had our insurance with Progressive through Florida Chartered Insurance for about 4 years now, so compare a quote with them.

    No problem getting the tags, we just renew online every 2 years. It's due annually on the birth date of the car owner.
    Sarah


  2. #12
    Gold 5 Star Member Andrena's Avatar
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    Just noticed this. I would point out that do do gave to keep the insurance even if it not being used, apparently a legal requirement. However you just reduce it to the minimum legally required. We only pay $21 per month while it us not in use. We just call them 24hours before we arrive and up the insurance to fully comprehensive. We are insured with Geico.

    Andrena


  3. #13
    Gold 5 Star Member SDJ's Avatar
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    We always owned a car when we owned our villa. We were insured with State Farm but we used to get a US Driver's License. Your no claims in UK does not count in US so you start at top rates and drop down for 3/4 years. We were lucky enough to have an MC who picked us up in our car from the airport and returned us to the airport after our stay. We put the car on 'vacation mode' when we left US and it was about the same as Andrena, $21 per month.


  4. #14
    Florida Chatterbox Tony G's Avatar
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    To those of you who owned cars - where did you store them? I'm assuming you didn't have games rooms set up in your garages and parked them in there?
    Tony G



  5. #15
    Gold 5 Star Member SDJ's Avatar
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    We parked ours in our garage.


  6. #16
    Gold 5 Star Member Andrena's Avatar
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    I've been trying to work out how much it has saved us versus hiring. I reckon over the 16 years we've had our car, yes it's still going strong, it would have cost us around $40,000 versus the cost of buying and the insurance at about $21,000, so we've saved quite a lot. That is a ball park figure. On day I'll work it out more accurately.
    If we don't have a lift to and from the airport we find it cheaper to do a 24hour hire from US Car hire.

    Andrena


  7. #17
    Florida Savvy
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    Thanks Andrea for the overview. I am here in Florida now and revisiting the car situation. Has anyone looked at leasing? Discussing it with local friends I am thinking it might be a good option for us.


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