Month long car rentals?

[Deltahater]

I am looking to buy a new car for my wife. I am contemplating leasing a new car or buying a 1-2 year old. Then I thought about getting month-long rentals from Hertz or similar.

When I did a quick search I found rates ranging from $700-$1200 per month, making this a complete non-starter. Does anybody have any experience with this and what rates did you get?

 

[ElainePDX]

My son had to do a few month long rentals in CT - long story - and he found that he got the best deals by going into brick 'n mortar car rental offices and negotiating. Not sure what cars he was driving but he was upset at the $500-$600 it was costing him when he did month long rentals. I can get you more info if that will help, just let me know.

I don't think this will pencil out as a long-term thing, but he was on a contract job for 6 months and traveled for 2-4 weeks at a time. So it made the most sense to just rent for the weeks/months he was not on the road. (He did not have the time to drive his car cross-country before the job started, and shipping it out there was expensive too. So he just rented as needed.)

 

[Dangjr213]

You can ask the branch to put you on a mini lease. It's month long rentals where the monthly rate goes down each month during the first 6 months.

Even then I would probably avoid. I just finished a lease, buy, monthly rental, mileage reimbursement analysis at work and monthly rentals consistently came out most expensive for the different mileage ranges we priced out.

 

[Rommie2k6]

The lowest rate I got for month long rentals was about $600. That was from Enterprise month-or-more program.

 

[Makido]

I rented from Hertz about six months out of the year in 2013 and just about constantly so far this year. I drive close to 1,000 miles each week to get to my job and renting was the only way to go. A lot depends on the type of vehicle you're renting, but I've been getting a small SUV in the winter months for around $700 per month. I've also had a Prius for around $570 each month. The Prius is considered a premium "green" vehicle in Hertz' fleet so a compact or intermediate would be cheaper. Although I haven't rented this class of vehicle, I have seen rates not too far from $500 per month if you rent far enough in advance and have a AAA discount.

A lease has a lot of downsides in my opinion. I looked into this too before renting and the following were the downsides for me (you're situation may be different): mileage restrictions, wear and tear (lease can charge you extra for "excessive wear and tear"), having to pay for separate insurance (AMEX and a few other credit cards have primary collision coverage that covers rentals), higher insurance rates (your personal insurance from another owned vehicle carries over to your rental; no extra cost), maintenance on leased vehicle (most car rental companies take care of oil changes and other maintenance for you). Also, if the rental company vehicle has a serious failure, it's nice peace of mind to call up the nearest location and trade vehicles.

I hope sharing my situation is helpful is determining the approach you want to take for your wife's new vehicle.