The Car - Problems to Take into Consideration

Tani and I had a huge debate over how we would actually get across the US. We talked about ideas from buying an RV to riding a bike, and from riding a motorcycle to buying a SUV. We even once talked about backpacking it by foot. As you can understand some ideas were more sane than others.

We looked into buying a car for the trip, and even found a friend who had done it over the summer. Our friend had bought a car just for the trip, and when he reached his final destination he sold it for a profit. He told us that we could do the trip within a budget of two thousand dollars (not including the car), but upon closer investigation we found out that he'd either been eating dry pasta for five weeks, or his calculations were very off.

That's when we began looking into the more expansive alternative of renting a car. The idea behind renting is that you get a nice car in good shape, and you have less worries. If you buy the car and it breaks down you're screwed, which may happen with a cheap POS. If it's rented and it broke down,  but not because of you then your alright. They may even switch it for you. Also, you don't have to worry about selling it again before you leave the states. The main downside is that it is very expensive, and you don't get your money back.

We looked into different rental companies, even calling them up and comparing. All of the fees were jumped up because we are under twenty-five. Luckily, since I do not have a license at the moment, don't ask it's a long story, the price was lower than it would have been if we had to pay for a second driver.

We sought advice from Tani's father's corporate travel agent. We would constantly badger him about what we should/shouldn't do, or how to get the best deals. He offered us a deal for a Kia Sedona for six thousand and six hundred dollars, but that was a bit too step and we couldn't exactly afford it.

One day the travel agent calls Tani down to his office. Tani not knowing exactly how this will play out, and feeling slightly guilty for badgering the poor man goes to pay him a visit. The second Tani walks in the travel agent starts offering him the deal of the century. He offered us a Ford Escape which is a mini-SUV for the same price as renting a small economic car, and for a two month lease being under twenty-five that's amazing.

We took the deal, and now we're just waiting to pick it up in Baltimore, Maryland.

Mickey Polevoy