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Dear all,

I used to have a car but it got stolen last year..

Anyway, the camping season is very near and I have a dilemma..

Hiring a car even for a few days costs about £200.

Or I could just buy one but then have to pay for all that is required going that route.

I guess I can only make the decision but I am interested in your views, if any.

Cheers,

David.

Personally I would buy a car.............although renting a van and not having to think about getting all your kit in does sound appealing

Could buy a banger - cars like Mondeos, Vectras and Primeras are sub £1,000 for just a few years old, but should be reliable with FSH & provenance.

Otherwise its probably cheaper to rent - worth asking round for a discount if you promise them all your business.

Use moneysupermarket dot com to search for cheap car hire, if you only need something small you should be able to get a Corsa size car for less than £35 a day. If you book ahead with easycar you can get really good deals at half that rate. And it will be more reliable that buying a banger.

Buying a car comes with all the other costs, the tax, insurance, MOT etc etc. Even if you buy a car you've still got about £500 a year of costs to fund (£200 insurance, £150 road tax, £50 MOT, £250 repairs / service). When you add a bit of depreciation I reckon a 5-10 year old car costs about £1000 a year to keep on the road.

If you're only using it for the odd trip I'd try the rental route first and see how it pans out.

Definately a fair weather camper. I don't like rain. Rain + Tent = Trouble.
2011:
July: Galpton, Devon
August: Duinrell, Holland

It depends on how many times you would need to hire - is it just for the one trip away or several different trip?
Would you use the car more than for just camping if you bought one - make it worth while paying for tax and insurance.

Hi All,

Thank you for all of the comments.

What I will do is hire one for my first trip and see how that goes.

I have checked out Easycar and I must say they do seem much more reasonable than I thought.

There is a car sharing company near to where I am but the car (which I have used) is way too small for my camping things.

But Easy car do have bigger cars that are also cheaper.

Cheers,

David.

I have to have a car for work but I've been thinking of getting a little car and hiring a big estate car for our camping trips.

We only get about 30mpg from the Passat and I'd get a lot more than that with a little car. I'd lose about 5p per mile on my mileage allowance, but then I wouldn't have to pay tax on it, and I only do about 3-400 miles a month anyway, so it's not a huge difference. And the tax and insurance would be a lot less.

I need to sit down and do some careful sums.