3. Buying or renting a car for a road trip in USA? Pics of attention – Snow Canyon, UTAH

When I was a child I was constantly covered in bruises. Running, jumping from rocks, all kind of activities that can get you hurt, were my favorites. My parents decided that to buy me a bicycle would be very dangerous and instead I got rollers. I managed to do a lot of damage with those as well. Seven years ago, I visited the US as part of a work and travel program my country has for the students. It was impossible to get to the place where I was working without a car. So, I got a bike, my first one. It cost me ten dollars and I hated it every single day of that summer. It was super old, and it only had 3 gears (no breaks!), which was disastrous for the hilly place I was living. It is ironic that the first car I own is also here in the US and it is about the same quality as my bike was. So, if you are planning to do a road trip in the USA and wondering whether to rent or buy the car, here are some tips and tricks, and lessons learned. I took the pictures accompanying this post few days ago in the Snow Canyon in UTAH. The place is right next to St. George. One of the entrances is on the outskirts of the city, so you can easily reach it. Entrance is only $6 per vehicle and there is a viewpoint overlooking the whole valley where you can go for free. The last one is the perfect spot for the sunset.

USA is humongous. I didn’t even know that there are so many national parks, not to mention there are also state parks. Planning a trip even in just a few states could take weeks and when you look at the map it will be just a small part of the territory of the country. My plan is to visit Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. There are so many things you can see in those, that if I am done in one month with them it will be great. Not many places to sleep on the road, so my choice of car would need to be a place I can accidentally sleep as well. I am saying “accidentally” just because it is too cold outside right now 18 degrees Fahrenheit or -8 Celsius. If it was warmer, every second night sleeping in a van would be fine. So, when I and my partner in crime did the calculations, it turns out that buying a cheap car will be the best option for a road trip.

Renting a car in Las Vegas vary from about $600 for a normal car to $1500 for a minivan. Prices were checked for 24 days rental. We spent few days in Vegas going to auctions and checking the local craigslist. It turns out for the price of the rent of a van, we can actually buy a car and eventually sell it later for the same or a lower price. We haven’t considered, however, a few important things:

• Buying a car requires spending time in one place, which includes expenses as paying for accommodation, food, etc.
• You need to pay taxes and do some checks which in the end won’t be less than $200
• You need to have an insurance – cheapest option was $150
• The last thing we totally excluded from the equation is that when you buy an old and cheap car, there might be some problems that you will need to fix.

It wasn’t long before we came across to the last point above. On the second day, after we bought a car, and I was happily driving it (no need to walk anymore in a country where no one walks), some part just fell while I was at the traffic light. It turns out it was the alternator tension pulley. It’s okay, I didn’t know what is that one either. The alternator produces energy, so some important components of your car can work. The pulley transfers torque from the engine to the alternator via the belt. I didn’t know all of that and wasn’t sure if you can drive your car (you can, but not very long and the belt needs to be removed). So, we called a mobile mechanic which put our pulley on its place in just 15 minutes, took our 50 bucks and waved goodbye. We were again on the road, yey! We visited a lot of amazing places and after a few days fun - another pulley came out. Seriously, what is with these ones?! It was the idler pulley this time. I guess we were extremely lucky it happened just before we entered the desert where we would need to drive a lot of miles, before reaching a place with other people, which have, indeed, the needed tools. I watched a lot of videos how you can change pulleys. To be honest, it looks quite interesting for me and right now I have a diagram the problematic zone in our car on my desktop. I hope I won’t use it.

After 2 days spent in waiting for the part to arrive and about 90 more bucks for a professional to fix the problem, I am not sure if the cheapest variant to travel the US is to buy a cheap car. If we don’t have any more problems it probably will be, but we have just started our trip… One thing is sure, in the end of this journey I will be either very well educated how the car is working and even able to fix some minor things, or I will be extremely lucky to say: “It was okay, my plan and calculations were right.” In any case, I will keep you posted on the result. I know that I would be happy if someone had ME informed :D

Thank you for reading and upvoting. If this review helps at least one person to make a more informed decision I will be happy. Cheers, and wish me luck, Eva (: