Any chance a scooter / Vespa / moped would work? (I imagine it all depends on the climate and distance needed for travel.)

Yes in our state a person has to be much older, it used to be age 25. I remember it was a lower age in NC when I flew there as a 21 year old to attend the funeral of a friend. I could rent a car in NC but not Georgia.

I don’t know what I would have done then but now I would just take Uber everywhere. In larger cities it might be less expensive to have a car service do the basic pick up and drop off. That would make the same pool of drivers more likely also.

I seem to recall my employer was able to get around the car rental issue when I was under 25, though I was 20 when I had a job that sent me traveling over the summer.

Prickly, that sounds lovely, I bet she would love that. But, alas, no. She will prob need to have passengers from time to time, plus its 1200 miles away and I envisioned her driving herself (and her stuff there). Oh and ...I had a terrible near fatal moped accident years ago that tore up my leg. : (

It's a little awk because her brother's car (an ancient bmw x3) we got for $8000 thru a dealer friend. Of course he wasn't driving 1200 miles.

Plus I keep asking myself why the heck we need to buy a car for 5 months? and it would be ... our ... sixth car which is absurd. (long story)

For someone reason the word "lease" sounds tempting but usually the math is the same as buying, unless you can correctly predict a plummet in used car prices (not all that far fetched).

I agree that buying a used car, then selling it when you no longer need it is probably the best option.

Ask around. Someone you know, may know someone that has an extra car that is sitting around, that could use the cash. That’s what people do here, and it happens a lot. People post on our community site,” Need car to drive 1200 miles and keep 4 months”

If you have a regular service station, ask them. Al, who fixes our cars, would pretty easily be able to get me a car for a few months.

Maybe fly to the destination and purchase a car there.

Maybe I missed part of the explanation but if she plans on taking her stuff with her from home can she rent a car in your state? On the news recently they reported that used car prices are down and that many leasing companies are trying to get their customers to extend their leases because the market is so poor for used cars.

Ditto. Buy used at the location. . When oldest was in Wisconsin we bought her a used CRV spur of the moment.

I said to the sales rep, I guess this happens all the time. He said, actually no.

ETA we still have this car as an extra and the DD’s often borrow it.

Is she driving there from your home state? Can't you rent the car and list her as a driver on the rental agreement?

The rental companies do long-term rentals but I'm sure they will not do this for an 18 year old. You probably do need to buy a used car and re-sell it. Not sure I'd be OK with an 18 year old driving 1,200 miles by themselves either due to safety reasons and driving experience.

My DD just left for a job in another province. We wanted to rent a car for her to drive there so she didn't have to fly. She's 20, we couldn't do it - she couldn't even be secondary driver on the rental if I rented. I think your only option is to buy.

My daughter was in a similar situation this spring when she got a job while away at school. We are 3000 miles away and thought the job would just be for spring semester (she would be home for summer) so we didn't want to buy a car. We looked a various things but decided it was actually cheaper for her to just take uber to work.

Thats not ideal and wouldn't work in your daughter’s situation. But one of the options my daughter had considered was taking over someone’s lease. I didnt realize this was a thing, but it’s almost like subletting an apartment. There are plenty of people that lease but end up not wanting/needing the car for the full lease. I can’t remember the website, but my daughter sent it to me. It seems legit, but I didn‘t do any research since we decided it was cheaper for her to just use uber. Of course, now she’s not coming home for the summer after all, and we are looking at having to remotely buy a car for her senior year.

Ah, here is the website. Again, just a suggestion for consideration as I never looked into personally. Lease Traders

I think this might work for you. You only have to be 18. https://turo.com/us/en/car-rental/united-states

If it's available in the state.

My husband used it for a short-term rental and it worked well.

I couldn’t recall the name, but some friends rented a car in Oregon from Turo when we went out last summer as a group. The owner met them at the airport with the car and met them when they left. It was a young-ish couple who needed the money. If there is someone in your area who would rent out their car for that long and that many miles, it could be a good option. Otherwise, I would just buy a good used car and sell it later. IMO, it would be worth the insurance and added protection especially if you have some sort of towing/breakdown/vehicle protection plan associated with your insurance if she needs it.

Gotta run (finally able today to move one kids' stuff out of their dorm this afternoon) but I wanted to say that you guys, as always, are AMAZING. Lots of options i'd not considered or even heard of!

PS I just checked with my husband and he too remembers having car rental age limits mitigated by his employer. And while it's not your daughter's employer who is requiring the care rental, maybe they can help by using their account to make the rental arrangements.

PPS I am so happy your daughter is able to get to work on her internship!

I checked and Turo does allow long-term rentals. In fact, when I did my test search, there was a 30% discount for a rental over 30 days.

I can't imagine renting a car for 6 months with unlimited mileage would be cheaper than just buying something used. I totaled my minivan a few weeks ago, and rather than purchasing another one, I thought we might just rent one for the long road trips where we need it (I have a smaller car for day to day driving). The cheapest we could rent a minivan for a 3 week trip this summer was $1500. Makes zero financial sense to rent at that rate - we use the minivan for a few long trips every year (vacation + moving kids to college) plus local trip where we need to haul stuff that's too big for a normal car. Needless to say, I'm in the market for another minivan now....sigh!

I'd look into a used Kia Soul (my smaller day to day car) - we own 2 and they are pretty cheap on the used market, reliable, good on gas, 5 star crash rating (2014 and newer) and hold a surprising amount (which you might need if she's moving herself there and back in it.) They are popular rental cars and around here, Hertz sells them fairly cheaply after their rental period is up.

You would not be able to rent a car in Tn at age 18.

Could also buy it, then donate it when she's done. In our state, you claim the value that the charity sold it for on your taxes.

I'd look at buying a small car from a rental car company. Hertz is in finanacial trouble, so I suspect one could negotiate because they need the cash. In my area there are several under $10K with mileage under 50K. Nothing fancy, but fine for the purpose.

You know, Moxie, almost everyone is in trouble, but you'd be surprised how hard that is to turn into a deal! Especially at very large companies.

Anyway, you guys are invaluable once again. The more I think about it, we don't need a sixth car, we just need an extra car for the next 5 moths are so. Because we need to feel very confident about reliability, we don't want to buy just any old car (which we would if she were living home and had us as backup). Taking over a lease is intriguing, but for timing reasons (paperwork takes a while), we would need to start now, while we are in CT. But I've concluded it makes no sense to put those miles on a car (2400 roundtrip) that she will only use for 5 months, better to transact in FL. And Gscience makes a good point about how ambitious the trip is for a young driver. So we will either drive her down or fly (late June, oh joy)

So I think our best option is to rent using Turo once she gets to FL. She only has to be 18. Some of the cars are parts of fleets, not just an individual (in the sameway some Air bnbs are someone's house and some are part of a portfolio managed by a real estate co). By renting from a fleet, there is a better chance she can swap out the car if something goes wrong. There are some pretty reasonable cars she can rent for $30-35 day (given the discounts for such a long rental). Compared to the bid/ask on used cars and the uncertainties, transactions costs, etc, it's not bad.

I did a lot of internet searching and never came up with this option, so thank you all again!

PS I do need to check w our insurer about how they cover this.

Could you rent a car for your needs and lend one of your vehicles to your child?

Very glad Turo will work for you. We will be using it again in the future rather than renting a car as it is so convenient to have them meet you at the airport and just hand you the keys rather than having to navigate to a rental counter.

The gentleman my husband rented from was so nice, we didn't know where to fill the car up w/ gas upon returning it and he said not to worry he would just do it for the actual price of the gas. He did and sent us a photo to show we weren't charged any extra

Rather, No, they don't allow that; whether you are an additional driver or the primary driver you must meet the minimum age. In fact, I thought it was law so not sure why Turo only requires drivers to be 18yo. I double-checked on that though and they confirmed it. But we need to be there in person to transact. We will probably fly (its a month away). I tend to think a 3hr flight is that is less risky then spending 3-4 days on the road both ways. We will buy some extra seats if they don't already facilitate spacing in that way.

Thanks, Beagles, it's great to have insight from a real live customer!

Sounds like a great option-- and really, $30-35/day is not far off (and possibly cheaper) than what she'd pay for an uber and it gives her so much more flexibility and independence. I pay almost $30 a day just to get to my office and back -- and it's barely 4 mi away.

So glad this opportunity has worked out for your DD-- even with all the covid restrictions!

Thanks, Funky, I am so glad too although I will miss her! Not sure between the demands of her job and the bizarreo-world that is now travel, if I will see her at all the next 5 months.

Alas Uber wouldn't work anyway because she needs to be able to go places throughout the state.

Ah I understood uber wasn't an option. I was just making the mental comparison as monthly uber costs are so clear in my head (well, from 3 months ago!)

I am sure you will miss her but it's such a great age to get out and experience the world on her own. I hope you are able to pop down to visit.. it's hard to look forward and guess what the world and travel will look like.

Funky, you must find something to do with all those Uber savings. The apparel companies need you; I think in April clothing sales were down 89% year over year!?

LOL.. trust me, I have done my part to support the retail world! Between early Christmas shopping and my own retail therapy, I have been busy! (Shopping shoes today)

I think Rather was saying send your daughter in one of your cars and then YOU rent a car at home when needed.

Oh yes, you are right, Oly. Sorry about that.

Our cars are not appropriate for a 2400 miles roundtrip and then daily driving while there. We have 2 bmw convertibles, one here and one at our summer house. We have an enormous Cadillac Escalade, they call it the monster truck, for transporting family, dog and harp. My son has an ancient BMW x3 for local driving; something like 125k miles. Then we have our "new" car I got last summer, which is the car we drive every day and worth far too much to give an 18yr old on this jaunt while we ride around in a Camry LOL