Rental as long term strategy?

Mocoondo wrote:
Disclaimer: I rent motorhomes.

We have done objective studies time and time again comparing rental to ownership using average daily rental + mileage rates in comparison to known costs to own, maintain, insure, store, operate and depreciate an identical privately owned coach. Using a cost comparison approach only, If you cannot or will not use a coach at least 9,500 cumulative miles over a year, it makes better financial sense to rent vs buy. On average, you should plan to spend $1,500 per week for a rental in high season. Anything more than that and you are probably overpaying.

Of course, many people own without regard to expense comparison, simply because they enjoy the aspect of ownership versus rental. If you can get past that, rental makes a lot more sense than ownership if you do not plan to exceed roughly 9,500 miles a year. Once you cross that 9,500 mile threshold (all things being equal), then a solid case begins to develop favoring ownership as the more cost effective solution.

As a data point, the average privately owned coach is driven about 4,000 miles per year, so most owners are paying more to own than if they would have rented for the same amount of usage.

Thanks! That's exactly the type analysis I was looking for. I just kept running the numbers and I'd probably be at 3 weeks and probably 4,000-5,000 miles. I couldn't find solid data on mileage charges but on weekly charges, it just looked like cost of rental vs ownership was no contest towards rental from a financial perspective.

From usability, I get that there is a nice factor to owning - and will in retirement - but I also like that I can rent the size I need for the specific trip.