Getting rid of my old car is half the battle. Now, to find a car out west...
Clearly I will need a ride while traveling out west. The first question: rent or buy?
Rent
Found out quickly, this isn't really an option. I did a quick search and the cheapest rental I could find for six months is $7,200+ ... for the smallest cheapest economy car they have on the lot that could never handle mountain roads or snow. So this idea is totally out.
Buy
This is my go to. The general plan is to buy a used car and then sell it back to Carvana at the end of the summer. Even if it ends up costing me $7,000, at least I will have a decent car for that money and the option to keep it.
Now, which car to buy?
A few of my friends (Kris, Deb, Ryan, Liz) gave me some excellent advice to focus on AWD SUVs with high reliability and high resale value. Ideally, I'll find something under $25k.
The search has been narrowed to:
Toyota 4Runner, Highlander, or RAV4
Honda CR-V
Subaru Forester (sorry, Liz and Ryan, I just can't love an Outback station wagon despite the "commercial" you told me about)
Acura RDX ... threw this into the mix because it has AWD and Lisa loves hers. I also had to lift the $25k limit :)
Here are some examples of the cars I'm looking at:
Verdict
Decision still pending.
Any comments or suggestions? Would love to hear your thoughts before I head out!
Getting Plates While Homeless Poses Challenges
The next challenge: how does one get license plates for a car without a local address?
You buy the car. You get the temporary tags. But where do they mail the permanent plates?
If I use my address (ok, my parents' address) in Virginia, the plates get sent there. And I'm unsure whether I would need to have the car inspected. If so, that poses a problem since I won't be back to VA for several months.
The woman at CarMax said I could use an Airbnb address, but then if the plates don't arrive until after I check out, that poses a new problem.
Jared & Katie in AZ to the rescue! They said I can send the plates to them and we can figure out the exchange from there. Now, fingers crossed I don't encounter any curveballs once I'm actually there on the lot.
If any of you know DMV rules, please let me know!
Oh, funny story!
After explaining my "homeless adventure" to the woman at CarMax, she said, "I'm really sorry you're going through this. I hope things start looking up for you soon."
OH MY GOSH!!! Head smack. I joke about being "homeless" around my friends, but never thought that other people might think I mean the words I say. LOL! But really, how sweet was she to say that??
Ok, time to wrap this up and whew! You never thought I could talk this much about not having a car, did you?