Patrick Carroll

My wife and I have taken 2 3000 mile trips the past 2 summers and we rented a car. You can get a pretty comfortable, high gas mileage car for pretty cheap and you don't put all the miles and rock chips on your car.

subterFUSE

Get plane tickets.



In all seriousness, however, I have an old 1999 Lexus LS400 car with 138,000 miles on it that we keep just for purposes like this. That car is unstoppable. They don't make cars that reliable any more. It just keeps going and going.

ayap

My brother has a BMW and hardly uses it, because he 'rents' for out of town trips. He parks his car in the garage and looks at it from time to time, and just drives it occasionally and locally. I'm not like him - I bought my Audi so I can enjoy driving on road trips.

But of course, 7000 miles is a lot of miles. So, my question is - what's your current mileage ? If you only have 1,000 miles on your car, then do it ! Aside from this trip, how many miles do you rack up a year??? If you only rack up 5,000 - 6,000 miles a year - go for it.

gatorguy7

At the same time, if you put a lot of miles on your car every year then what's another 7k? The best time to drive your car is on road trips. It is when you can enjoy every feature the most.

superswiss

... and rent a car at the destination. I do love road trips and I always take my car, but they are usually less than 1000 miles. Having said that, I did do a 4000 miles road trip all over Europe after picking up my car in Ingolstadt, but that was spread over 3.5 weeks and the whole point was to drive my new car on the Autobahn as much as I possible could.

Brooklyn

For me personally, it's not so much an issue of the miles on the car, though that can certainly be a concern. If the trip is particularly scenic, or I'm doing some kind of road trip for purposes of sight seeing, then it just makes more sense to fly to (a) avoid a fatiguing drive of that length, and (b) the potential rock chips that might pop up over such a long drive. My 7 y/o kid and I are on a mission to hit every mlb park, and this summer we may take a road trip out to Ohio to knock out Cleveland and Cinci...so for that trip, driving might actually make sense since I have to pick him up in St. Louis and eventually drive him back here to VA. But otherwise, for just a routine down and back trip, the bird wins over the road every time.

in2dwww

No matter where you end up on your trip, you'll likely need a car. I own a car, so I'd use it. Flights and rentals or depreciation, you'll end up paying for it sooner or later. 7,000 highway miles won't add too much wear and tear on the car, it's just another 6 months of use. Just don't take a leased car.

Mike_L

Some people, myself included, would rather not fly. We drive every where. Not sure about the OP, but personally, I won't fly because I refuse to be crammed into a tin can with hundreds of other people, breathing recirculated air, containing god knows what, with any ailments they may have, any stinks they may have, being groped and harassed before getting into said tin can, and having no control over my own destiny.

No thanks. Give me a car any day. By myself, being able to open the windows, stop when I feel like stopping, and being in complete control.

dicktahoe

"Just don't take a leased car." I'd like to question this. I just ran the numbers on an MDX I owned for 10 years. Depreciation alone was 38-cents/mile, and when you add in Insurance, Tires, Maintenance, Wear and Tear etc., the costs go to a little over 50-cents per mile. Driving a leased car over the "mileage limit" and paying and extra 25-30 cents/mile is cheap no matter how you figure it.

ScrewGuy

I would drive my Audi. It's an awesome road car, enjoy the drive.