Car Hire vs Car ownership

[Archer]

I am spending over £2000 pa on Car Hire in Fuerteventura. What are the pro's and con's for each option, OWNERSHIP VS RENTAL, in your opinion?

For me, the pro's of car hire are: convenience, no hassle, airport availability and no breakdown concerns. But, would £2000 be best spent on my own car?

[lionfish]

I asked the same question (of myself) about 12 months ago. Finally purchased a second-hand car in May of last year and have been very pleased with it.
Questions to ask yourself:-
How much use in a year?
Have you somewhere safe to park the car when you are not here?
Whereabouts on the island you are based - this affects taxi/transfer costs if you own your own car?
Have you got someone to keep an eye on it in your absence?
By all means pm me if you want to know more.

[Archer]

Thanks for your comments, Lionfish. We have a place about as far from the airport as you can get, at Morro Jable! The first and return transfer is what has put us off buying. All those transfers would have to be factored in.
Storage is no problem as we have a secure underground garage.
Roughly what are your fixed costs and how do you cover for a potential breakdown, if at all?
Thanks

[decho]

There is a company near the airport who provide parking a lot cheaper than the airport car park.
Breakdown cover is included with your car insurance.

[luciapaul]

DETAILS PLEASE DECHO

[lionfish]

I think my insurance was about 300â,¬ for the year. This is fully comp; any driver and includes full breakdown cover.
Not sure of other costs as the car I bought was 3 years old (an ex hire car) and it came with 2 years ITV (MOT) and 2 years tax. I have not had to spend anything on it except for fuel during my 8 month ownership. I believe that ITV and tax are much cheaper than in UK, but still 16 months to go before I find out.
My return transfers are much cheaper, as I am much closer to the airport - taxi 12â,¬, bus 1â,¬ (with bono card) and I sometimes get lifts from friends, so fairly insignificant compared with hire car costs.
I also had read about the place that offered storage, but don't have any details. It was on this forum I think, but may have been one of the topics which was not recovered. From memory, they met you at the airport and took your car away to El Matoral for storage. They brought it back to the airport to meet you next arrival.
Hope it wasn't Orlando o/w you would have lots of dints and a much higher mileage!!

[Will196]

I am spending over £2000 pa on Car Hire in Fuerteventura. What are the pro's and con's for each option, OWNERSHIP VS RENTAL, in your opinion?

For me, the pro's of car hire are: convenience, no hassle, airport availability and no breakdown concerns. But, would £2000 be best spent on my own car?

You don't say how much you use the car. Do you really need the car every day? Do you go to remote places off the bus routes? If/when your car needs work will you be happy doing it on vacation? The car will still need all the routine maintenance.  You need to replace the car every so often. How old of a car are you comfortable driving?

Isn't the  bus from the airport to Jandia about â,¬10? So £2000 is more then two hundred bus trips.

You often see people renting cars for a week and then leaving it parked at the hotel all week. Can you minimize how many days you rent?

In the end it's up to you. It's nice having your own car that feels like home. It's rarely cheaper if you don't need the car quite a bit.

[Archer]

Yes, you are right, the car sits here day after day without use sometimes. I did look into one way rental, to the Port, as another option. When we use the car we travel fairly much everywhere, so would clock up 5k kms per year, no probs.
Running costs seem lower than the UK - no road tax, and having breakdown cover in the insurance is a bonus.
I have heard new cars are lower cost, than UK, as well. Anyone bought new?

[lionfish]

The airport parking company were mentioned on another forum, not this. I will give details, but don't hold me responsible - all I'm doing is passing on contact details.
The company is called guardauto (or Guard Auto) apparently have a website so search for guard auto Fuerteventura.
Try http://translate.google.es/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://guardauto.es/&prev=search

[decho]

YEs the companies web site is
http://guardauto.es/
I haven't used them but someone posted on here a while ago after using them and was happy with the service.
Seems like a good service though and definitely cheaper than airport parking although still works out quite expensive over the year.
I also believe some people offer private parking spaces at their houses close to the airport for 1 Euro a Day but I've not managed to find any.

I'm not sure if its cheaper  to own your own car by the time you take into account depreciation and running costs etc -  probably not, but what I found was that if I wanted a bigger car it became very expensive to hire and if you go out at peak times (like Christmas) the prices go up considerably and availability is short.

Theres a piece of waste ground on the opposite side of the motorway and I am sure many people leave their cars there, as they also do at the edge of the approach roads, but I am not sure how safe it is.

I have often thought if I could get a few people together to buy/rent one of the buildings/yards in this area it would make it a lot easier - I think quite a few people have purchased cars and have the same problem.

As for buying, there are not many car dealers. I bought my Zafira from Orvecame (a refurbished cicar rental car just over 3 years old) and so far it has been great. One of the salesman (Carlos) speaks English and was very helpful in sorting everything out. I also believe AboutCars have a very good reputation but they couldn't get me the type of car I wanted at the time.

I think you do have to pay some road tax but its not very much.

[Captain Sensible]

Road tax is payable to your local Ayuntamiento.  In Antigua I pay 44.30â,¬ a year for a Ford Fiesta.