The sad thing is we don't even drive the Kuga that much, only for long trips. I think it would be a reasonable bet that we've spent less on fuel than we have on maintenance.

Last road trip from Auckland to Wellington, we just hired a big car (a mid-size SUV, I guess). 100% recommend anyone shopping for a car (or whatever) does a quick check to see if it's actually worth owning it vs hiring. In my case (one kid and no boat), it's way cheaper to just hire something big and flash for the occasional road trips.

[–] Dave 1 points 2 weeks ago

Hmm possibly. A quick look on budget rentals and it seems you're looking at $1000 a week for a big SUV or $5-600 for the mid-sized SUVs or any other car.

I don't remember if I've ever hired a car, I assume you pay for your own fuel?

Both our parents and most of our extended family live hours away so we probably spend 3 weeks and 5-10 weekends (usually 3 day weekends) a year away. Some years it's more. If that's $5k a year on rentals and you still pay for your own fuel I'm not sure it would be cheaper.

We are probably a bit special though, most people probably don't spend that long away from home if their parents are closer (or really far away - whether horizontally or vertically).

I also underplayed how often we use the car. It's used probably a couple of times a week for short trips, but only because sometimes my wife and I need to do different things at the same time.