Having been in the 300+ category myself, I agree that renting would not make sense for you.

I used to work for a group of car dealerships. At first, I could not figure out where all these people came from that could buy all these expense cars. Then I learned the truth: they borrow and borrow and borrow and spend their life working to pay them off (only looked rich). I committed early on to not put myself in a position that I HAD to work a "real" job even if things went bad for a while. This meant that smart purchases were a must right from the start.

Used is often a very good route to go. When we needed another vehcle, we found a new van on sale that was cheaper than a 1-year-old used one so it was a no-brainer. Honestly, I didn't have any intention of going new but only did because it made financial sense.

I try to avoid as many loans and bank account draining posessions as possible. At least those that don't have some return (my mortgage was the smartest thing I've ever done financially - house has doubled in price in 10 years!) or those that really do contribute to my happinss.

Howie- why do you ask are you buying me one!!?

nope a magic bus is not for me. I am looking to go back to having the custom show car again. I miss it for one and two it really did perk up the interest of my clients. working a few ideas. not sure how soon I will get it as I am working so many different angles and things right now.

for now my truck is the best thing for me as it is almost paid for besides I save almost $350 a month riding my motorcycle during the spring and summer months. its just so hard to pull the trailer though LOL

I'm sitting around in an airport and was curious about the numbers so did a little thought experiment.

I recognize that I'm making a lot of assumptions here but feel free to do your own figuring:

Let's say you buy a resonably priced auto of about $22,000 (with taxes) but then, over 4.5 years, with interest and maintenance, it ends up being about $30,000 in actual cost over that time. You use the car for your business over 4.5 years.
The shows you do is 350 x 4.5 years is 1575 shows.
The cost of your vehcile (not including gas) is $19 a show. (that's 30,000 divided by 1575)

I'm currently renting a car for 2 days and it's costing me $38 for 2 days including taxes. This is $19 a day. The same as your car is costing you (assuming you do one show a day). And I only need it on days I actually am making money.

Now, your car won't be worth zero I'm assuming at the end (but you will lose most of the value) so there is a reduction in cost there due to re-sale. But, on the other side, I'm sure many of your days have multiple shows so the cost of renting on those days would be considerably less per show.

The option of not buying a car may actually make more sense to some of you than you may think.

Anyway, I'm not trying to advocate that you start renting. Rather, I encourage everyone to look at your own numbers to actually see what makes the most sense - with cars and basically any other business expense. Business costs really do add up.

Given the same cost numbers above ($30,000 for 4.5 years) at 150 shows a year (perhaps more representative of the typical pro), a person should be expecting the vehicle expense for each show to be $45 A SHOW not including gas! Crazy! At $150 a show price (for example), a person would barely be making profit by the time your car, gas, marketing, advertising, computer, phone etc get taken out.

Sorry...it's just that I find this stuff interesting Like I mentioned, use your own assumptions and come up with your own conclusions.

Like I said, I like the way you think, Scott. You’ve really given my something to think about.

Scott, the car is costing you $38.00 because you have a car and if I am not mistaken, you are transferring the insurance to the rental car. If you relied on rental cars only with no private car, the cost would increase an additional $10.00 to $15.00 per day.

If your married with one car insured, the insurance company will not cover you to add a rental car to your insurance, since the other car is home with your wife being driven around and not in a shop or a airport parking lot.

For me, because of all the stuff I carry to a show, the van will be the only option to rent, the cheapest cost for that in my area is $40.00 per day. Not a bad deal, but then I lose the 24/7 advertising and I would need to load and unload the van every time I rent it.

As long as you making a decision based upon an awareness of the facts, then you are in good shape. Yes, the facts and assumptions will change from person to person. I just found it interesting.

This whole car, and the transportation to show threads I find interesting

You need a vehicle to get to shows. This is true. In business the idea is to take a liability and turn it into an asset if you can. Many people wrap the car in order to get advertisement from the car. Good plan.

Fact is you need reliable transportation in order to operate. Beat plan is to save money for the car. Not easy and takes discipline. But consider you will need a new vehicle often enough to probably be in a payment forever. But if you can save for it you will be ahead all that interest! This can add up to quite a lot of money.

The best gas mileage you can and the lowest equipped might be a pretty good plan.