I've got a trip to Cali coming up (The one that will prevent me from making the 2/1 run) and I had a question.

For a strictly business road trip of 2,000 miles, would you put the miles on your own car, or get a rental?

Rental:
Pros: potential for better mileage
Not putting miles on the 3 (not taking the Miata this time)

cons: rental cost.

If it's a business trip, who is paying for the rental? If you take your own car, will you get paid mileage? When I travel on business, I get to claim the mileage to and from the airport. If I were to drive to the destination, they wouldn't pay me mileage but would settle on a flat rate (since all the travel destinations are pretty far away).

I agree with Tom. With previous business trips my company covered the plane ticket, hotel and car rental if needed. I would suspect they should cover your travel costs as well. If driving is the only option I would get a rental and let the company cover the cost.

Perhaps 'business' was the wrong word.

It's personal travel, but it's not a pleasure trip.

Tough call.

How bad is the mileage on the 3 to not consider taking it? You might save a little in gas money by getting a rental, but probably not enough to justify the cost of the rental.

I'd probably stick to taking the 3 on strictly economic reasons. The 3 is just an economy car. It's not going to go up in value by keeping the miles off.

i think the 3 would be a fun car to take to cali....whipping through the mountains and all. Consider it a "break in" trip.

What good is your car if not to put miles on it? The first thing I did with my RX8 was put 1200 miles on it driving from CA to CO.

I'm driving out to Cali in March. No rental for me, just me and the speed. I get surprisingly good mileage on the highway with the speed. I would bet you would get awesome mileage with the 3. Not sure what rental would beat the 3.

I'm beginning to see the light here.

I think i was clouded by a recent trip from Cleveland to NY in the rental 6s. The thing that stuck in my mind was the range of the thing.. I think I got 400+ miles out of a single tank...

Red95FMII wrote:I'm beginning to see the light here.

I think i was clouded by a recent trip from Cleveland to NY in the rental 6s. The thing that stuck in my mind was the range of the thing.. I think I got 400+ miles out of a single tank...

The 6i i have as a rental right now gets near 500 miles to a tank. I cant remember what the size of the tank on the 3 is, but if its about the same you would probably get pretty close to that.

I could be wrong here, but if I remember correctly I think the 3 has a 12 gallon tank, and the 6 has a 18 gallon tank.

ZoomPrincess wrote:I could be wrong here, but if I remember correctly I think the 3 has a 12 gallon tank, and the 6 has a 18 gallon tank.

That sounds right to me. The first time i filled up the 6i and it went past 12 gallons i was surprised.

14.5 gallons on the 3.... 18 gallons on the 6

turbo99jetta wrote:14.5 gallons on the 3.... 18 gallons on the 6

Sweet. Thanks Josh!

Either way i think the 3 would be perfectly fine for a drive to CA.

I'd take the 3. Rental can be a pain, as you don't know the reliability of the vehicle you get.