Looking for H1 for mid-term rent - need help!

Dear friends,
 
I intend to go on a trip all over the US and I would like to do it by driving an H1. Originally, I considered buying one and selling it after this five-months-trip.
 
But now I wonder if it wouldn't be cheaper and more hassle-free to rent if from somebody on a private basis. Unfortuntely, I couldn't find anything on the web except a few commercial offers for short term rent which are outrageously expensive if applied to a period of five months.
 
I won't do any off-roading or any silly driving. I just want to drive the H1 on my trip across the country.
 
Please feel invited to add any comments to my thoughts (buying vs. renting) or perhaps you know somebody willing to lend his H1 from mid May to mid October at a reasonable rate.
 
Thanks,
 
n.

Good luck with that! At $4.50 a gallon that would be a rather hefty expense just on diesel!

Unless you find someone really desperate I don't think you will have much luck. H1s require maintenance. A 5 month trip around the country would put a lot of miles on a truck. That impacts both value and maintenance costs. Unless you have a friend with an H1 that just wants to help you out I don't think you will have much luck. Hopefully it works out for you.

I dont think anyone would even rent a Civic to someone they dont know for 5 months.  Buy, then Sell

The price isn't so much an issue for me as I expect to resell the car at a good price five months later.

By renting the car I just seeked to get around the registration and insurance procedures which could be difficult for me (I'm not from the US). The lendor's lack of trust in me can be handled by using a deposit of whatever to make sure I'll bring the car back and in good condition.

The situation is, that I don't want to spend so much time for all of the registration, inspection and insurance stuff.

Thus, I would prefer lending over buying but there are hardly any useful quotations on the market. If I lend the H1 at a commercial rate of $200/day I would end up with a bill of $30,000 after five months. For that amount I could buy a used one, so it's useless.

The fuel prices don't shock me that much, in Europe they're 50% higher.

I think the best route is to buy a nice used Hummer ( and you won't do that for 30K ), have it serviced by a dealer and set out on your trip. Even if you sell it for something less than you paid for it the gap can't be anywhere close to the rental charges you were quoted.

Thanks everybody for the comments, I really appreciate them.
 
It really seems that I will have to do a purchase. How long do you think would it take to insure, inspect & register the car once I've bought it? Is it a matter of days or of weeks?
 
As far as I've found out, the necessary steps are:
 
- purchase
- pay tax
- register
- insure
- inspection within 10 days after registration
 
Do you have any idea what the average minimum costs of insurance could be if there's no driver's history available? Somewhere I've heard that in these cases the monthly insurance costs for an H1 can surpass $600 but to me that seems too high to be true.
 
 

With no driving history You will be rated as a pretty high risk. The premium will be partly determined by the value of the vehicle. I think you need an address to register the vehicle. That would be a question for the DMV or dealer. $600.00/mo seems real high under almost any circumstance.

Look into leasing a H1. I met someone at a hummer event that leased their H1 from a dealer.

That's a lot easier when dealers have new vehicles. Not sure of a dealer that would consider that. If you want to look into that talk to Lynch Hummer and Hummer of Sacramento. They usually have large selections.

If my lease contract didnt require me to be the only person to drive my truck, i might have considered it... Would be a great way to get my Cummins :)

You lease your H1?

I thought you could not offroad a truck and lease it

You can you just have to pay for damage above the normal " wear & tear".

Only way I could get approved was to lease it... but I am buying it out at the end and guess what the buyout is.....
 
$1 :P
 
 

Then screw the lease rules and try to get your cummins conversion if you are going to buy it out anyway. One more thing how long have you had it for? When is the lease going to finish?

I think I would buy it out for a buck also. If you decide you don't want to let me know. LOL

It was a 5yr lease(I know ouch) will end in 3 yrs this may.
But yea it was the cheapest H1 in canada that I could find at the time and Financing got denied and so did alot of other things too so it was either get it and get nailed by the lease or not have a hummer... so wasnt much of a decision there in my opinion since the H1 is the ultimate vehicle for this big redskin.