There has been one thing that has been bothering me tremendously this Summer. And that is the price of renting a car. I live in Brooklyn, and owning a car here is incredibly expensive. Between maintenance (city streets are rough on a car), insurance (easily $2500 a year, even if you have an excellent driving record) and parking (if you don’t spend $300 a month for a parking space you’ll spend a nice chunk of change on parking tickets), a car can really drain the budget.
So I choose to take mass transit most of the time, occasionally renting a car for a long weekend. Generally I spent $40-60 per day to rent a car, and renting one for a weekend each month has always cost far less than owning a car would.
Something has happened this year though; car rental costs have gone through the roof! Avis in Stamford has been charging $120 per weekend day. Add in tax, insurance and other fees, and two weekends at this price cost almost as much as owning a car.
Now I love Brooklyn, but I do like my occasional weekend escape in the country in the Summer, so these car rental prices have really bothered me. In fact, since I am trying to save money, I have only rented a car once this Summer. But I don’t like to be confined here, so over the past several weeks I have really given some thought to buying a car. But then I think about the hassles, the parking, the cost to insure, and I back away from the idea.
A couple weeks ago I rode on the back of a friend’s motorcycle. I’ve never owned a motorcycle, and in fact, never cared much for them after a couple different friends back in high school were badly injured in motorcycle accidents. But riding out in the open air was really nice. And so was paying about $8 for enough gas to go 200 miles. So I began to consider this, and to do some research. A motorcycle isn’t quite me, but then I started to think about the Vespa motor scooters that I see more and more often in Brooklyn. When I started to pay attention to easily people are able to park them, and how easy it is to maneuver around and through city traffic I really became interested. When I read accounts of people driving them to the Hamptons, New England and even across the United States, I became totally enamored of the idea.
So two weeks ago I became the owner of a sky blue 250 GTS Vespa. It was expensive, but it drives beautifully. I can park it just about anywhere. I took it into Manhattan last Saturday and hit about a dozen thrift stores, something that I could never have done foot or via mass transit. Yesterday I convinced M. to get on the back and we drove out to Jones Beach in Long Island, about 30 miles away. This morning I even commuted to work on it!
My monthly payment, insurance and gas will add up to about $270, which is half of what a compact car would cost me here in Brooklyn. And the Vespa is so much more practical. Rather than cursing the traffic, I am actually having fun driving around. Enough fun to explain why I haven’t posted in a couple weeks……tonight I brought my laptop with me to a park by New York Harbor where there is internet access, and where I am writing this post. btw I’m going on vacation next week, so expect the posting frequency to increase.
I spent money that I hadn’t planned to spend, but I don’t regret it in the least. Maybe this is a sign of a midlife crisis, but I sure am enjoying that Vespa! I cannot figure out why I let 20 years go by in this city without owning one before.