Whether you’re moving across town or between states, every move takes extensive and advance planning. Choosing to move with your own car is a big step, but thee are a huge number of potential pitfalls: from the wear and tear on your body, to unexpected fuel costs on your car.
Though you may opt to move with your own car to save money on moving and rental equipment, there are many hidden costs and disadvantages to using your own car.
Advantages of moving with your own car:
- No rental fee: For smaller moves within cities, it might be cheaper to load your belongings into your car. If you live in a studio apartment or dorm, this method is especially cheaper.
- No deadline for returning rental gear: Moving is stressful and it is often hard to estimate how much time you need to load, move, and unload all of your belongings. Without rental equipment, you are free to take as much time as you need while moving.
Disadvantages to moving with your own car:
- Making multiple trips: With just a car, you will have to make more trips to your new home to get all of your belongings there.
- Gas expenses: When you make more trips, you spend more gas. Rental truck companies like U-Haul use a fuel-economy gauge to save money on fuel and reduce air pollution.
- Depreciation from Mileage: Most other things, like cars, experience a decrease in value after they’re purchased. Due to age, mileage, wear and tear, or even market conditions, cars lose value over time. To calculate the depreciation on your car, go here.
- Wear and tear on your body: Without loading ramps, large and heavy boxes might be very difficult to load into your car. Moving with your own car might mean it is hard to place items into it. With a moving truck’s loading ramp, you don’t have to worry about straining your back while putting heavy items in your car.
- Wear and tear on the interior of your car: Overloading your car may result in damages to the interior of your car. As an alternative, research rental trucks that provide value and size for their price. As an alternative, companies like U-Haul also offer small moving trucks.
- Increased tire pressure: If you overload your car to reduce the amount of trips you need to make, you are significantly increasing the pressure on your tires. To learn how to check your tire pressure, you can either buy a tire pressure monitoring system or buy a gauge and learn how here.
- No tie-downs: Without tie downs in your car, items may move around during your journey. Moving trucks come equipped with rub rails that allow you to use tie downs when moving. This prevents your items from shifting and breaking during transportation.
Do you prefer to move with your own car, or get a rental truck? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
