Road Trip? Three 19-year-old Danes Hit the Road!
Hello Jamie!
We are three danish guys (age 19, 19 and 20) who are planing a 3 months road trip in the USA. Our plan is to start out in NY, and end in California. We are planning to buy a used car, and selling it back when we reach our destination..
How hard/easy is it to sell a car after such a roadtrip?
And another question: We don't really have any contacts in USA, so it would be awesome to be put into contact with people you could stay with for a period of time. How do we do that? :)
Kind Regards
Gustav :)
==
Hallo Gustav --
Thanks for writing in to Road Trip USA.
Your trip sounds like great fun, an you could definitely have a great time, buying a car, driving around the country, then selling it when you're done. If you can fix up cars, you could even make money!
But -- to do so in full compliance with all the many state and national laws is very difficult. Even more so because you are young (car rental and car insurance is very expensive for those under 23 years old), and not US residents, so doing all the paperwork to register a car legally could prove impossible.
The best thing would be to get yourselves adopted by some rich American, who could lend you a car. Preferably a classic 1960s Corvette, or a big old Cadillac so you could sleep in the backseat.
:-)
Or maybe you could find an older friend (with a credit card and driver's license!), and persuade him or her to join you. Renting cars for 3 months is expensive, but if you split the costs 3 or 4 ways it's not outrageous (esp since your Kroner is worth much more than our sad old indebted US $ Dollar.)
Or you could try to buy a car that had all the paperwork in order, and just pretend the person who sold it to you was still the legal owner -- but I don't know what this would mean if you got into a wreck. It's totally possible that you could drive around the USA for 3 months and never come into contact with a policeman, but you definitely don't want to rot in some rural Texas jail ...
So I don't really know what to say.
One other option is to search for ride-shares, where you would sort of car-pool with travelers -- check out Craigslist.Org for some ideas. Like this: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/rid/2776274777.html
And about staying with people along the way, I've heard of organizations (like http://www.couchsurfing.org/ ) but haven't done it myself.
Hope this reply doesn't put you off your adventure -- there are lots of ways to get around the USA, by train and bus and bicycle and foot, and it is a great country to get to know.
Cheers -- skol?! -- to you, too.
With best wishes,
Jamie Jensen
-
Road Trip USA
We are three danish guys (age 19, 19 and 20) who are planing a 3 months road trip in the USA. Our plan is to start out in NY, and end in California. We are planning to buy a used car, and selling it back when we reach our destination..
How hard/easy is it to sell a car after such a roadtrip?
And another question: We don't really have any contacts in USA, so it would be awesome to be put into contact with people you could stay with for a period of time. How do we do that? :)
Kind Regards
Gustav :)
==
Hallo Gustav --
Thanks for writing in to Road Trip USA.
Your trip sounds like great fun, an you could definitely have a great time, buying a car, driving around the country, then selling it when you're done. If you can fix up cars, you could even make money!
But -- to do so in full compliance with all the many state and national laws is very difficult. Even more so because you are young (car rental and car insurance is very expensive for those under 23 years old), and not US residents, so doing all the paperwork to register a car legally could prove impossible.
The best thing would be to get yourselves adopted by some rich American, who could lend you a car. Preferably a classic 1960s Corvette, or a big old Cadillac so you could sleep in the backseat.
:-)
Or maybe you could find an older friend (with a credit card and driver's license!), and persuade him or her to join you. Renting cars for 3 months is expensive, but if you split the costs 3 or 4 ways it's not outrageous (esp since your Kroner is worth much more than our sad old indebted US $ Dollar.)
Or you could try to buy a car that had all the paperwork in order, and just pretend the person who sold it to you was still the legal owner -- but I don't know what this would mean if you got into a wreck. It's totally possible that you could drive around the USA for 3 months and never come into contact with a policeman, but you definitely don't want to rot in some rural Texas jail ...
So I don't really know what to say.
One other option is to search for ride-shares, where you would sort of car-pool with travelers -- check out Craigslist.Org for some ideas. Like this: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/rid/2776274777.html
And about staying with people along the way, I've heard of organizations (like http://www.couchsurfing.org/ ) but haven't done it myself.
Hope this reply doesn't put you off your adventure -- there are lots of ways to get around the USA, by train and bus and bicycle and foot, and it is a great country to get to know.
Cheers -- skol?! -- to you, too.
With best wishes,
Jamie Jensen
-
Road Trip USA
Labels: buy or rent a car?, couch surf?, Craigslist?
posted by Unknown at Monday, January 23, 2012
1 Comments:
Hi Jamie,
I just read your comment about your road trip.
We, my friend and I are planning the same trip like you and your friends did. We also thought about buying a car and heard about all the difficulties. We are both 20 years old, so it is really expensive to rent a car.
How did you end up managing to get around the USA and can you give us any advice?
all the best,
Vera
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