Uses for a Second Car

March 24, 2016 10:04 PM

I have a second car. I know I can donate it or sell it or gift it. But can I rent it or lend it? I wouldn't mind making money from it before I let it go, but if that's not feasible, is it more or less so to find an altruistic purpose for it? Or should I just say goodbye?
posted by CollectiveMind to Travel & Transportation (6 answers total)

Say good bye. Unless something drastic has changed in recent years, as the owner of the vehicle you can be sued out the wazoo if your car is involved in an accident, whether you are driving or in the vehicle or not.
posted by jbenben at 10:18 PM on March 24, 2016

Renting it or lending it may cause problems as far as liability for you, if the person who's using it has an accident, for example. I wouldn't want to open up that can of worms.

In similar circumstances, I just gave my car to someone at the women's shelter where I volunteered. She really appreciated it since the public transportation sucked in our city and because the prices for "gently" used cars in our state had skyrocketed thanks to the Cash For Clunkers program.

If you want to do something altruistic, give it away to someone who could really use it, no strings attached.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 10:21 PM on March 24, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Getaround
Turo
posted by andoatnp at 10:37 PM on March 24, 2016

N'thing that it'd be better to just sell or donate it: whatever small amount you might get from renting it wouldn't offset your increased insurance costs, and you'd still have all the liability you have now but without actual control of how it's driven.
posted by easily confused at 2:11 AM on March 25, 2016

We've rented many times from Relay Rides (apparently they are now the aforementioned Turo). Renting from them this weekend in fact. Hubby has back problems, so we use the service as a way to test out cars for an extended period (a few days, as opposed to a 20 minute test drive) so that we can determine if he will have back pain from driving a particular car before we buy.
posted by vignettist at 8:17 AM on March 25, 2016

I would say adios an call someone like Kars4Kids.
posted by TickTickVroom at 1:29 PM on April 21, 2016