I have never rented a car before, so may not advise you
completely, especially wrt servicing, repairs or any other costs
related to accidents or insurance. But if the rental rate per month
is $1,400 max as mentioned earlier by pqr, I think it may still be
a better choice to get a resale car. The reason is that the paper
loss from a resale car is confined mainly to its COE rebate
difference over the next 1-2yrs even though you have to fork out
more money for a resale car upfront.
Let say you rent a car at $1k per month, then over 2 yrs $24k will
be gone (exclude petrol, ERP and parking). But if you buy a
reasonably well maintained 3yr old resale car, the real paper loss
when you sell it 2yrs later is around $4k to 6k since the COE of
such a resale car would be around $20k-$30k. Of course, this is
provided later on you sell the car at a premium to its paper value
that is similar to what youd pay for it when you buy.
The common costs of petrol, ERP and parking are payable no matter
what option you choose, so this is a difference of $18k-$20k in
savings which, after factoring the payments for 2yrs of road tax,
insurance and normal servicing costs for the resale car, can still
leave you with spare cash to buy your own air tickets in case your
company sends you overseas without paying for it later. And if you
still find extra savings after that, you can write me a cheque too.
