Vehicles
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Good Day Everyone! I am looking at spending at least 1/2-3/4 of my retrirement time overseas and am wondering do folks keep their vehicle in the US or do they sell it?
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Hi Jim and thanks for a great question. While I do live full time in Italy, I would suggest that whether or not you keep your car in the US depends on a couple of things. If you live in a large city and everything is taxi, bus or subway, by all means, dump the car. If you live in a rural area or a place that demnds you travel by car 10 to 15 minutes for services then keep the car. You will need a reliable place to store it, it should be covered and you may want to pull the battery and put it in the trunk and depending upon the temperature where you live even drain the oil.
We lived in Italy for the first 6 to 8 months without a car as we could do everything by walking. Very healthy and very helpful for learning the language and the area we lived in. WE sold our US vehicles as we were not planning to return. But based on your question I think I would look at your circumstances and decide what is best for you to do based on your needs.
Chip Stites, IL Italy Correspondent. -
Hi Jim. I'm Jim Santos, IL's Roving Correspondent, and we have had to deal with this issue ourselves. You hate to pay for insurance when you are not using the car, but on the other hand, car rental prices in the US have increased greatly over the last two years. So a lot comes down to how long you will be gone on each trip, and where you can keep your vehicle.
We have found that if our car is garage-kept, being away for up to three months at a time isn't a problem. We complete any regular service required, and make sure the car is clean and the gas tank full before storing. I've read that reducing the tire pressure a bit helps, but we haven't tried that. We also once kept our car in a rented outside space (with an all-weather car cover) for 5 weeks while we were in Mexico and it started right up on our return.
Last April, we did sell our car, because we planned to be traveling for two or more years. However, a medical issue forced an early return, and we ended up having to buy a car again. In the future, we plan to keep our car, and like yourself, travel 8-9 months of the years in 2-3 month increments.
Hope that helps, and happy travels!