skylane

Has anyone ever leased a car for work and charged it back to a client?

I've been renting a car in Boston for the last few months and looks like I'll continue renting for the next 6+ months. It would be cheaper to just lease a car than to keep on renting. I'm actually in the market for a new car and am thinking about leasing a car, charging it to my client, and then, at the end of the project, driving it back to California.

Any comments on doing this? Seems like everyone wins (the client saves a few bucks on the rental and I get a new car).

nkedel

Can't help on the general question, but if you do decide to go for it:

Make sure you get one with 50-states emmisions (*) but if you by some chance get one that doesn't have CA emissions you'll be hit with an obnoxiously high fee when you register it in California.

(* or California-specific emmisions, although that might be a problem since NY/MA have their own rules.)

tjl

The "smog impact fee" for bringing a non-California emissions compliant car into California is long gone.

However, non-California emissions compliant car must have at least 7500 miles on it to be registerable in California:

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures/howto/htvr9.htm

Several northeastern states have chosen to follow California emissions standards, so finding a California emissions compliant car in those states should not be too difficult, if you know to look for it. See the comparison of emissions compliance stickers here:

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures...cts/ffvr29.htm

drat19

I'm on a long-term consulting gig, and for the past year I've "rented" a car from Avis by the month; in fact, Avis refers to this arrangement as a "mini-lease". My customer benefits because the monthly rental rate is the equivalent of about 2.5 weeks if I'd paid by the week, and I benefit in that (a) the insurance is included in the customer's AWD (Avis World Discount) number, and (b) I just park my car in the customer city's airport parking each weekend when I go home, and it's waiting for me when I return, and even with billing the parking back to my customer each week it still ends up cheaper each month. And I don't have to wonder about whether my car each week is going to be any good, or a dud (which, as most of y'all know around here, is usually a 50-50 shot these days)...in fact, I snagged an Impala with leather and XM, and I made it very clear (humorously, of course) to the local Avis fleet manager that "he ain't gettin' it back!"

By the way, this arrangement even works when I take an occasional week off...it's still cheaper longer term.