Buying a car for short term ownership

[music321]

Hi,

I'm thinking of spending between one and three months in California. While there, I'd like to have a reliable car. I'm thinking of buying one, using it, and selling it when I'm about to leave. At $40/day, it would cost me $2400 to rent for two months. This seems conservative, too.

So, I'm thinking a few things. It seems like potentially the biggest problem with all of this would be not being able to sell the car for a long time. It might be a problem being stuck in the state waiting for it to sell.

It seems like I'd want something "in demand" so I can resell it. I can't think of any other way to get around this problem. Can you?

As for reliability, it seems I'd want a newer model. If I get a newer car at a fair price, even if it is quite a bit of money, I'm thinking that I might be able to own the car for "nothing", as I'd put very few miles on it, and could sell it for what I paid for it. This assumes that I can resell it in a timely fashion (is this a huge gamble?), and that I'm not including the cost of Smog, registration, etc.

Any ideas? Thanks.

[drdisque]

The easiest cars to flip quickly are $5000-$10000 Toyota Camrys and Corollas and Honda Civics, especially in California. They're pretty reliable too. Cars less than $10k are easier to sell quickly as more people can pay cash for them.