Which car(s) to ship?

[Lynn T]

Aloha everyone!

My husband and I are not sure what to do about our car situation and were hoping to get some advice from you all. We are moving to Hilo next month! My husband owns a Dodge Durango and I have an Oldsmobile Alero. We have heard that it's best to have a 4 wheel drive on the Big Island to get to many places. We may only be there a year as I have a year long contract. It would be a little expensive to ship two cars, but we could do it. My car gets about 10 miles more to the gallon, but his has 4 wheel drive. Here are some of the options we are discussing:

1. Ship both of our cars.

2. Ship only one of our cars and leave the other in storage or with relatives. But which one?

3. We were also considering buying a jeep wrangler and shipping only the jeep. It only gets a few more miles to the gallon than the Durango though.

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

Lynn

[John S. Rabi]

Regardless of your decision, please note that you really need one car per person here, otherwise you are stuck at home.

Aloha,
John S. Rabi, ABR,CM,CRB,FHS,PB
http://www.JohnRabi.com
Typically Tropical Properties

[Kapohocat]

Although I agree with John Rabi, if you are only shipping one car, buy a good MPG 4 wheel drive car there, ship it, and sell it here when you leave. "Dry" cars (little rust) are definately at a premium here...

[Carey]

You can get by with 1 car, if, and only if, you live by a bus that services at least one of your work areas (they are here, but it really depends on where you live & where you work.) The HeleOn bus is free (at least for the remainder of the year, & most likely next year), it does cost $1 to take a bicylcle on (most of the east side buses have bike racks).
The island wide HeleOn bus schedule is here:
http://www.hawaii-county.com/mass_transi...onbus.html
We do not have a 4WD vehicle, and only have one vehicle here. There is one other expense that you will need to consider, and that is the cost of vehicle insurance, it may be much more than the rate you have now (ours doubled when we moved here). Check with your insurance agent, this may also help you decide which vehicle to bring (we did not bring our 4WD PU truck because of the increase on that vehicle).
4 WD is only needed for a few activities, UNLESS you are living in one of the very rural areas with deeply rutted roads OR you are working on Mauna Kea or Hakalau or some other venue that requires 4 WD (and most of those run shuttles to work, so that may not even be a concern) The other times you may want 4WD is for some of the touristy things, and for a few days of touring, we have rented a 4 WD (a couple of days rental has been cheaper than the insurance would have been on the truck each month)

[Lynn T]

Thanks for all the great tips everyone! Insurance cost is a smart thing to consider Carey, thanks.

My company is allowing $1200 toward vehicle shipment or toward the cost of buying one when we get there. We already have our flights booked from San Diego to Hilo and we live in Denver, Colorado. Our plan is to drive to Arizona for a family reunion, drop my cat off at my parents there (however, a friend here may be able to watch her) and then drive to San Diego to drop off our car at the port and then fly out. So now I sort of feel stuck with shipping a car. If I had it to do all over again we would probably skip the reunion and just fly out from Denver. I make everything so complicated. I guess it will be nice to see a bunch of family before we move though.

I think we'll be able to get by with one car if I live close enough to work. I'm hoping to find a place within walking or biking distance to work. My husband will be able to work from home remotely, so I really think one car will be plenty.

Thanks again everyone!
Lynn