Cheapest trip to Hololulu and back, plus expenses

[1voyager1]

M'Lady has been beating me badly about the head and shoulders lately to replace my very usable old beater truck with a newer nicer one.
Now might be the time, even though I'm so tight I squeak.

After spending a couple of weeks looking at vehicles here on B.I., I'm becoming convinced that I can very likely travel to Honolulu spend a day [or 2], a night, rent a car to travel around, rent a nights lodging, then barge a nice used vehicle back to B.I. for about [or less] than I can buy an [almost] equivalent vehicle here.

So, I'm looking for:
the cheapest 1 person round trip ticket BI/Oahu [fly or ?, but still time expedient],
overnight lodging,
car rental, and
Shipping to B.I.

I do not need fancy for any of these expenses, cheap and reliable are what're important.
I have and still can survive in pretty rough conditions, for a day or two.
The object it to hold down expenses to make the purchase.

Suggestions?

I still need to check with my insurance about this situation.
But, I think I'm covered.

[Pilgrim]

You will need to be able to show Young Brothers the title to the vehicle you buy in your name and I believe you also need insurance to ship You'll want to call then, confirm their hours and make arrangements with them in advance (even if you're not sure you'll end up buying the truck). A friend of mine went over and did the same thing but the shipping was the fly in the ointment. Maybe it was the end of the week or they only ship on certain days to the BI but he wound up having to store the vehicle and fly back a second time to deal with getting it on the barge.

[kalakoa]

show Young Brothers the title to the vehicle you buy in your name

Vehicles must be registered on the island where they will be operated.

Matson will accept a notarized bill of sale.

I've heard the Pagoda is cheap and surrounded by "colorful" establishments.

It's just "a few dollars more" to import a mainland vehicle...

[1hazman]

To ship from Oahu to BI via young brothers you will need to make a booking reservation. This can take anywhere form 1 to 4 weeks and you or your agent, with correct Documents and Booking Number, must be present to drop off the vehicle. I've shipped 2 trucks and a motorcycle with the shortest wait was 10 days for the motorcycle and longest was 4 weeks for one of my Trucks.

Here is a link to the Young Brothers vehicle shipping process website. https://htbyb.com/vehicle-process/

[Rob Tucker]

There used to be a very simple "hotel" to crash at right next to the airport. They don't rent rooms with tvs, just simple bedrooms, cribs so to speak, with common baths and eating areas. Was something like $20 a night. But it was clean and secure. It was called The Shower Tree. Don't know if it is still there. It was right on Nimitz in that commercial strip adjacent to the airport.

[TomK]

The Shower Tree is closed. The cheapest place I know of by the airport is the Pacific Marina Inn which will likely cost you about $100 per night. I ended up having to stay there for a few nights back in 2005 and didn't enjoy my time there, but the rooms are fine if a little small and has a shuttle to the airport if you need one. It has an onsite restaurant which isn't great but relatively inexpensive.

[1voyager1]

I have shipped vehicles between Anch and Dutch Harbor by ferry, between DH and Seattle by steamer, and between San Diego and BI by freighter.

If I remember right, I drove it onto the ferry in Anch, a friend drove it off in DH.

They boomed it onto the deck of a freighter in DH and off in Seattle.
I picked it up a few weeks later at their Sea. yard.

Then, I dropped my car off in SD a few weeks early catching a 1-way flight to Hilo.
They drove it onto the freighter when loading it, and off in Hilo.
I picked it up in Hilo, then drove it home.

I have seen in a couple of places where cars can be shipped Honolulu/Hilo for about $500 by YB with 2x a week sailings.
I do need to call and talk with them to clarify.
Plus, I'll look into Pagoda.
Any other possibilities?

I've had Air-B&Bs suggested to stay.
I've seen where Shower Tree has moved.
That may be wrong.
They may be gone.

It might be convenient, but I don't need to stay near the airport.
I'll probably be traveling around the island in my search.
I can stay in almost any area conveniently.
Plus, I'd really prefer to, not be right in the city, but could if needed.
I'll continue to look further.

How about cheap 1 or 2 day car rentals?

I probably can't beat HA for a $175 to $200 short notice RT ticket.

[Punaperson]

I didn't see if you mentioned that you were buying from an individual or from a dealership. A couple of suggestions that you might want to check out if from a dealership:
- The ones near military bases often have a higher number to choose from with low mileage because service members being re-assigned overseas don't want to store the truck while gone.
- The dealerships I've dealt with were very helpful when dealing with Young Brothers, paperwork, storage until shipping, etc. You'll probably pay a bit more, but not dealing with the hassles might be worth it. Last
time, I was able to check out things on-line, flew over for just the day to actually look at it, sign paperwork, and flew home the same day.
- Check out shipping to Kawaihae instead of Hilo. Two years ago the difference was 4 days vs 3 weeks.
- Bring a gas can with you when picking it up. The vehicle can only be shipped with a very little amount of gas. Even an extra gallon or two will let you get to a gas station without worries.

edit : more coffee

[terracore]

If you're not in a hurry you can try buying something from GSAauctions.gov. They currently don't have any vehicles for sale in Hawaii but when they do they often have many. I bought a 7 year old sedan that had only 8,000 miles on it. They had an identical vehicle for sale that had only 6,000 miles on it but I could tell from the photo it had been stored outside by the UV damage. An added bonus of buying from the federal government is that there is no GET or any other types of taxes. The auction house put it on the barge for me for $70 so I never even had to go to Oahu to complete the transaction. I did have to go to young brothers in Hilo and show them some documents and pay for the shipment. As I recall I got the vehicle in less than 10 days after I paid for it.

I know a guy who buys cars there and flips them. One time he bought a truck, put it on Craiglist, and resold it the same day. Made about $2k on it. I don't remember the details any more but he never actually saw the truck himself, completing the purchase and sale from the BI even though the vehicle was in HNL.

If you are considering an online government property auction here are some pointers. First, don't bid until the auction is about to end otherwise you're just driving the price up. Be online "live" at the end somewhere with a fast and reliable internet connection. In the final few seconds, place your bid. Unlike eBay where the auctions have a set end time, a 'live' online auction any bid at the end increases the length of the auction. I don't remember how much, something like 3 minutes. So you'll enter what you want to pay and other bidders have 3 minutes (or whatever) to compete against your bid. For the HNL auctions a lot of the bidders are flippers, dealerships, and used car lots and they have a formula they use based on what they believe they can sell the car for and after it hits a certain threshold they drop out and you're only bidding against individuals like yourself. So an auction that looks like it ends at noon usually ends 30-45 minutes later.

There is another site they use to auction government cars in Hawaii. I don't remember it right now but they have vehicles that aren't on the gsaauctions.gov site.

[Rob Tucker]

GSA auctions can be good. I bought a really nice van once on the mainland. Beautiful condition. About 9k miles. Paid about $1,000. It had been on a base ferrying people from the front gate to offices. Got the full maintenance records with it. Nothing but oil changes and occasional tune ups. GSA has a rule book. When a vehicle reaches a certain age or mileage it goes.