Rental car or my own car for a five-day job? I ran the numbers

Last month a winery in Paso Robles booked me for a five-day shoot. I'm a freelance photographer based in Sacramento, and the job meant hauling two cases of lights, three stands and a backdrop kit down the state and back. The client offered to cover travel either way. They would pay per mile if I drove my own car, or reimburse a rental plus fuel. I had always just taken my car. This time I sat down with a notepad the night before and worked it out, and the answer was closer than I expected.

Sacramento to Paso Robles is about 230 miles each way, so 460 for the round trip. On top of that I drove between vineyards every day, out to a ranch for sunrise shots and back into town for dinner with the owners. I tracked those days in my phone and they came to 228 miles. Call it 688 miles in total.

What my own car actually costs me

My car is a 2019 Subaru Outback with 94,000 miles on it. It gets about 29 miles per gallon on the highway with gear in the back. Gas along the route was $4.89 a gallon the week I went, so fuel came to about 23.7 gallons, or $116.

Fuel is the part everyone counts. The parts people skip cost more. My tires last about 50,000 miles and cost $780 to replace, roughly 1.6 cents a mile. Oil changes, wipers and brakes add another 6 or 7 cents by my records. Then the car loses value with every mile. I checked what dealers offer for my model at 90,000 versus 100,000 miles, and the gap was about $1,500, so 15 cents a mile. With fuel included, my real cost is around 40 cents a mile. For 688 miles that is about $275.

The client's offer for my own car was the IRS standard rate. For the second half of 2026 that is 76 cents a mile, up from 72.5 cents in the first half. At 76 cents, 688 miles comes to $522.88. That looks like a $248 profit, and for years I treated it that way. It isn't. The standard rate is set to cover insurance, registration and the full cost of owning the car, and I pay those whether I take the job or not. What it does mean is that the payment covers the wear on my car, with some left over toward the next one.

Not every client pays the IRS figure, either. On a three-day job near Vancouver last year, the agency paid me the Canadian government's rate, quoted in cents per kilometre. Now, when a client is outside the US, I look up the current mileage rates for their country before I quote, because that shows me the official number they will probably use and where it comes from. It saves an awkward email after the invoice goes out.

The rental side

I priced a midsize SUV from a neighborhood branch in Sacramento, not the airport, because airport fees would have added about $45. Five days came to $271 base plus $76 in taxes and fees, so $347 with unlimited miles. That last part matters. A rental capped at 150 miles a day would have covered me, but only just, and overage charges at 25 cents a mile would have eaten any savings fast.

The rental listed 31 miles per gallon, which is optimistic with 80 pounds of gear, so I used 29. Fuel comes to the same $116. The rental option totals $463, and the client would pay that back at cost. I would make nothing on it, but I would also put zero miles on my own car.

So with my own car, the client pays $522.88, my true cost is about $275, and the difference goes toward replacing the car someday. With the rental, the client pays $463, my cost is $463, and my Outback sits in the driveway for a week. The client saves about $60 with the rental. I come out ahead with my own car, but only if I trust my maintenance and depreciation numbers.

Some things never make it into the spreadsheet. Loading a rental takes an extra hour on each end, since everything comes out of my car, into the rental and back again. My credit card's collision coverage excludes some SUVs, and I had to read two pages of fine print to learn mine was fine. If the rental breaks down, the company sends another one. If my Subaru breaks down, that is my repair bill, on a day I'm meant to be shooting.

Taxes differ a little too. A per-mile payment goes on my invoice as income, and I deduct the business miles at the standard rate on my return, so the two mostly cancel out. With a rental, I deduct what the rental and fuel actually cost. My accountant told me to keep a mileage log either way, and I do.

In the end I took my own car. The deciding factor was not the $60. My car needed new tires in about 4,000 miles anyway, and this job would pay for most of them. If the Outback had been newer, or the drive had been 1,500 miles, I would have rented. My rule now is simple enough. Under about 800 miles, on a car already past its best resale years, I drive my own and take the per-mile rate. Over that, or with a car I want to keep nice, I rent and bill at cost.