When you are a long way from home, and you have major car problems what will you do? It really is necessary to have a reliable car when you are house sitting. In this regard I speak from experience. We have a reasonably modern car in very good order but for some reason something blew and the motor boiled and cracked the head. Wammo, we are without transport, living on acreage, where there are taxis but no buses close by.
I know that any car can have mechanical problems, it's not just the older ones, but in our case the cost is going to be high, and we have decided to look at buying another one. This, of course, is not going to come out of the house keeping, so a nest egg in case of emergency is absolutely necessary. It is worse in a new town, because you don't know the local garages or the local car yards. You don't have the back up network you might have in your home town. This is a disadvantage. And its not easy to work on your own car. Everything is computerised these days, and even things like changing air filters and doing an oil change are not so straightforward.
One other point. Almost all the people I know belong to their state motoring club, like RACQ in Queensland. Give some thought to the type of membership you have. You might think it worthwhile upgrading to a higher level of coverage. Often the dollar difference is not much, but the benefits can mean the difference of being towed home or to the nearest garage, which could be miles away. When we have been in our own homes for many years, then some of these changes don't occur to us. If you ae planning some house sitting, give this some serious thought.
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