This seems to us to boil down to an equation requiring some simple arithmetic and involving, on one side, the cost of the car (plus annual registration and insurance) and making the round-trip between Aliante and the airport every couple of months, and on the other side, the cost of renting a car for 12 or so weeks a year.
For the sake of argument, let's say you buy the car for $10,000 and pay another $1,000 for annual expenses and a $100 for cab fare and tip to and from the airport each trip. So the first year, you spend $11,600.
Let's also estimate $500 for your rental car each two-week period. The first year, you spend $3,000. So buying the car is $8,600 more expensive initially.
The second year, you spend another $3,000 on rental cars, but only $1,600 on car-owning expenses, so you're only down $7,200. The third year, you're down $5,800. Assuming a stable $500 for each rental period, $100 roundtrip to the airport, and no car repairs, you're at breakeven after seven years and two months. That's a long time to pay off a quickly depreciating asset like a car, in our humble opinion.
Now let's look at ways to cut down the $600 estimated airport cab fares, your main concern.
First, and this is a technique used by some locals we know who live way out by Red Rock Station, you can rent a car for one day. This worked better in years past when rental-car prices were much much lower, but it can still save you a little money, and a lot of time (considering the other alternatives; read on) if you shop around and get the smallest car at the lowest price. After all, you're just going from the airport to your house. The next day, or even later the same day, your spouse follows you back to the airport in your own car, then you're home free. Then you repeat the process in reverse on your way back to the airport.
Let's say this saves you half the cost of a cab, $25. So you've cut $300 off your yearly nut and the breakeven on you Vegas car is right around seven years.
Second, let's do the arithmetic for taking an airport shuttle to a downtown hotel ($15 for two when you buy the roundtrip), which gets you roughly halfway to Aliante, then grab a cab from there (say $25) for a total of $40 or a $10 saving. Do the same in reverse and save $20 round-trip and $120 per year. Spending $480 instead of $600 for transportation to your vacation home, your breakeven on the car is seven years and eight months. Obviously, this option consumes more money and time than renting a car at $25 for the day.
Next, we'll assume you travel lightly, since your vacation home is presumably furnished with all the necessities you'd ordinarily have to carry with you. Thus, you could conceivably ride the bus from the airport to Aliante. (Take Bus 108 from the airport to Flamingo; transfer to Bus 202 westbound to Paradise; transfer to Bus 119 to Aliante.) The trip each way, including transfer times and walking from the bus stop to your house, will take approximately two hours and cost only $7 roundtrip for two, $84 annually. So now you're saving $516 per year on getting to and from your house, which adds up to breakeven on the car in only five years and four months, a significant saving, we think.
Of course, you are spending four or five hours each trip to Las Vegas riding the bus, but assuming time is less important to you on your frequent vacations than money, it could be worth it to you.
Finally, if you can't hack the thought of riding the bus for two hours or so each way, but you like the $84 a year, one other idea is to take your chances leaving your car in a casino parking garage near the airport. The MGM Grand garage, for example, has thousands upon thousands of spaces and the only telltale sign that a car has been left there for a couple of months would be the fine layer of dust that accumulates on it. You could try it once and see how it feels; if it's no big deal to you, you'd park the car there (or at Excalibur or Luxor or Tr
