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Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

nytimes.com

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Re: Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

#21

Post by ghaff »

jboggan wrote: post #11

I've used Turo for a 3 week rental and I learned a few things. I wanted to buy a new Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, but as you may know those are enthusiast vehicles and not without their quirks, so I wanted to live with it awhile and really be sure that was what I wanted. Also I was going elk hunting in Idaho for 2 weeks and I didn't own a car so I thought, how perfect? The trip and the Jeep were great, but it got me thin…

In the right area of the country I could see a decent market for renting Jeep Wranglers and Rubicons as the rental options for that type of car tend to be fairly limited.

That said, off-road vehicles will tend to be taken off-road and beat up a bit. It's unclear whether the insurance covered by Turo covers the vehicle being used off-road etc. Of course, if someone is running this as a business, they can presumably get their own commercial insurance.

Re: Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

#22

Post by gav »

ghaff wrote: post #4
payne92 wrote: post #2

Different analysis: it's much more likely that a car can be damaged & completely unusable, leaving the owner in an expensive and inconvenient bind. We read about the occasional Airbnb horror story, but I think that scenario is relatively rare for property. Second, idle cars have a lot of value to owners. The car in my garage right now is giving me optionality and convenience, and that is worth a lot. In fact, I may e…

OTOH, one could argue that damage/theft/etc. to a home could involve much larger sums of money and be less easily resolved with a check from the middleman handling the rental--especially if it's not specifically a rental property. Another issue with car sharing is that a fair bit of the depreciation is going to be mile-based rather than time-based. A "good" renter is going to put fairly minimal wear and tear on a bed…

I disagree and argue that any damage to a home can be repaired in a way that makes things better, while most car repairs have a negative impact to the car's value.

Somebody damaging a wall: the drywall can be replaced and the whole room repainted, the end result is a nicer room.

Somebody damaging the side of your car: it's never going to look quite the same as it did before and the resale value is going to be impacted when it shows up on a Carfax report, etc.

Re: Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

#23

Post by city41 »

Dan_Nguyen wrote: post #12
creeble wrote: post #5

Curious about people's experience w/Turo. Seems like a good way to enhance a new car-buying experience. Other than that, it seems weird from the car owner's perspective.

Doug Demuro of "Bumper to Bumper Warranty" fame has used Turo-rented cars in some of his videos.

He has a deal with Turo. He is renting cars for free in trade for some advertising.

Re: Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

#24

Post by CydeWeys »

Eridrus wrote: post #17

I put my car on Getaround for a few months in Oakland, got tired of it smelling like weed and McDonalds eventually. Damn device also ended up draining my battery.

That's seriously impressive to drain a car battery. Makes you wonder what in the hell that thing was doing. A phone-sized battery should probably be sufficient for their use case.

Re: Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

#25

Post by pimlottc »

Hydraulix989 wrote: post #15
jakelarkin wrote: post #13

Had two car-owning friends that did RelayRides (now Turo) during the peak sharing economy a few years ago. Both cars were involved minor collisions within months. Turns out renting in the city to people that don't drive much, might be prone to accidents. Making sure cars weren't parked on street-cleaning side and dealing with tickets also seemed like a huge hassle. Cars have a really high administrative burden compar…

I had a minor collision as well within months, as well as two tows. A lot of the renters did not correctly follow GetAround's 24 hour restriction-free street parking policy as well and so I got a lot of street cleaning tickets. Even when they did, if street cleaning often was in 25-48 hours, so I had to repark my car multiple times per week. The thing that made me leave was that GetAround Connect started drained my c…

What was GetAround's support like for these issues? Did they cover the cost of the parking tickets, or the repairs? Were you using GetAround's insurance?

Re: Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

#26

Post by CPLX »

creeble wrote: post #5

Curious about people's experience w/Turo. Seems like a good way to enhance a new car-buying experience. Other than that, it seems weird from the car owner's perspective.

I've rented from them a few dozen times and while it has its pros and cons (99% of which involve having to coordinate with a real person for pickup/dropoff) the service is generally simple to use and useful.

I thought this article was really strongly negative for no obvious reason. Clearly it's a challenging market and the challenges are newsworthy but there must be many positive experiences as well, since that's what I've had and presumably I'm not literally the only one.

I keep the app in my phone and will definitely use them again, it's especially great when you want to drive a specific or unusual vehicle and/or are doing a linger rental.

Re: Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

#27

Post by ghaff »

gav wrote: post #22
ghaff wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTOH, one could argue that damage/theft/etc. to a home could involve much larger sums of money and be less easily resolved with a check from the middleman handling the rental--especially if it's not specifically a rental property. Another issue with car sharing is that a fair bit of the depreciation is going to be mile-based rather than time-based. A "good" renter is going to put fairly minimal wear and tear on a bed…

I disagree and argue that any damage to a home can be repaired in a way that makes things better, while most car repairs have a negative impact to the car's value. Somebody damaging a wall: the drywall can be replaced and the whole room repainted, the end result is a nicer room. Somebody damaging the side of your car: it's never going to look quite the same as it did before and the resale value is going to be impacte…

My concern wouldn't be some minor damage to drywall or similar incidental damage of the sort that happens around a house on a semi-regular basis. It's the big party that leads to possessions being trashed and waiting six months for a contractor to repair major damage.

I agree that a lot of "routine" house damage is probably easier to deal with than similarly routine damage to a car. But the outlier incidents with housing are probably worse. Assuming Turo or whoever honors their obligations, at worst you just buy a new car.

ADDED: I can't imagine renting out either in any case.

Re: Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

#28

Post by sillysaurus3 »

jakelarkin wrote: post #13

Had two car-owning friends that did RelayRides (now Turo) during the peak sharing economy a few years ago. Both cars were involved minor collisions within months. Turns out renting in the city to people that don't drive much, might be prone to accidents. Making sure cars weren't parked on street-cleaning side and dealing with tickets also seemed like a huge hassle. Cars have a really high administrative burden compar…

Making sure cars weren't parked on street-cleaning side and dealing with tickets also seemed like a huge hassle. Cars have a really high administrative burden compared to homes, especially when things go wrong, which they do at a higher rate.

Oh gosh, don't get me started on this. It's theft, plain and simple. Or rather tax. Owning a car in a city is a massive pain in the butt, and it's cost me like $2k per year. Whether it's bullshit tickets, street cleaning gotchas, expired plates (got a ticket one day after it expired just yesterday), being parked in a valid parking spot that is nevertheless a tow zone for mysterious reasons, having to go in front of a judge to point out that it was bullshit for me to be towed because the facility that I had to visit to pay for the ticket was closed due to a holiday, on and on and on. You get the idea.

I've sort of resigned myself to it just being "car stuff," so whenever another crap ticket appears on my window it doesn't bug me much. Just more tax for the city. Whatever.

I know a few of the tickets are my fault, but geez, it seems almost impossible to be a perfectly law-abiding car owner in a major city over the course of five years.

It's actually tempting to rent out my car to someone else just to cover the administrative cost of owning a car in a city.

Re: Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

#29

Post by ghaff »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #28
jakelarkin wrote: post #13

Had two car-owning friends that did RelayRides (now Turo) during the peak sharing economy a few years ago. Both cars were involved minor collisions within months. Turns out renting in the city to people that don't drive much, might be prone to accidents. Making sure cars weren't parked on street-cleaning side and dealing with tickets also seemed like a huge hassle. Cars have a really high administrative burden compar…

Making sure cars weren't parked on street-cleaning side and dealing with tickets also seemed like a huge hassle. Cars have a really high administrative burden compared to homes, especially when things go wrong, which they do at a higher rate. Oh gosh, don't get me started on this. It's theft, plain and simple. Or rather tax. Owning a car in a city is a massive pain in the butt, and it's cost me like $2k per year. Whe…

More or less. I don't even live in the city but I still get a ticket per year or so, for often inscrutable reasons, when I come in.

It doesn't help that so many of the signs related to parking are sufficiently complicated that I rarely have full confidence that I'm 100% legal.

The latest naked revue grab is switching a lot of the 2 hr. parking meters from ending at 6pm to ending at 8pm. It's not so much paying for the extra 2 hours of parking but that, when coming in for dinner and a show, I pretty much have to be parked before 6pm. (And I've been ticketed for feeding the meter.)

Re: Airbnb Is Popular, but Renting Out Your Car Is Another Story

#30

Post by snug »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #28
jakelarkin wrote: post #13

Had two car-owning friends that did RelayRides (now Turo) during the peak sharing economy a few years ago. Both cars were involved minor collisions within months. Turns out renting in the city to people that don't drive much, might be prone to accidents. Making sure cars weren't parked on street-cleaning side and dealing with tickets also seemed like a huge hassle. Cars have a really high administrative burden compar…

Making sure cars weren't parked on street-cleaning side and dealing with tickets also seemed like a huge hassle. Cars have a really high administrative burden compared to homes, especially when things go wrong, which they do at a higher rate. Oh gosh, don't get me started on this. It's theft, plain and simple. Or rather tax. Owning a car in a city is a massive pain in the butt, and it's cost me like $2k per year. Whe…

If you're playing $2k/year in tickets, you should be paying closer attention, at that point you have nobody to blame but yourself.
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