The model assumes 50% of full working productivity while taking an UberX ride. I doubt many people are going to meet that over the course of all their rides, not to mention that if you're salaried you aren't losing wages by not working in the car.
A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles
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Re: A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles
#32Wow, I was floored by the average cost of ownership. Mine is nowhere near that low: 1. $0. I don't have payments is 15 years old, so it's not depreciating significantly. 2. $1250. I fill up about once every two weeks. Old cars have less safety features, which me ans better fuel efficiency. 25 mpg. 3. $0. I've never had an auto loan. 4. $300. Old car and perfect driving record. Still have good coverage (uninsured moto…
That's your TOC at the end of 15 years of owning the car. What was it in 1999 at the start?
Personally, I wouldn't be excited about the fact that my car had fewer safety features. My friend used to extoll the virtues of owning a 94' Camry cost wise. All well and good until you get into a car accident. What do you value your own personal safety at? I put it way, way, higher than the cost difference between an old beater and a new highly rated car.
Re: A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles
#33I found his point of being a young black male and not having to be pulled over again to be striking. I am sure that black people are pulled over more times by the police then whites are. What could be the reasoning and the solution(s). Is it because... - The cops are really racist? - The cops are looking for a suspect that matches those unfairly targeted? In which and unfortunately points to a statistic that black ma…
Yes.
The cops really are that racist - I'm not black - I'm about as white as you can get even (somewhere in my history there is a Norwegian bachelor-farmer :-P) but I've asked my friends of color, how often they felt they had been pulled over because they were a person of color in a place where a person of color perhaps ought not be - and all of them, uniformly answered "Yes, at least once a year, often more"
Re: A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles
#34The article disregards the fact that a car has features that Uber doesn't. One is mobile storage: you can store things in your car that you often need wherever you go. This is particularly important for parents of young children. Another one is instant availability for open-ended road trips. It's not feasible to go visit a friend two hours away with the possibility of staying overnight with an Uber.
If you're going to include the cost of car ownership disadvantages such as tickets, you should also include the cost of Uber-dependency disadvantages such as the occasional need to rent a car, always loading and unloading everything you need to take with you, etc.
Re: A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles
#35 This brings total costs to $18,115 per year ($1509 per
month) if you used UberX to drive everywhere.
Unfortunately, even without car payments and
depreciation, fuel costs, interest, insurance,
maintenance and repairs, registration and taxes, parking
fees, speeding tickets and opportunity costs, Uber is
still slightly more expensive for the average American
who drives 13,476 miles per year. In this case, it would
be cheaper to own and drive the medium-sized sedan.Re: A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles
#36The numbers are skewed because the car ownership costs are based on national averages(lower than LA averages, presumably). I think any Angeleno would kill to pay the national average for fuel costs and commute 25.2 miles in 25 minutes.
I live in LA, we're LUCKY to go 10 miles in in 25 minutes.
a decade ago when I still lived in the basin - I found 30 miles an hour bumper to bumper was a pretty normal commute - its better than seattle still :-P
Re: A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles
#37Wow, I was floored by the average cost of ownership. Mine is nowhere near that low: 1. $0. I don't have payments is 15 years old, so it's not depreciating significantly. 2. $1250. I fill up about once every two weeks. Old cars have less safety features, which me ans better fuel efficiency. 25 mpg. 3. $0. I've never had an auto loan. 4. $300. Old car and perfect driving record. Still have good coverage (uninsured moto…
Fewer safety features /= better fuel efficiency. New cars, loaded with safety feature can get better fuel efficiency than 25mpg. Regarding the 25mpg, is that a recent calculation or are you going off the info sheet your car had when you purchased it. Unless you took excellent care of your car, I'd bet you're not getting 25mpg.
Not the OP, but...
My car is 10 years old - 170k miles on it - I still get > 25mpg, and I calculate every fill-up. Long trips I get ~30mpg. Around town it's 26-28, depending on how much I use the AC and at what times I'm driving.
Could I be off in my fill-up estimations? Possibly some now and then, but it's been pretty consistent for the last several years.
Re: A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles
#38The model assumes 50% of full working productivity while taking an UberX ride. I doubt many people are going to meet that over the course of all their rides, not to mention that if you're salaried you aren't losing wages by not working in the car.
You may not be losing wages, but you are losing time. I think that the 50% assumption in the model is wrong, too, but in the opposite direction. There are activities that many people can do while riding in a vehicle with no loss of quality, like reading.
Randy Pausch - Time Management https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTugjssqOT0
Re: A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles
#39The model assumes 50% of full working productivity while taking an UberX ride. I doubt many people are going to meet that over the course of all their rides, not to mention that if you're salaried you aren't losing wages by not working in the car.
You may not be losing wages, but you are losing time. I think that the 50% assumption in the model is wrong, too, but in the opposite direction. There are activities that many people can do while riding in a vehicle with no loss of quality, like reading. Randy Pausch - Time Management https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTugjssqOT0
Good point, I didn't think about the value of being able to do other activities. Hard to quantify with a monetary value though!
Re: A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles
#40Geez, $12,744 per year ? I've had my current car since 2002, which I bought new for about $14,000 (including interest, which was low because I paid the car off as quickly as I possibly could, short circuiting most of the interest payments). I go through the exercise of the total lifetime cost of my car, gas, insurance, maintenace, all told every year or two. And it's somewhere around $.30-.40 per mile or about $1 che…
what car are you driving and how much mileage was on it when you bought it?
I honestly think to get from point A to B, a used car will do the job just fine, sounds pretty good from what you've described.