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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

#81

Post by megablast »

VLM wrote: post #62
harpastum wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good point, but there are also several Uber benefits over car ownership. For example, being able to travel when tired/inebriated. Also, not being late if you have an engine issue or get a flat tire. This article tries to enumerate the financial differences, the subjective ones are also very important.

"Also, not being late if you have an engine issue or get a flat tire." How does uber prevent that? I suppose with a fleet of cars, another could pick you up, but you're still going to be late (just not as late) (edited to add, and on the frontend, I can guarantee that about 45 seconds after leaving the door at work, I'll be starting my car and moving out of the lot, how does uber guarantee that a car will be ready to…

> I can guarantee that about 45 seconds after leaving the door at work, I'll be starting my car and moving out of the lot.

You can't guarantee that, since car problems to arise.

This is the same issue with bike share schemes. I don't have to worry about anyone stealing my bike, or if the bike gets a puncture or has issues, I pick another bike.

Re: A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles

#82

Post by zik »

harpastum wrote: post #41
diego wrote: post #34

The 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 t…

This is a good point, but there are also several Uber benefits over car ownership. For example, being able to travel when tired/inebriated. Also, not being late if you have an engine issue or get a flat tire. This article tries to enumerate the financial differences, the subjective ones are also very important.

Also not having to worry about parking.

Re: A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles

#83

Post by bane »

ghaff wrote: post #52
bane wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2002 Honda Civic Sedan, 0 miles when I bought it, still had the factory shipping plastic on it. It's not a sweet ride, it's more like an automotive appliance. It's reasonably comfortable, I change the oil regularly and take it for all the scheduled maintenance and services. But I don't take particularly good care of it. Everything is cheap with it, tires, gas, etc. It's only broken down on me once, and my insurance c…

Some folks seem to almost have a religion about buying used cars. The one relatively low mileage used car I bought as an adult ended up with a lot of maintenance bills for whatever reason. I also had really bad luck with a new Dodge but my other new car purchases have all provided a pretty good lifetime of service. One of my current cars is a 1997 Honda Del Sol and it's still going strong at 160,000 miles.

Yeah. I'm always surprised at how much hassle people are willing to put up with for their cars. I very much look at them as transportation appliances. I'm an ideal consumer for self-driving cars. There's really very little about driving that I actually enjoy, so I'm simply not very tempted to go out and buy a great driver's car or an expensive weekend track car or something.

People just have different tolerances for things I guess. I just have very little tolerance for times when my car goes bad and for wasting time at the dealership. There's other stuff I'd much rather be doing than going through the hassle of buying a car or getting one repaired. So I seek out the cheapest, most reliable car that offers a reasonable level of comfort I can find.

My parents apparently have made the equation work for them to go to a car dealership once a year or so and spend time having one of their cars in the shop every few months for this or that minor thing. All so they can save a few thousand dollars on the sticker price. Once I got out on my own and had to deal with that on my own, I couldn't make it work, so I don't mess around with it.

New doesn't necessarily mean "more reliable", but a make/model (of any sort) with a multi-year track history of ultra high reliability puts you statistically in the game to have a trouble free car.

Re: A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles

#84

Post by vacri »

megablast wrote: post #81
VLM wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Also, not being late if you have an engine issue or get a flat tire." How does uber prevent that? I suppose with a fleet of cars, another could pick you up, but you're still going to be late (just not as late) (edited to add, and on the frontend, I can guarantee that about 45 seconds after leaving the door at work, I'll be starting my car and moving out of the lot, how does uber guarantee that a car will be ready to…

> I can guarantee that about 45 seconds after leaving the door at work, I'll be starting my car and moving out of the lot. You can't guarantee that, since car problems to arise. This is the same issue with bike share schemes. I don't have to worry about anyone stealing my bike, or if the bike gets a puncture or has issues, I pick another bike.

Car problems arise much less frequently than hire cars have availability issues, unless you have a particularly crappy car.

Re: A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles

#85

Post by nilsimsa »

bane wrote: post #44
notastartup wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

2002 Honda Civic Sedan, 0 miles when I bought it, still had the factory shipping plastic on it. It's not a sweet ride, it's more like an automotive appliance. It's reasonably comfortable, I change the oil regularly and take it for all the scheduled maintenance and services. But I don't take particularly good care of it. Everything is cheap with it, tires, gas, etc. It's only broken down on me once, and my insurance c…

I have a 1998 Honda Civic Sedan which other than an oil change and tuneup, has been running fine. More than once people have asked me if I was interested in selling it most likely due to how reliable these cars are.

Re: A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles

#86

Post by judk »

bane wrote: post #44
notastartup wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

2002 Honda Civic Sedan, 0 miles when I bought it, still had the factory shipping plastic on it. It's not a sweet ride, it's more like an automotive appliance. It's reasonably comfortable, I change the oil regularly and take it for all the scheduled maintenance and services. But I don't take particularly good care of it. Everything is cheap with it, tires, gas, etc. It's only broken down on me once, and my insurance c…

Buying a reliable luxury car after its lease expires is a decent deal, as the showy rich folk generate a surplus of lightly used well maintained cars.

Re: A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles

#87

Post by prostoalex »

bane wrote: post #21

Geez, $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…

> More realistically, these commute times could easily be tripled in most cities

Parking is a significant cost for him, which is LA-specific, but still could be a significant burden.

> I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep this car unless it needs major mechanical repairs, and so far it hasn't.

Your repair cost is not zero, it's the cost of a major repair multiplied by the probability of it being required. Otherwise your model is not very predictive.

> Honestly, if your starting point is a Lexus, you're not really all that concerned with your transport costs to start with.

My Consumer Reports subscription expired, but from my recollection of going through the shopping process last year both Lexus an Mercedes rank very high on reliability and total cost of ownership ratings among sedans. So once again, whatever car you model against, TCO needs to be multiplied by reliability data from some third-party provider.

Re: A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles

#88

Post by prostoalex »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #68
notastartup wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You could buy a car for $2000 to $3000, drive it for 6 months and sell them for more. Or buy one for $4000 to $5000, drive it for 2 years then sell it for $3000 without a sweat. These Uber-models are great, and I would love to Uber/Lyft/.... everywhere, but they are costly and I do not know what people mean when they say "average" driver in X city.

Aren't you forgetting the cost of gas+parking+title+insurance+maintenance?

Re: A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles

#89

Post by prostoalex »

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #54
harpastum wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good point, but there are also several Uber benefits over car ownership. For example, being able to travel when tired/inebriated. Also, not being late if you have an engine issue or get a flat tire. This article tries to enumerate the financial differences, the subjective ones are also very important.

The fun thing about that is that you can use Uber in those circumstances, and still have the freedom to jump in your car and drive off whenever you want to instead of living by someone else's schedule. His argument is just plain bad.

It's not an argument for or against, it's the argument of cost - "freedom to jump in your car and drive off whenever you want to" is worth more to you than others. There are people that take a road trip on any given weekend, and there are those who only travel out of their county when work necessitates it.

Re: A Financial Model Comparing Car Ownership with UberX in Los Angeles

#90

Post by analog31 »

pacaro wrote: post #49

None of this is relevant if you have a child or dog. I know that Uber are starting to make provisions for children but there's a long way to go. But try getting a 140lb dog to the vet without your own car...

Children are the third rail for any simplistic concept of urban transportation. I suspect that in all but a few cities in the US, the dilemma for a family with kids is not Car versus Uber, but 2 cars versus 1.
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