# UBER PAY? How much value your car lost this year (CALCULATOR!)



## No-tippers-suck (Oct 20, 2014)

It's almost end of the year and I couldn't wait until new years eve to calculate my earning for 2014 with Uber
and I just wanted to add a factor to my calculations about how much value my car lost this year.

In fact I started in April so it's 9months instead of 12
and my personal usage is not deducted (but I didn't drive much for personal use groceries are all nearby and there is no more "commute to work" it's almost all business miles I guess 95% of it or more.

I found Kelley Bluebook very helpful since cardealers also use it to calculate how much your car is worth:
*http://www.kbb.com/*

Also I made a quick calculation about the Uber cut (including the $1 fee they take from us) and my Uber cut was 27.55% and NOT 20% !!! the more $4 trips you made the more you pay to Uber.

and this is the value my car lost this year but if you drive fulltime it might be much higher ! I was fulltime in April to June then I was pissed about the price cut and just went out Friday and Saturday night.

I bought the car at slightly above 80k miles, paid more because of financing but this would be the sales value









after 9months and 45k miles more my car lost about $2255 on value









You might want to really know how much the lowered value was for your car at the end of the year too.


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## UberxOCdriver (Nov 11, 2014)

Just predict 60000 miles per year and put your car as 60000 more miles right now. You can tell how much your car depreciation after doing UBER 1 year


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## LookyLou (Apr 28, 2014)

So, .05 cents per mile in lost value for you at 45,000 miles.

Then with 45,000 miles you would have:
9 oil changes $450.00
1 set tires $800.00
1 set brakes $600.00 - $800.00
Other misc. repairs ?

So, roughly .10 cents per mile including the lost value and then add insurance and gas.

So probably running you around .30 cents - .35 cent per mile in operating costs.


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## UberxOCdriver (Nov 11, 2014)

If that it is I am wrong. Some times depends on the make of the car too
Sorry


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## No-tippers-suck (Oct 20, 2014)

in my case it seems like it was just $0.05 per mile.. eventually I should have calculated different.
bought in excellent condition and now maybe "very good condition.." 

in fact this factor would be included in the $0.56 cent deduction and it's easier to manage.
Still I wanted to know how much only this factor is for example on a Saturday night I drive around 400miles.
so my car value goes down another $20 bucks - other than gas I bought this is an expense but you don't see it right away.


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## No-tippers-suck (Oct 20, 2014)

@make of your car

that's why I added the Blue book link, there are all the cars in this world.
Everybody can calculate how much for his car..


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## LAuberX (Jun 3, 2014)

Blue book does not give the full picture, much harder to sell a MBZ with over 125,000 miles than at 80,000 miles.

Which one would you buy for $2,200.00 difference?


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## tallnfla (Oct 13, 2014)

9 oil changes what are you using quaker state lowest level? For me 60000 miles equates to 4 oil changes at 15000 miles interval. Use the synthetic stuff. I like castrol gold bottles 0w-20 then mobil 1 2nd same weight tho.


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## chi1cabby (May 28, 2014)

@No-tippers-suck this calculation is moot. Drivers should just use the Standard IRS Deduction of ¢56/mile.
The advantage will be that you do not have to deduct all the various expenses, and the calculation will still be in the Drivers favor.


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## No-tippers-suck (Oct 20, 2014)

*@chi1cabby :*
No worries, you're absolutely right and look, what else I wrote earlier:



No-tippers-suck said:


> in my case it seems like it was just $0.05 per mile.. eventually I should have calculated different.
> bought in excellent condition and now maybe "very good condition.."
> 
> *in fact this factor would be included in the $0.56 cent deduction and it's easier to manage.*
> ...


*- My main point was* just to find out how much value we loose per mile just on the "car's"
since the 0.56 rule doesn't make any difference between a Prius and a Suburban. So I thought KBB might be a good way to find out.

..many drivers don't even realize that we are now just making $10- $15 bucks in gross income with Uber or Lyft over a monthly average.
but are running at a very high risk and investment. (if you only drive Halloween night and NewYears eve night you might be higher than $15 )

*Imagine* you would apply for a minimum wage job at McDonalds and they told you that they won't hire you but you could be an independent contractor
if you bought your own hamburger grill for let's say 20k and customer rated you and could even get you fired for no reason.

Rather would I be employed at Uber with social benefits and just drive "UBER CAR'S" (if they just would own any of the cars but they don't)
I would totally be an Uber driver asking for the current minimum wage $7.50? and still make more net, than being an independent contractor.

Uber only made Billions because we allowed them.


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## Tristan Zier (Nov 25, 2014)

chi1cabby said:


> @No-tippers-suck this calculation is moot. Drivers should just use the Standard IRS Deduction of ¢56/mile.
> The advantage will be that you do not have to deduct all the various expenses, and the calculation will still be in the Drivers favor.


Agreed drivers should use the Standard Mileage Rate of $0.56/mi. However, keep in mind this isn't your actual "expense" - it's the IRS's estimated expense based on your mileage. Depending on your type of car, your actual cost is probably far below that (someone quoted $0.30 in the calculation above). It's probably even lower if you're using a gas friendly car like a Prius, since something like $0.35/mi of the $0.56/mi is related to gas (the cost of which has also dropped 25% over the past 6 months).


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## No-tippers-suck (Oct 20, 2014)

I agree Tristan !

When I was using the 0.56 rule I found myself making no profit so the IRS wouldn't accept my expenses long term.
I was therefore looking for a way to estimate my real expenses, collecting gas bills (it's usually around 20 -25% for me)
and other expenses is easy but I needed a way to realistically find out how much the cars loose on value.

In my case I made an average "real net profit" of 0.20cents per driven mile that's stupid !
Imagine if I made $200 in 12hours I just take home $40.. that's like $3 bucks per hour !!!

and I didn't even add a percentage for my risk... what if I had an accident ? what about tickets ?
these costs did gladly not happen but if they happen I just had an $3 /hour average to cover that.

That's why I now only drive weekends as long Uber doesn't deactivate for not driving enough hours per week, I will just keep my partnership alive
but it's not worth driving to me.


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## Tristan Zier (Nov 25, 2014)

No-tippers-suck said:


> *@chi1cabby :
> Imagine* you would apply for a minimum wage job at McDonalds and they told you that they won't hire you but you could be an independent contractor
> if you bought your own hamburger grill for let's say 20k and customer rated you and could even get you fired for no reason..


This isn't a fair comparison, despite it being one that many make. You get to write off a lot more expenses than employees do - for example:
- Employees don't get to write off commuting expenses. As a rideshare driver, you can generally write off the expense of driving from home to the area you're picking up passengers.
- Employees don't get to write off cell phone costs (which everyone has these days). As a rideshare driver, you can write off the business portion of that cost - which can be a hefty percentage since you use a lot of data for GPS and the app.
- You get to write off $0.56/mi for business mileage - so you are effectively over-expensing things, and get the benefit of having lower taxable income.

As a part-time employee at McDonalds, you also wouldn't get any benefits, and can still be fired for any reason in most states (e.g. California, where employment is at will). Also, robots that make burgers are going to become mainstream far before self-driving cars, so you have more job security as an Uber driver.


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## Tristan Zier (Nov 25, 2014)

No-tippers-suck said:


> I agree Tristan !
> 
> When I was using the 0.56 rule I found myself making no profit so the IRS wouldn't accept my expenses long term.
> I was therefore looking for a way to estimate my real expenses, collecting gas bills (it's usually around 20 -25% for me)
> ...


Definitely a choice everyone needs to make! For example, it depends on the volume. I know drivers in San Francisco (where the market is more matured since Uber has been here for 4 years) who make $400 just for driving 4 hrs on Friday and Saturday night. If you're smart about your driving and willing to work when other people aren't, you can make a ton.

Also, in general the IRS won't look at your "business" as actually being a "hobby" until you have 3 years of net losses.

In summary: accounting and tax rules are really difficult, which is why calculating what your actual take home (and answering the question "is it worth it") is so hard!


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## No-tippers-suck (Oct 20, 2014)

@Tristan Zier

oh of course employees can write of their commuting expenses.. $0.56 cents per mile !
They used their car for business - to get to work

with the cellphone write off, correct and burger robots, yes agreed with it.


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## Tristan Zier (Nov 25, 2014)

No-tippers-suck said:


> @Tristan Zier
> 
> oh of course employees can write of their commuting expenses.. $0.56 cents per mile !
> They used their car for business - to get to work


I'm a former CPA, and this isn't correct - you can't write off your commuting expenses as an employee. You can only write off any excess commute you do (above your normal commute to your office) if you go to an offsite client's.


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## No-tippers-suck (Oct 20, 2014)

Yes everybody needs to make their own choice, that's correct. for me personally it was not worth it, still I do it sometimes limited to weekends.

But please explain me this :

$400 in 4hrs = $100 per hour (correct?)

$100 per hour = 1.67 per minute (still correct??)

I see you guys have 1.30 per mile and 0.26 cents per minute.
my best case calculation would be like this = 

60mins x 0.26cent = $15.60
65miles per hour = $84.50
Base fare = $2.20
--------------------------------------
maximum per hour= $102.10

This can actually only happen if you are constantly driving with a passenger in your car and NO EMPTY MILES, NO DRIVE TO PICK UP
and the passenger JUMPS IN your car thru the sunroof while you're driving at the maximum speed of 65miles per hour.
Still there is no technical possible way to make more than $102.10 per hour !

So I will not buy the story, sorry.

In fact our life looks slightly different, we make an average of less than 2 rides per hour and an average ride might be anywhere in the $10 range or so.


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## tallnfla (Oct 13, 2014)

57.5 cents as of 1/1/2015 will be the new rate


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## No-tippers-suck (Oct 20, 2014)

Tristan Zier said:


> I'm a former CPA, and this isn't correct - you can't write off your commuting expenses as an employee. You can only write off any excess commute you do (above your normal commute to your office) if you go to an offsite client's.


I admit at this point you were right about commuting as an employee :
You can't deduct the 0.56 cents, thank you for clarifying this !

*Recommended answer*

TurboTax FAQ , Answering FAQ's
TurboTax Employee
3 months ago
You cannot deduct your trip to or from work; driving to and from work is commuting mileage and is not deductible.
You can deduct certain types of mileage as an employee on your Schedule A (if you itemize deductions). This deduction is only allowed for the expenses that exceed 2% of your adjusted gross income (AGI, which is listed on Form 1040).
The mileage rate for *business miles* driven in 2013 is 56.5 cents per mile, for 2014 it is 56 cents per mile.

I am originally from Germany and there even an employee can deduct commuting with around 0.50 Eurocents per mile (maximum 4.500 EUR per year)
so the taxlaws are totally different at some points.. thanks again !


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## Older Chauffeur (Oct 16, 2014)

Just a comment on the oil change frequency- when I was driving for a Mercedes dealer CEO ten years ago, the factory suggested service using synthetic motor oil was at 10k mile intervals. There was a time component as well, I'm sure, but I don't recall what it was.


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## No-tippers-suck (Oct 20, 2014)

I believe twice per year.
You're right I also only use full synthetic oil and well oil and water is the most important otherwise the car will suffer.
Also we need premium gas and once I went to a cheaper place for brake maintenance and they replaced the front brake discs with a cheap Chinese non punched disc. 

I now have found a great and trustable place on Beach BL in Huntington Beach..
Very honest people.


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