# Xchange Leasing Program



## Ubergirlzz (Dec 31, 2016)

So, I looked into the program, and you can lease a Nissan Altima for like $400 a month and Uber would take the payment directly from your earnings. I am considering this, since Los Angeles is a busy city and I know I could make enough money to pay for the car. Plus, you can cancel at any time so you're not locked in. Also, my own vehicle wouldn't have so many miles and wear and tear. Thoughts?


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## hulksmash (Apr 26, 2016)

Are you sure it's not per week? That actually sounds like a reasonably priced lease... guys on here are talking about $200 week leases for Priuses. 

What are the terms? Unlimited mileage? Is insurance included (including rideshare insurance)? Are you responsible for servicing the car? How much is the deposit? How much notice must you give to cancel, and what will it cost you?

A lot of these higher priced lease claim to have all this stuff included. Your price seems ok, depending on what's included with it. Are you looking to drive full time or just be a weekend warrior? These types of leases force you to work longer hours to be able to pay for it plus still make decent money. 

If you have another job, I personally would keep it and just work part time so you can cherrypick surges and make more $ per hour.


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## Ubergirlzz (Dec 31, 2016)

hulksmash said:


> Are you sure it's not per week? That actually sounds like a reasonably priced lease... guys on here are talking about $200 week leases for Priuses.
> 
> What are the terms? Unlimited mileage? Is insurance included (including rideshare insurance)? Are you responsible for servicing the car? How much is the deposit? How much notice must you give to cancel, and what will it cost you?
> 
> ...


Good questions. I checked into it in my market, and the Nissan Altima is approx. $400 per month (however, the cost is deducted weekly from your earnings).

I would only lease if Uber was a full-time gig for me. Otherwise, it wouldn't be worth it to lease. The cost to start is $450 and this includes unlimited miles and maintenance on the car. I'm not sure about insurance, I'll have to ask about that. As for canceling, you're about to cancel any time after 30 days into the program.

Personally, I think anyone that drives full time (40+ hours per week) should look into the lease. Because this way, you won't be putting all these miles on your own vehicle. To me it's totally worth it.


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## hulksmash (Apr 26, 2016)

Ubergirlzz said:


> Good questions. I checked into it in my market, and the Nissan Altima is approx. $400 per month (however, the cost is deducted weekly from your earnings).
> 
> I would only lease if Uber was a full-time gig for me. Otherwise, it wouldn't be worth it to lease. The cost to start is $450 and this includes unlimited miles and maintenance on the car. I'm not sure about insurance, I'll have to ask about that. As for canceling, you're about to cancel any time after 30 days into the program.
> 
> Personally, I think anyone that drives full time (40+ hours per week) should look into the lease. Because this way, you won't be putting all these miles on your own vehicle. To me it's totally worth it.


I think you're getting a good deal compared to what others here have reported paying. I would add about another $600 month in costs for gas and insurance though. Just keep in mind that Uber has been making it harder to make decent money with all the driver saturation and surge manipulation. You may have to work longer hours than you may want or take undesirable rides (base rates, pool, 15+ETA, low rated pax, etc) to eek out a profit.

I hear Lyft has been better lately with prime times and whatnot. Maybe get what you need frim Uber to pay the lease and use Lyft as an alternative when Uber is sucking.


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## thepanttherlady (Nov 3, 2016)

You do have to get ride share insurance for the Uber Xchange in addition to regular insurance. I have ride share insurance through Mercury but remember the requirements Xchange wants was more. I didn't end up going through with the lease, something just didn't feel right at the time.


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## pismire (May 2, 2017)

Ubergirlzz said:


> So, I looked into the program, and you can lease a Nissan Altima for like $400 a month and Uber would take the payment directly from your earnings. I am considering this, since Los Angeles is a busy city and I know I could make enough money to pay for the car. Plus, you can cancel at any time so you're not locked in. Also, my own vehicle wouldn't have so many miles and wear and tear. Thoughts?


Quick question; Did you know Uber X rate for a driver is the same wheather the car is brand new or even 10 years old? With that in mind, and assuming you'll need to finance a car no matter what you buy, why not consider saving a couple hundred dollars a month and buy a used car?


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## Ubergirlzz (Dec 31, 2016)

thepanttherlady said:


> You do have to get ride share insurance for the Uber Xchange in addition to regular insurance. I have ride share insurance through Mercury but remember the requirements Xchange wants was more. I didn't end up going through with the lease, something just didn't feel right at the time.


Well, that would be too expensive then. I think I found a better option. Hertz has a rental option, where you can rent a car for a week at a time (or longer). It's $185/week, and it includes unlimited miles, maintenance, AND insurance. I think that would be better.



pismire said:


> Quick question; Did you know Uber X rate for a driver is the same wheather the car is brand new or even 10 years old? With that in mind, and assuming you'll need to finance a car no matter what you buy, why not consider saving a couple hundred dollars a month and buy a used car?


That's a good suggestion. I suppose I could look into that. I know Uber wants us to have a 2006 or newer car. I could probably get a used car, 10 years old, for a couple thousand.


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## SailingWithThe Breeze (Feb 22, 2017)

If you choose to use a car that is not your own, you cannot claim the standard mileage deduction of 54 cents a mile when you file your taxes and that is a major deduction. You will be paying significantly more in taxes at the end of the year, so don't forget to include that in your calculations when you're making this decision. 

Hands down, the most profitable vehicle for rideshare is a used vehicle in the $4,000 - $8,000 price range that gets good gas mileage.


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## unitxero (Jul 10, 2016)

The payments are not monthly like a normal financed car. Every single xchange lease I've seen other drivers have says you must pay every week and no, this is a terrible offer. RUN AWAY. A 2015 used Altima can be had for WAY less than that. You are basically paying 400 a month which is a EX-L Accord which is one level under the Touring which is the highest trim.

If you seriously need a car for Uber... that Hertz offer is absolutely worse... that is 740 dollars a month.. I'm not sure how often you drive or what the rates of LA are, but I'd just use your own vehicle if it has depreciated enough value.


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## Ubergirlzz (Dec 31, 2016)

SailingWithThe Breeze said:


> If you choose to use a car that is not your own, you cannot claim the standard mileage deduction of 54 cents a mile when you file your taxes and that is a major deduction. You will be paying significantly more in taxes at the end of the year, so don't forget to include that in your calculations when you're making this decision.
> 
> Hands down, the most profitable vehicle for rideshare is a used vehicle in the $4,000 - $8,000 price range that gets good gas mileage.


True. I thought about that. That .52/mile deduction sure is handy.

Right - I'll probably buy a used car. I know it has to be 2006 or newer - I'll find something private party. The car lots are such a rip off. My personal vehicle is a 2016 and I don't want to run it into the ground with Uber.



unitxero said:


> The payments are not monthly like a normal financed car. Every single xchange lease I've seen other drivers have says you must pay every week and no, this is a terrible offer. RUN AWAY. A 2015 used Altima can be had for WAY less than that. You are basically paying 400 a month which is a EX-L Accord which is one level under the Touring which is the highest trim.
> 
> If you seriously need a car for Uber... that Hertz offer is absolutely worse... that is 740 dollars a month.. I'm not sure how often you drive or what the rates of LA are, but I'd just use your own vehicle if it has depreciated enough value.


You're right, it's a lot of money. What I'd like to do is just rent a Hertz car for one week, and then use that week to drive Uber full time (I've never done that before), just to see how much I can make working every day in a 40 hour work week. I don't want to work nights -- too many flakes come out at night.

Maybe I can find a decent used car, and use that for Uber only. But first, I want to experiment and see if this Uber gig is feasible as a full time job.


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## Hans GrUber (Apr 23, 2016)

Have you ACTUALLY GONE TO THE DEALER YET? The reason I ask is bc the leasing program advertises very reasonable rate, but the dealerships will not offer those cars at those rates. I got INCREDIBLY lucky to get one at $128.


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## SailingWithThe Breeze (Feb 22, 2017)

Your idea of renting from Hertz for a week just to test the waters to see if full-time is right for you is an excellent idea and is exactly where the rental program shines. This gives you an opportunity to test the waters with zero commitment and you have 100% control to bail at the end if you want to. 

You might want to consider renting and trying the full-time gig for at least 2-3 weeks straight (versus 1 week) as that will give you a better look into what full-time driving is really like. That will help you better understand what the pay is like (more time for the highs and lows to average out) and a chance to see how your body and mind hold up to being in the car that much. After 3 weeks, the picture should be much clearer to you and then you could move forward with buying a used car. Buying from a private party is an excellent idea too and renting would give you the flexibility to wait until the right deal/used car comes along.


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## thepanttherlady (Nov 3, 2016)

Another suggestion for the rental option is to look into Lyft's program as I believe they're still offering the weekly fee as free if you do X amount of rides that week. You can use the vehicle for Uber too.


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## unPat (Jul 20, 2016)

If you need a car for Uber finance a used 2015 Hyundai Elantra for 10k-12k. It's cheap, looks and drives great and very reliable. 
Uber lease will cost you $7300 per year assuming a payment of $140 a week. 
If you drive and pay the $7300 on your own car assuming you put 1k-2k down you will pay off the car by the end of the year. Even if the car is worthless from wear and tear you will still have a clunker to trade .


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## steveK2016 (Jul 31, 2016)

If you have a 2016 as your personal car, I'm willing to wager you are making payments on it.

Can you afford to not only pay a rental fee and your own car payment, just to do Uber in a second vehicle rather than you primary?

I get that it may seem appealing to put miles on another vehicle, but is it worth the overall cost? What kind of car do you drive that you feel it won't last without major issues with Uber, that you'd be willing to pay $400-740 more a month to get a rental rather than picking that money?

That's $8,800 you are burning through just so you don't put miles on your personal 2016 vehicle. After 2 years, that's $17,600... worse case scenario, you can use that extra cash you are pocking driving your existing vehicle for whatever repair or even to buy a whole new replacement vehicle at that point.... you can get a mildly used 2013-14 Sonata for like $12,000 these days.

Seems like a waste of money to get a rental when you already have a perfectly good vehicle to Uber in... UNLESS you can get a rental that qualifies for XL/Select...


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## Ubergirlzz (Dec 31, 2016)

Hans GrUber said:


> Have you ACTUALLY GONE TO THE DEALER YET? The reason I ask is bc the leasing program advertises very reasonable rate, but the dealerships will not offer those cars at those rates. I got INCREDIBLY lucky to get one at $128.


No, I have not. I don't like going to car dealers - such a rip off. You were very lucky to get that price. How's it working out for you so far? Are you making enough money with Uber per week to make your payments okay?



SailingWithThe Breeze said:


> Your idea of renting from Hertz for a week just to test the waters to see if full-time is right for you is an excellent idea and is exactly where the rental program shines. This gives you an opportunity to test the waters with zero commitment and you have 100% control to bail at the end if you want to.
> 
> You might want to consider renting and trying the full-time gig for at least 2-3 weeks straight (versus 1 week) as that will give you a better look into what full-time driving is really like. That will help you better understand what the pay is like (more time for the highs and lows to average out) and a chance to see how your body and mind hold up to being in the car that much. After 3 weeks, the picture should be much clearer to you and then you could move forward with buying a used car. Buying from a private party is an excellent idea too and renting would give you the flexibility to wait until the right deal/used car comes along.


I could either rent, or use my own car for a week. I'm still deciding on what to do. In the past, when I have Ubered, I have only done it on Friday and Saturday - never as a full-time job. I'm wondering if I should just treat it like a 9 to 5 job for one week (5-6 days) in a row. Of course, I could start at 9 and finish up by 7, assuming I take an hour lunch and a few breaks here and there. I'd like to get in at least 9 hours each day. I don't want to work at night any more - I don't want to deal with stupid drunks.

I'll just wait until a good deal private party comes along, most likely.



thepanttherlady said:


> Another suggestion for the rental option is to look into Lyft's program as I believe they're still offering the weekly fee as free if you do X amount of rides that week. You can use the vehicle for Uber too.


Thank you, that's a good idea. I will look into Lyft's program too, as I drive for Lyft as well. I had no idea they offered a free car. Sounds almost too good to be true!



unPat said:


> If you need a car for Uber finance a used 2015 Hyundai Elantra for 10k-12k. It's cheap, looks and drives great and very reliable.
> Uber lease will cost you $7300 per year assuming a payment of $140 a week.
> If you drive and pay the $7300 on your own car assuming you put 1k-2k down you will pay off the car by the end of the year. Even if the car is worthless from wear and tear you will still have a clunker to trade .


True. Good advice.



steveK2016 said:


> If you have a 2016 as your personal car, I'm willing to wager you are making payments on it.
> 
> Can you afford to not only pay a rental fee and your own car payment, just to do Uber in a second vehicle rather than you primary?
> 
> ...


You bring up some excellent points.

Well, I drive a Kia Soul, and the warranty is excellent, 100,000 miles, and I currently have 11,000 miles on it. Yeah, I have a car payment with this car, so having an "extra" car payment wouldn't really be a good idea. I'd rather just save up money and purchase a used vehicle.

But first I want to see if it's worth it - doing Uber as a full time job. I have heard stories of folks quitting really good paying jobs, but jobs they don't really like, either because they hate their boss, or their co-worker, or are just tired of sitting behind a desk. I know that doing Uber full-time would only work in a market such as NYC or LA -- as there are endless needs there. I don't want to work at night any more, because I'm tired of dealing with the drunks, except for working at LAX. That's the only way I'd work at night.

What would you suggest as a realistic week's work? Say work Monday through Friday from 8 am to 6 pm? If I try this out in a few weeks, I'll be sure to post my stats.


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## steveK2016 (Jul 31, 2016)

Ubergirlzz said:


> Well, I drive a Kia Soul, and the warranty is excellent, 100,000 miles, and I currently have 11,000 miles on it. Yeah, I have a car payment with this car, so having an "extra" car payment wouldn't really be a good idea. I'd rather just save up money and purchase a used vehicle.
> 
> But first I want to see if it's worth it - doing Uber as a full time job. I have heard stories of folks quitting really good paying jobs, but jobs they don't really like, either because they hate their boss, or their co-worker, or are just tired of sitting behind a desk. I know that doing Uber full-time would only work in a market such as NYC or LA -- as there are endless needs there. I don't want to work at night any more, because I'm tired of dealing with the drunks, except for working at LAX. That's the only way I'd work at night.
> 
> What would you suggest as a realistic week's work? Say work Monday through Friday from 8 am to 6 pm? If I try this out in a few weeks, I'll be sure to post my stats.


If you want to test the waters, then spending that extra money is even more of a bad idea. You've got a car. You want to test out doing it full time, do it without any extra cost in your Kia Soul. Then you'll know what you'll make in a month.

Try different hours, it'll be hard to tell how well your city will do especially a place as large and spread out as Los Angeles. I grew up in Redondo Beach, I can't imagine where Ubering can take you throughout all of LA County...


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## Ubergirlzz (Dec 31, 2016)

steveK2016 said:


> If you want to test the waters, then spending that extra money is even more of a bad idea. You've got a car. You want to test out doing it full time, do it without any extra cost in your Kia Soul. Then you'll know what you'll make in a month.
> 
> Try different hours, it'll be hard to tell how well your city will do especially a place as large and spread out as Los Angeles. I grew up in Redondo Beach, I can't imagine where Ubering can take you throughout all of LA County...


The last few times I've been to LAX have been really good fares... all the way to Thousand Oaks - and Camarillo. I'm going to experiment with days/nights, but only nights at LAX. I'll report back with my earnings for the week (minus gas).


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## hulksmash (Apr 26, 2016)

I was out in DTLA area yesterday on some personal business. At around 1pm I saw no surge anywhere on the map. I couldn't bring myself to drive for $3 fares just to kill time...I drove home instead with the DF. 

My point is that you will not make much money working daytime hours outside of rush hours. The surge is non existent outside those times and the boost is crap...unfortunately the weekend nights are the best time to make the most money for the least amount of work, even those don't always pan out. 

If you assume $1000 monthly costs ($400 rental and $600 for insurance and gas) and 40 hrs ..you will have to average $750 a week, or $3000 a month, to make $12.50 an hr. After SE tax and income tax you are left with about $10/hr. And that's if you can make that money in 40 hrs/week. If it takes you longer then your hourly wage just went lower. You then have to make your personal car payment and other Personal expenses with that.

By using your own car, the money that would go towards your rental would go towards paying off your car, and thanks to the mileage deduction, you can get a bigger write off than what your actual car expenses are, allowing more of your earnings to be tax free. But you must learn to work smart (research events, surges, decent quests/boosts, destination filter) and not blindly take every ping in order to increase your $ per mile, otherwise you are just trading in the value of your car for cash.


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