# renting vs driving your own car.



## Hsaid (Oct 26, 2017)

i was wondering how many people here use their own personal car that they finance or lease VS those who rent through hertz or through uber to earn money. what are the pros and cons of both?


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## 25rides7daysaweek (Nov 20, 2017)

I put 75000 miles on my car last year. I very highly doubt anyone is going to let you burn up a car like that for whatever they charge for rental..m


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## UberDez (Mar 28, 2017)

I did a rental for a short time about a month , and that was back when they were a lot Cheaper it was $170 a week only requirement was that you do 20 rides a week (lyft Hertz rental) I was doing l.yft FT and my 2008 BMW wasn't eligible for PDB anymore so doing math my PDB bonus each week was always over $200 (old 20% pdb this was about 2 years ago) and my BMW got 20mpg on premium so getting the Jetta and Elantra that got 30mpg on regular saved me about $50 a week so i was coming out ahead . I ended up just buying an Uber/Lyft only car and it saved me a lot of money . Now the same rental program is the equivalent to over $300 a week when you take into account that the requirements to get it almost free are the same as the $295 PDB you still have to pay taxes and I believe $20 so it's probably around $330 a week for a rental car . Ridiculous 
The only benefit to the rental is that I drove a little more aggressive didn't worry about miles etc... 

this is all based on the Lyft Hertz program in Denver so your market might be different ask in the LA subforum


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## bsliv (Mar 1, 2016)

Leasing a car for Uber is generally a bad idea, but not always.

Take a 2017 Civic as an example. $2000 down and $170 month for 3 years with a 36,000 mile limit. You'll get a bumper to bumper warranty and insurance for the repairs. Let's say one plans on driving 36,000 in a year. Registration and insurance for the year could be $1800. Maintenance would be limited to 5 oil changes at $50 each. Gas at $3 per gallon and 30 mpg for 36,000 miles is $1200. So, $2000 + $6120 + $1800 + $250 + $1200 = $11,370. That is $0.32 per mile. And then let it sit for 2 years or give it back to the dealer, prepaying the remaining 24 months. They may give you an incentive or may not.

$0.32 per mile isn't good but its better than the average new car over 5 years ($0.54/mile). 

A $5000 car that one expects to last 36,000 miles will have a bit higher maintenance cost than 5 oil changes but not too much, say $500 total. Insurance and registration would be about $1000. Gas would still be $1200. So, $5000 + $500 + $1000 + $1200 = $7,700. That is $0.21 per mile. 

Driving a new Civic should be more enjoyable and less worrisome than a $5000 car. Is that worth $0.11 per mile?

There are some on this forum that believe the car you drive doesn't matter. All that matter is your deposits. Myopic, but they're here.


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## Mole (Mar 9, 2017)

I rent out one of my cars to uber drivers using Hyrecar it is always booked and to my amazement they take pretty good care of my vehicle I make about $800 a month doing so.


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## RynoHawk (Mar 15, 2017)

Rental through Uber is not available in my area. For Lyft, I would basically need to stay on the road to make it worth while and I only drive part time.


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## Hsaid (Oct 26, 2017)

i am essentially trying to pay the 6k i owe on the car. how much time do i need to put in to achieve that from you expriences?


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## Eesoso (Jan 16, 2017)

6k? That's a couple months worth for me


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