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This could be the first "pimp your car out" service I'd consider using. If the manufacturer were behind it, on a leased car, and absolutely guaranteed any dama

by rdl 11y ago

This could be the first "pimp your car out" service I'd consider using. If the manufacturer were behind it, on a leased car, and absolutely guaranteed any damage would be restored, plus compensated me enough to cover depreciation/lease mileage fee/etc., the only inconvenience would be "make sure your car is totally empty when you leave it parked". I tend to buy/keep cars ~forever, so it wouldn't work as well for me now, but if I could lease ~3-5 BMWs for ~20-30 people to share (at a remote company office or something which has a lot of people cycling through, and where some cars are needed), and then add them to a fleet pool otherwise, I'd be in. That's somewhere between Zipcar, Uber, and leased company cars. Managing maintenance, cleaning, insurance, repairs, etc. for them for me would be great, too.

nmrm2 11y ago
But at that point, what are you offering? (Genuinely curious. Capital? Taking on the risk? Insight/market research?) And is that worth the overhead that goes into your pocket? Sharing economy type stuff makes complete sense when it's something you share often enough to want first dibs, but not often enough that renting it out from time to time is an inconvenience. But if you're renting it out full time then I'm not sure I understand how the incentives line up. Seems like if they notice you're doing well they could just swoop in and under-cut you next time the contract is up.
- rdl 11y ago
  Guaranteed demand, parking (there are legal issues where being an individual or first party business owner of vehicles is easier than being a ZipCar). You're leasing cars for ~$500/mo for 36mo each. That gets paid regardless of demand. If your stable gets used enough to bring in >$500/mo in external customer net revenue per car, that would be pretty exceptional. Most likely you'd make $100/car/mo and get a bit of extra professional maintenance for the fleet vs. just owning them and having a dealer service. What's interesting is if car manufacturers start to develop vehicles specifically for this kind of market. I'd love to have personalization settings (nav, seat, climate, driving controls, etc.) which follow me as a driver across a fleet of identical or related vehicles. You might also have a "valet mode" (some cars do now), "renter mode", and "owner mode", with different performance limits (I can ruin a $1-2k set of tires in 10k miles of spirited driving, but if I ran the right profile on the car, I could make them last 30k miles). Might also make some maintenance/safety things non-overrideable for renters -- you can't start the vehicle if the brakes/tires/fluids/etc. are not good, for insurance and vehicle-damage reasons.

by rdl 11y ago

nmrm2 11y ago

But at that point, what are you offering? (Genuinely curious. Capital? Taking on the risk? Insight/market research?) And is that worth the overhead that goes into your pocket? Sharing economy type stuff makes complete sense when it's something you share often enough to want first dibs, but not often enough that renting it out from time to time is an inconvenience. But if you're renting it out full time then I'm not sure I understand how the incentives line up. Seems like if they notice you're doing well they could just swoop in and under-cut you next time the contract is up.

rdl 11y ago
Guaranteed demand, parking (there are legal issues where being an individual or first party business owner of vehicles is easier than being a ZipCar). You're leasing cars for ~$500/mo for 36mo each. That gets paid regardless of demand. If your stable gets used enough to bring in >$500/mo in external customer net revenue per car, that would be pretty exceptional. Most likely you'd make $100/car/mo and get a bit of extra professional maintenance for the fleet vs. just owning them and having a dealer service. What's interesting is if car manufacturers start to develop vehicles specifically for this kind of market. I'd love to have personalization settings (nav, seat, climate, driving controls, etc.) which follow me as a driver across a fleet of identical or related vehicles. You might also have a "valet mode" (some cars do now), "renter mode", and "owner mode", with different performance limits (I can ruin a $1-2k set of tires in 10k miles of spirited driving, but if I ran the right profile on the car, I could make them last 30k miles). Might also make some maintenance/safety things non-overrideable for renters -- you can't start the vehicle if the brakes/tires/fluids/etc. are not good, for insurance and vehicle-damage reasons.