If you've ever rented a car before, you'll know that the options can be pretty soul-crushing--especially after that long flight or before that special road trip.
You look around the lot and say to yourself, "There has to be something better."
Thanks to Hagerty, now there is: DriveShare. What's the best way to describe it? It's like Airbnb, but for …
Sounds cool and a lot like Turo. The problems I've run into with Turo is you ultimately end up paying way more than a traditional rental car company for someone's stinky, dirty, not-well-maintained Audi SQ5 that leave's you stranded in limp mode.
DirtyBird222 said:Sounds cool and a lot like Turo. The problems I've run into with Turo is you ultimately end up paying way more than a traditional rental car company for someone's stinky, dirty, not-well-maintained Audi SQ5 that leave's you stranded in limp mode.
I have used turo a few times with great luck, normally cheaper than rental places. The lady is renting a tdi Jetta in FL this week.
Professor_Brap said:DirtyBird222 said:Sounds cool and a lot like Turo. The problems I've run into with Turo is you ultimately end up paying way more than a traditional rental car company for someone's stinky, dirty, not-well-maintained Audi SQ5 that leave's you stranded in limp mode.
I have used turo a few times with great luck, normally cheaper than rental places. The lady is renting a tdi Jetta in FL this week.
I've had some luck with it as well but I can rent a Camaro SS from Avis for a week for the price of half the cars on Turo for 2 days. Maybe it's just the locations I'm traveling to that pull a premium.
NSX T in my town goes for 500 a day, which sounds reasonable to enjoy such a car.....until you read that there's a 50 mile limit, and every mile over that is 2 dollars. I'd likely put a good 250 miles on it, making it damn near 1,000 dollar 1 day rental. It's not that cool.
Sound like backing from Hagerty protects the owners better than Turo does, which is nice. A quick look at cars in my area, however, showed people are really proud of their cars. Maybe as it becomes more popular, the prices will go down....
I used Turo last year to get a car for a week while I was interviewing. It was cheaper than the local rental places based in the airport because the taxes weren't as high. IIRC, I could also use my debit card and was only charged the amount of the rental as opposed to any "holding" charges the rental places have. It was easy peasy and I didn't even see the owner. I showed up to his house, he had a lockbox with the key in it, took a couple of pics of the car with the app and I was on my way. Dropping off was just as simple.
-Rob
After looking into this some more, I might just turn my Techno M3 into a rental through DriveShare.
Would there be anyone interested in renting out a stiff, if fairly civilized FWD 23 year old 423hp Nissan? If so I know a guy
David S. Wallens said:
I was perfectly fine clicking on that link, expecting it to be in some faraway land...
Well, p00p.
In reply to Cooter :
Sorry about that.
Bad for you, good for me. :)
See, as someone who rents pretty frequently but hasn't had the chance to drive all rental cars, I kinda like checking out what rental cars are sneaky good drivers. Helps that I'm not limited to just economy spec and work pays for whatever I end up snagging.
Ford Fusion titanium Ecoboost AWD was a very capable chassis. For sure the best handling rental I've driven. Engine/tranny was super laggy which made it somewhat less enjoyable, but the chassis was so good that I did some research and apparently a tune takes care of most of that.
Nissan Frontier v6 was the best Powertrain. Turn off traction control and it was a riot to abuse. Interior and infotainment wouldn't look out of place back in the 90s tho.
I can't stand anything with a CVT.
If anyone out there is renting out a Ferrari F40, I'm in........I can always second mortgage the old homestead.
Wait, what's wrong with a Camry? I love the new Camrys. Ever since club-racer-turned CEO Akio Toyoda decided to bring his inner 12 year old to work, they've become decent handling cars with character.
I would have no objection to being stuck with one of these as a rental:
In reply to boxedfox :
But we drove Mike Tyson's Bentley Turbo RL!
In reply to boxedfox :
You're right, it's not really fair to hate that much on the Camry anymore--especially now with a TRD edition.
I'll have to pick on something else that's more diminutive and sad...how about a Mitsubishi Mirage? 
I checked again, and nine cars turned up for my location none of which were actually local but listed pricing "delivered to Columbus, OH." Then I actually clicked on a car and chose a rental period and then chose "delivery" as my pickup option and it says my location is outside the car's delivery area. I'll admit I only tried the one car, but it seems like it's listing cars I can't actually get local to me, which seems like an odd decision on their part.
I love the idea and would totally try out some cool cars if I could. Not the $1099/day Dodge Monaco, though, that seems a little pricey. Some of the cars are just over the top on pricing (The Monaco, $300/day for a 1991 Camaro, $500/day for a VW Bus), but I think about it and realize I probably wouldn't even rent out my classic for that much.
In reply to boxedfox :
I agree. The new Camry also has an interior I really like.
That is true. New Camry does rock.
j_tso said:In reply to boxedfox :
I agree. The new Camry also has an interior I really like.
Truth, I recently had one on my work trip to Salt Lake City and enjoyed every minute in the interior. The Apple Car play on their infotainment had a lot of latency and that was my only gripe about the new Camry. It also did really well in the snow on my way to PowMow.
So far I'm 50/50 on Turo. For a typical car need (4-5 ppl) it shouldn't be any problem, even if there's an issue with the first car. In our case, the first trip was great, we got a convertible for maybe $33 a day, which is otherwise considered a premium by "real" rental places.
The second time we needed an 8 passenger van and there were like 3 available in all of Orlando, and they were $40/day, 80 and 90. The $40 we got ended up with a bad alternator. So I wasted most of my first day trying to get that resolved with the lady and with Turo. We ended up going with NU / action car rental, a regular rental place. It was almost double the daily rate but no hassles, no worries.
Oh and if, like us, you REALLY need a particular vehicle, like an 8 pass, you'd better rent a backup one because the owners can and do cancel last minute. So we did that, but in the end thought it wasn't worth messing with and got the regular rental. We ate the cost of the backup one for one day; you can cancel up to 24 hours in advance. You have to have a second account in order to rent another vehicle the same time as the first one, too.
So next time I need one, if it's not for the whole family I'll go thru Turo and save money. And if the first one is a bum there are 80 more.
I rented a tesla model S using Turo about a year ago while on vacation, and it worked out well. Not cheap, but reasonable enough to try out a Tesla. I couldn't find one very close to our hotel, so I had to do an uber to and from the owner's house which added to the total cost.
I definitely plan to check out Turo and Driveshare for future vacations to see if I can get something more interesting than standard rental car fare. But logistics may not be as simple as going to the rental counter at the airport.
I just did a quick search of Driveshare here in Charlotte - kind of an oddball collection of muscle cars and resto mod cars, and prices seem pretty high (but I'm not a big muscle car fan). Turo has a lot more normal cars and "status" cars and prices seem to be pretty reasonable overall (2017 Jag sedan for $60/day, or how about a V12 Aston Martin Vantage for 249/day!!)
Thinking about it from a owner's perspective, I just can't see wanting to rent any of my cars - I think you just have to accept that there will be door dings and scuffed bumpers, extra wear on the interior, etc, and that's not for me.
As a "business opportunity", maybe this could be a way to offset the cost of a tow vehicle that mostly sits - if you rent it out as something for people to move or go get mulch or whatever. I also bet if you wanted to offset the cost of something fun and not too expensive like a Jeep that maybe could work out (as long as nobody decides to take it over some sweet jumps!)- seems like lots of folks would like to rent a jeep for a day or two.
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