Carhacking...Renting a Car on Turo

[Jonathan Dempsey]

Does anyone have experience renting a car on Turo or any other similar sites/apps? I am interested in the idea of car-hacking. Basically I would want to STR a nice car to make some money on top on the car payment, and then have a nice car for when I would want it. I currently own a prius, so I would not need the next car for anything other purely recreational use. I want to analyze the deal similar to real estate, but projections seem more variable and depreciation is not friendly in this business model. Any thoughts?

[Aaron Bihl]

Hey Jonathan,

I started a small turo fleet in San Antonio about mid November.  Below is what I've found thus far.

Cars:

2007 Honda Odyssey - Paid 5300 cash.  On average it rents for 40ish a day.

2010 Honda Insight -  Paid 4000 cash.  On average it rents for 32ish a day. 

2016 Lexus IS  I financed this and the payment is 400 a month.  - On average rents for 55-60 a day.

Overall, it has been pretty good but very sporadic.  In December my first full month I'll gross over 1500 from the three cars.  The Insight pretty much stays booked (tomorrow it comes back from a week trip and is rented two hours later for another week).  The van has been somewhat consistent but is more of a niche vehicle.  The Lexus has only been rented twice in nearly a month and has been much slower than expected.  I bought this because I wanted a nice car to drive but expected it to actually rent well.

I plan to keep building the fleet, and plan to buy more economy cars and preferably hybrids and also hope to buy some nicer cars that I would never want to actually pay for but use this to fund those.   Everything I do is with lock boxes and remote pickup/dropoff which makes it pretty effortless.  It's been especially satisfying when I've been out of town and my cars are at home making money on their own.

Let me know if you have questions.