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      10-20-2019, 09:09 PM   #36
EstorilM240
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Drives: 2017 M240i 6MT
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: California

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Non-obvious advice: You can rent for 26 hours for the same price as 1 day. So renting from Saturday 10AM to Sunday 12PM is 1 day, but ending at Sunday 12:30PM is 2 days.

More obvious advice: If you pick super niche sporty cars with 0-1 reviews on them, expect a higher flake rate than if you pick a car with 50+ reviews that is being rented by someone with 5 cars. In the later category, I would say it works 98%+ of the time. Take pictures before/after the trip (app makes this easy). For airport pickups, coordinate with flight times and sometimes it's helpful to suggest meeting in a parking lot or garage since pickup curbs are often stressful. Use a referral code online for a first ride discount.

I've used Turo a lot as a renter from 2013, when it was branded as RelayRides. I was a great way to get more affordable rentals especially as a younger renter (without say a USAA under-25 discount code), and try out other special vehicles and cars with unique set ups including manual transmissions. A 15 minute test drive is not enough to decide whether you want to buy a car, taking a car home for a weekend is often a great way to get the full experience. Also, it allows you to buy a more practical daily driver, and then use more hardcore cars when you see fit.

As a renter, the main downsides are there's often stress over "Is this person going to show up" "is the car going to work". You probably have less flexibility - you have to show up at your reservation start time, extensions may not be guaranteed (whereas they are guaranteed at agency rentals), and late fees apply, whereas every time I've returned a car late at Budget or Avis I pay for an extra day but haven't been dinged on fees. If delivery is not offered to the airport, you may have to Uber or take a taxi for a distance to go to a random location to pick up the car. In the very early days around 2013, I had half of my first 4 rides not work - in one, the battery was dead (and they were using this remote control app-open-car system similar to Getaround), in another, someone claimed they were unable to give the car right before since it had to be taken into the shop the day before. Since 2016, it has been far more reliable, and often the owners are more "professionalized" (similar to Airbnb, when in 2012-2013 the average host is very different from 2019). Some of my Turo super-user renter friends probably have 97%+ successful rentals with 50+ rentals. Also see Doug DeMuro's blog post and that some auto insurers also directly cover your Turo rentals. https://www.autotrader.com/car-news/...ly-work-267842

I forget if some credit cards that provide primary coverage for car rentals like the Chase Sapphire, also work for Turo - last I checked, I think they were only for agency rentals and not peer to peer. (I believe that coverage goes from the rental company first like Turo or Enterprise, then to primary coverage on a credit card, then to your own auto insurer, then to secondary coverages from credit cards).

As for owners on Turo, Turo has a blog post about supposedly the easiest to rest out models and the most profitable, comparing the median earnings, etc. to monthly payment. Of course, Turo wants you to rent out your cars. I'd consider this generally to be an example of "efficient free market competition" where eventually businesses tend towards the standard 5-15% profit margin since rental cars are relative commodities. For people with multiple cars, it's often a great way to put the idle assets to use and the math changes. https://turo.com/en-us/top-earning-cars

@ Josh-PA, see you picked up a Boxster in manual. Good choice and enjoy! These are the kinds of cars Turo is best for. BTW, the link to the car is broken right now

Last edited by EstorilM240; 10-20-2019 at 09:17 PM..
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