Car sales idea

"Stapleface" (patrickgruden) 01/27/2016 at 10:56 • Filed to: None

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I know that I can’t be the only one who just can’t commit to a car. No matter how much research I’ve done, I will eventually get bored with a car. Sometimes rather quickly. As such, I think I’ve come up with what is a pretty cool idea for those of us who just can’t seem to make up our minds.

Short term leasing.

Break cars down into different categories. For anything under say 20k, you pay lets say $350 a month. There’s no long term commitment. You can change the cars every month if you want to. You don’t actually own the vehicle though. If you chose to stop being in the program, you simply can walk away and not owe anything, but you also wouldn’t own a vehicle.

You can increase the price threshold (say 20k-30k is $450 a month) to as high as you want (or there are people that are willing to pay).

So, how dumb does this idea really sound? This came from my mind today as I'm sitting at work being bored (yet again) with my most current vehicle.

Caleb "If a rally car can do it, so can my Malibu" M. S. > Stapleface 01/27/2016 at 10:59

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I would do that! It beats paying my parents for every mile on the ‘Bu.

bob and john > Stapleface 01/27/2016 at 11:02

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so renting

iSureWilll > Stapleface 01/27/2016 at 11:04

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This idea is like Classic Car Club Manhattan but with regular people cars. Like $350/mo for unlimited mileage monthly rental?

Stapleface > bob and john 01/27/2016 at 11:08

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Essentially, yes. But most rental models aren't for extended periods of time.

bob and john > Stapleface 01/27/2016 at 11:09

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they can be if you want. we had a 3 month rental at one point.

Stapleface > iSureWilll 01/27/2016 at 11:10

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Yeah, unlimited mileage. I haven't worked out any of the logistics yet (like what to do about maintenance, or if there's a popular model that everyone wants). Didn't realize there was one for classic cars. Interesting.

Stapleface > bob and john 01/27/2016 at 11:12

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Oh, I agree that it can be. I only assume that a month-long rental through my program would be cheaper than going through a usual rental car office.

jariten1781 > Stapleface 01/27/2016 at 11:12

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All the big car rental companies do long term rentals. That's basically what you've described...Avis calls them a mini-lease, I think everyone else just calls them long term rentals. They're priced by class just like all other rentals.

Stapleface > jariten1781 01/27/2016 at 11:15

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But aren’t you kind of stuck with whatever Avis/Budget/Enterprise/Joe’sRentalEmporium has to offer?

Like who really wants a Versa for a month? I imagine selection is rather limited at a rental office. But otherwise, you're spot on. I guess I just want to expand on the long-term rental model.

Master Cylinder > Stapleface 01/27/2016 at 11:17

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It’s a cool idea and I think it’s been done before on a small scale with classic car clubs, although I’m not really sure how the logistics work there - whether all the cars are owned by one entity (i.e., the club) and members rent them, or whether it’s more like a car-swapping deal.

Anyway, it’d be cool to have the opportunity to drive a bunch of different cars (assuming they’re interesting cars).

BrianGriffin thinks “reliable” is just a state of mind > Caleb "If a rally car can do it, so can my Malibu" M. S. 01/27/2016 at 11:20

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Your parents are tough...

PartyPooper2012 > Stapleface 01/27/2016 at 11:37

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so like... zipcar?

Stapleface > PartyPooper2012 01/27/2016 at 11:39

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Sort of. But without paying the crazy zipcar fees. And having a vehicle always being available for you because you park it at home.

jariten1781 > Stapleface 01/27/2016 at 11:41

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You are, but in any setup you’re going to be limited to whatever is in a fleet or you’re going to be paying some astronomical sum far beyond what traditional long term leasing would require. The only way rental prices are where they are now is through big fleet inventory purchases at discounts over what individual purchases would be (sometimes at a loss to the manufacturer).

I don’t see how it’d be financially feasible to allow folks to spec out cars of their choosing because that’d leave you with a massive inventory issue as people turned things in. To keep up that model you’d be unloading 30-90 day old cars all the time which have huge depreciation hits which would need to be built in to the rental/mini-lease costs.

I suppose you could do it if you concentrated solely on sub $5k used vehicles that have virtually no depreciation over 90 day periods. Basically run a used car lot that would have long term rental options or purchase available.