Mike K's all Things Turo Thread

Mike K

TCG Elite Member
Apr 11, 2008
13,214
2,586
In this thread I'll discuss my experiences using Turo, the online car sharing app. If you don't know what Turo is, it's basically AirBnB for cars. What that means is that you can rent people's personal cars. They get money and you get a pretty good deal on cool cars. The Model 3 I tested came from Turo as did my first Model S experience back in the day.

If you want to buy something but want to have an extended test drive first, Turo is the way to go. If you've never used it, sign up here and we'll both get $25. Isn't that swell? Now with the business out of the way, let's talk about what really excites me about Turo: buying cars I couldn't otherwise justify owning.

In the past I've discussed buying a Porsche Cayman or Panamera just for the sole purpose of renting, hoping it pays for itself and then getting to use it when it's not being rented. But I never did it because when push came to shove, I didn't want to commit. But then I drove the 3 and Tesla won't let me out of the lease on my P85D to buy my 3 and so a couple weeks ago I cleaned the S and then listed it on Turo to see what would happen.

Nothing

For about a week I let them price it and I got zip. Things weren't looking great but perhaps I wasn't being patient enough. Then when I was in Chicago last week I got a notice on my phone that someone had booked the car for a couple days this week. Net proceeds (after Turo's cut): $135 for two days. Shortly after that someone else booked it for 12 days and another $635. Then someone else booked it yesterday for 2 days this weekend, picking it up from LAX. The beauty of that is the guy renting it now will drop it off at Turo's lot tomorrow where the next renter will pick it up from them and then drop it off when he's done. I'll never even see the car. Proceeds from that two day trip: $185.

All said and done, the car will net $955 this month while being used for 16 days which pays for itself and more. Best of all, as the car get's more trips and I don't have the "no trips" badge next to my ad, I'll be able to raise the price about 30%. This covers my lease payment as well as insurance which effectively gives me a free car to use for a couple weeks a month and allows me to buy my Model 3 without waiting for the S's lease to expire.

More importantly, I've been researching which cars rent for the the most but cost the least (BMW 4 series convertible, Boxster, Panamera, Maserati Ghibli) and assuming this first month goes well, I'll likely be grabbing one of those with the thought that I'll drive the car that's not rented or I'll drive my wife's i3 in case both are rented.

It's not all roses

I'm dancing on a cloud right now but I haven't received the car back from this first renter and so far he's politely bitched about some stuff (key fob works but it gave him a battery warning, pano roof squeaks when it opens) and he's suggested that I give him more miles which I'm not willing to do. So I have to see what condition the car comes back in, what kind of difficulties (if any) I have with him regarding the non-issues he brought up, etc. But overall, it seems that if you have something cool and you're willing to shell out the cash, it can potentially pay for itself.

This is especially cool for you guys because in LA our market is kind of saturated. There are tons of Teslas, probably over 100 listed. In Chicago there were barely any and the people that had them wanted hundreds a day when you can rent them all day long for $100 a day in LA. It seems like there's an untapped market there. Buy something cool and rent it mamajamas.
 

sickmint79

I Drink Your Milkshake
Mar 2, 2008
26,884
16,592
grayslake
less supply but pry less demand here too ie. how many familiar with turo?

are you paying extra additional insurance of some sort? or that's all taken care of by turo?

i like the idea of doing this with a tesla more than a porsche - full EV seems subject to much less fuckery by renters dicking around. not that i wouldn't expect people to fuck around with the tesla power - but they wouldn't be overrevving my porsche, or killing the clutch, redlining it with cold oil, etc.
 

torquelover

TCG Elite Member
Jun 4, 2013
1,611
2,286
Off topic a bit here:

Every lease I have had allows the option of buying it out before the lease matures. So, you can trade it in and the dealer 'buys out' the leased car. Is the Tesla dealer not willing to do this towards a Model 3? Or are they willing to but giving you a rediculously low trade value?
 

FirstWorldProblems

TCG Elite Member
Staff member
TCG Premium
Sep 6, 2006
70,459
80,150
Crown point, IN
less supply but pry less demand here too ie. how many familiar with turo?

are you paying extra additional insurance of some sort? or that's all taken care of by turo?

i like the idea of doing this with a tesla more than a porsche - full EV seems subject to much less fuckery by renters dicking around. not that i wouldn't expect people to fuck around with the tesla power - but they wouldn't be overrevving my porsche, or killing the clutch, redlining it with cold oil, etc.

My thoughts exactly. Any fun car i'd buy is one i wouldn't really trust strangers to drive.

What do you know about the renters up front, and what's the process of rejecting a rental request? For example if a 19 year old tries to rent your c7z will you know that before you go to meet the guy?
 

Yaj Yak

Gladys
TCG Premium
May 24, 2007
122,206
87,806
Niche score of 2,363
My thoughts exactly. Any fun car i'd buy is one i wouldn't really trust strangers to drive.

What do you know about the renters up front, and what's the process of rejecting a rental request? For example if a 19 year old tries to rent your c7z will you know that before you go to meet the guy?

https://turo.com/rentals/cars/ga/mableton/nissan-gt-r/254162?s=LL7mqEYi


GUIDELINES
No smoking. No vaping, No air freshners allowed. No eating in the car and drinks limited to water bottles. Car is tracked by GPS, excessive speeding will result in rental ending and car being repossessed immediately. No fees or rental charges will be refunded. Vehicle not allowed on race tracks, if vehicle is found to be on a race track the vehicle will require an oil change, transmission fluid change and differential fluid change at your cost at authorized Nissan GTR dealer. You are responsible for loss of use and loss of rental income in the event of accident or mechanical failure beyond my control including but not limited to flat tires, warning lights, battery failure etc.

Fuel receipt required for all fill ups, 93 octane minimum. Failure to refill with 93 octane or failure to provide receipt will result in minimum one hour diagnostic charge from Nissan to verify vehicle condition. Any damage found you will be held accountable for.

Turo blocks instant booking on this car due to additional background checks required when renting expensive cars, as such a 48 hour delay on your rental should be expected so book accordingly. Also, a mandatory deposit is required again a Turo requirement. If you have questions on these two items please refer to Turo support.
 

Mike K

TCG Elite Member
Apr 11, 2008
13,214
2,586
less supply but pry less demand here too ie. how many familiar with turo?

are you paying extra additional insurance of some sort? or that's all taken care of by turo?

i like the idea of doing this with a tesla more than a porsche - full EV seems subject to much less fuckery by renters dicking around. not that i wouldn't expect people to fuck around with the tesla power - but they wouldn't be overrevving my porsche, or killing the clutch, redlining it with cold oil, etc.

I agree on the cars. Probably wouldn't go with a high performance turbo car here. Something over-engineered and naturally aspirated. Turo covers the insurance up to 1 Million dollars, so the car is effectively better insured when it's being driven by strangers than when I'm driving it myself. For that convenience they take 25%. The prices I gave above are net, after that 25% haircut.

Off topic a bit here:

Every lease I have had allows the option of buying it out before the lease matures. So, you can trade it in and the dealer 'buys out' the leased car. Is the Tesla dealer not willing to do this towards a Model 3? Or are they willing to but giving you a rediculously low trade value?

Not Tesla. The only thing they'll do is offer to buy it back but their leases are structured so oddly that my buyout in September is $83,000 and the car isn't even worth $75,000 right now before an influx of used Model S's flood the market. So I'd probably take a $15,000 haircut by doing that. Renting it allows me to more than pay for it and enjoy it when it's not used.

I'm interested to hear what all happens when you get the car back, seems like the things that person is complaining about are quite... stupid.

They are. I thought he was trying to be a stickler but it turns out he was just mentioning them. He hand washed the car today before returning it and sent it back spotless.

[MENTION=396]Mike K[/MENTION]

did you inform your own personal insurance you are doing this? did you change/up coverages at all? do you have a personal umbrella policy or anything?

Helllllllll no. Turo's policy supersedes theirs so I'm not going to make any waves there.

also [MENTION=396]Mike K[/MENTION],

how does the "drop off" portion work from your direct experience- like for example, would i have to get the car to a lot at O'Hare for it to wait or what?

You can charge for delivery or have them pick up from you. If you deliver you'll get way more renters. For LAX pickups and drop offs Turo has a valet lot where you can drop the car off up to 24 hours before the rental and they'll handle it all for a $25 fee. They'll also check the car in when it comes back. They did that with the guy that just dropped it off and sent me an email with 51 pictures and a walk around video. Talk about thorough. I also have the option of delivering it to them myself or some people will leave it in the short term lot and tell them where it's parked. For a Tesla I could lock the key in it and then remotely unlock it with the app when they're there.

This situation was well worth the pain because the guy was due to return the car to my house today and then I would have had to have immediately driven it to LAX, about an hour away in traffic and then uber back. Instead I just had him drop it off at the valet lot and Turo handled the drop-off to the new driver.

My thoughts exactly. Any fun car i'd buy is one i wouldn't really trust strangers to drive.

You've got to somewhat change your perspective here. Instead of looking at it as your baby that you love and don't want get any kind of scratches, look at it as a car that you otherwise wouldn't own and that you can potentially not only get free use of, but that can make you money. For instance, since I posted this I have another two day rental that came through next week. That will me $1142, enough to cover the lease payment, insurance and put money in my pocket.

What do you know about the renters up front, and what's the process of rejecting a rental request? For example if a 19 year old tries to rent your c7z will you know that before you go to meet the guy?

Turo vets people and you have two options for listings. You can either select it so people can book instantly without you approving them, which I do because it results in more rentals, or you can set it up so that they need to send you a welcome message of sorts and then you can approve or deny it. So I wouldn't go Corvette here because of the consumables like tires. I would go for say a Porsche Cayman though. You're not going to roast the tires in a Cayman and it's a car that isn't about raw power and tends to be over-engineered for the power it's making. I like cars like that.

excessive speeding...well...im out. what's the point of renting something fun only to drive it like a grandma.

It's so stupid to put stuff like that in your listing because it's non-binding. If you tell me in your listing that I'm responsible for lost rental fees if your car needs to be fixed what's that look like in real life? That's not part of Turo's contract and all you're doing is scaring away renters that are going to view you as a headache. I told both renters to enjoy the car's power and that I didn't care if they drove it like what it was. It's under warranty anyhow.
 

Mike K

TCG Elite Member
Apr 11, 2008
13,214
2,586
He was hitting on some chick yesterday, maybe he closed the deal.

This is even worse! One day my wife is probably going to pop on here and see this and I'm totally going to forget any of the context so I won't be able to offer up an immediate response. She'll see the delay in my explanation, confuse it for a guilty conscience and all of the sudden it's 2025, I'm on ID Discovery and Keith Morisson is talking about the tragedy of my death at the hands of my scorned wife. Thanks John.
 

Yaj Yak

Gladys
TCG Premium
May 24, 2007
122,206
87,806
Niche score of 2,363
I agree on the cars. Probably wouldn't go with a high performance turbo car here. Something over-engineered and naturally aspirated. Turo covers the insurance up to 1 Million dollars, so the car is effectively better insured when it's being driven by strangers than when I'm driving it myself. For that convenience they take 25%. The prices I gave above are net, after that 25% haircut.



Not Tesla. The only thing they'll do is offer to buy it back but their leases are structured so oddly that my buyout in September is $83,000 and the car isn't even worth $75,000 right now before an influx of used Model S's flood the market. So I'd probably take a $15,000 haircut by doing that. Renting it allows me to more than pay for it and enjoy it when it's not used.



They are. I thought he was trying to be a stickler but it turns out he was just mentioning them. He hand washed the car today before returning it and sent it back spotless.



Helllllllll no. Turo's policy supersedes theirs so I'm not going to make any waves there.



You can charge for delivery or have them pick up from you. If you deliver you'll get way more renters. For LAX pickups and drop offs Turo has a valet lot where you can drop the car off up to 24 hours before the rental and they'll handle it all for a $25 fee. They'll also check the car in when it comes back. They did that with the guy that just dropped it off and sent me an email with 51 pictures and a walk around video. Talk about thorough. I also have the option of delivering it to them myself or some people will leave it in the short term lot and tell them where it's parked. For a Tesla I could lock the key in it and then remotely unlock it with the app when they're there.

This situation was well worth the pain because the guy was due to return the car to my house today and then I would have had to have immediately driven it to LAX, about an hour away in traffic and then uber back. Instead I just had him drop it off at the valet lot and Turo handled the drop-off to the new driver.



You've got to somewhat change your perspective here. Instead of looking at it as your baby that you love and don't want get any kind of scratches, look at it as a car that you otherwise wouldn't own and that you can potentially not only get free use of, but that can make you money. For instance, since I posted this I have another two day rental that came through next week. That will me $1142, enough to cover the lease payment, insurance and put money in my pocket.



Turo vets people and you have two options for listings. You can either select it so people can book instantly without you approving them, which I do because it results in more rentals, or you can set it up so that they need to send you a welcome message of sorts and then you can approve or deny it. So I wouldn't go Corvette here because of the consumables like tires. I would go for say a Porsche Cayman though. You're not going to roast the tires in a Cayman and it's a car that isn't about raw power and tends to be over-engineered for the power it's making. I like cars like that.



It's so stupid to put stuff like that in your listing because it's non-binding. If you tell me in your listing that I'm responsible for lost rental fees if your car needs to be fixed what's that look like in real life? That's not part of Turo's contract and all you're doing is scaring away renters that are going to view you as a headache. I told both renters to enjoy the car's power and that I didn't care if they drove it like what it was. It's under warranty anyhow.

hmmmm i really wonder what all would go down if your vehicle actually does get damaged. have you read about anyone having their vehicle damaged while on rental?

i don't have [MENTION=396]Mike K[/MENTION] stacks but i mean, if i could find an angle to do some cars like this i think it'd be fun, but i wouldn't want my poverty 7 year old panamera limping back needing a quarter panel, and turo going "oh ok send it to maaco"

:puke:

shit. a salvage title vehicle would be perfect for this.

low intro price. people driving it wouldn't know any different. etc.
 
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