[Reducing motoring costs] Anyone rent their car out to car sharing services like Hiya?

BOWFER

Herzlos said:

It looks like a great deal on an hourly basis (there's a Peugeot  208 near me for £2/hour) before booking fees and insurance. Though I don't know how practical it is for me to go and get it without a car.

£4 an hour for a 13 plate Fiesta or £5 an hour for a Mitsubishi ASX (age unknown but looks recent) near me.

jimjames

BOWFER said:

Herzlos said:

It looks like a great deal on an hourly basis (there's a Peugeot  208 near me for £2/hour) before booking fees and insurance. Though I don't know how practical it is for me to go and get it without a car.

£4 an hour for a 13 plate Fiesta or £5 an hour for a Mitsubishi ASX (age unknown but looks recent) near me.

Interesting numbers but I'm not sure what's in it for the owners at those sort of rates. Even my ancient car I wouldn't really be bothered at hiring it out if I only got £4 for the hassle (and presumably the hire company take some commission out)

Grumpy_chap

BOWFER said:

Grumpy_chap said:

I don't really understand these HIYAcar type services from the point of view of the renter.

If I want to hire a car for the coming weekend, Friday to Sunday, I can go to a national hire firm and book a Focus or equivalent for £141.51.  For that price I will get a new / nearly new modern, fully maintained car and proper business / professional service, breakdown cover, etc.

Alternatively, I can use HIYAcar to borrow a 10 yo Golf with a small dent in the rear wheel arch, unknown service history and a daily mileage limit, all for the princely sum of £209.11.

HIYAcar does not seem to make any sense.  Plus, in the event of damaging the vehicle, I know I'd much rather return to a car hire depot where it will be dealt with entirely impassionate manner rather than risk the wrath of an individual ranting over their pride-and-joy.

I think it's more aimed at people wanting to hire by the hour.

For a one hour hire, that same Golf is £5.
That is then competing with Uber.

I can't think of many times I'd want to hire a car for an hour or so, except, perhaps, taking a load of garden waste to the dump?

BOWFER

jimjames said:

Interesting numbers but I'm not sure what's in it for the owners at those sort of rates. Even my ancient car I wouldn't really be bothered at hiring it out if I only got £4 for the hassle (and presumably the hire company take some commission out)

I agree, seems a lot of potential hassle for little return.
But you get people selling stuff on faceook messenger for £3, so what I do I know.

Herzlos

Grumpy_chap said:

For a one hour hire, that same Golf is £5.
That is then competing with Uber.

I can't think of many times I'd want to hire a car for an hour or so, except, perhaps, taking a load of garden waste to the dump?

I never really use my car for more than a couple of hours at at time, to be fair.

Maybe an hour is a bit of a waste of time unless you need to go shopping, but maybe a 4 hour hire to take the kids to the beach or something would work.
I'd totally hire a bigger car for 2 hours to do a trip to Ikea, since it's cheaper than delivery.

jimjames said:

Interesting numbers but I'm not sure what's in it for the owners at those sort of rates. Even my ancient car I wouldn't really be bothered at hiring it out if I only got £4 for the hassle (and presumably the hire company take some commission out)

It sounds like the £4/hour goes to the owner, and the hire company takes a fee on top.

I agree I certainly wouldn't want to deal with the hassle for £4/hour, but I guess it all adds up and if the car isn't doing anything anyway.

Though I don't know how they deal with fuel.

NBLondon

BOWFER said:

Herzlos said:

It looks like a great deal on an hourly basis (there's a Peugeot  208 near me for £2/hour) before booking fees and insurance. Though I don't know how practical it is for me to go and get it without a car.

£4 an hour for a 13 plate Fiesta or £5 an hour for a Mitsubishi ASX (age unknown but looks recent) near me.

Within a half mile of me I have a choice of Toyota C-HR, Seat Ibiza, Vauxhall Astra at £3 an hour (2019 vintage) or a 2021 Citroen C3 at £4 an hour.  These all seem to be "Car Club" rather than owned by an individual.  I have to go 0.9 miles to get Gloria's 2017 Focus Diesel for £4 an hour or 1.9 miles to get Denzel's 2017 Smart ForFour for only £2 an hour.

If hypothetically I didn't have access to my own Focus then hiring Gloria's might be an option for some trips.

However - if I wanted a larger vehicle for going to the tip - or collecting from Ikea then I've got to go 3 miles for David's 2009 Octavia Estate at £3.  If I want something bigger than a small hatch then I'm going 4 miles for Olade's 2016 Vauxhall Insignia at £4.

That's suburban South London.  The balance of possible hirers to available cars might be quite different in other locations.

I notice that some of these individual owned cars are branded (wrapped I presume) and offer keyless entry.  So if you sign up as a car owner, you've presumably got the cost of that to consider (whether it is upfront or comes out of the Hiya commission on each hire).  And if you start to need your car regularly again (new job?) would you pay the cost of removing those?

AdrianC

NBLondon said:

That's suburban South London.  The balance of possible hirers to available cars might be quite different in other locations.

Yes, I have a choice of an 8yo A180 or 7yo i20, each for a fiver an hour. And that's it within a 40 mile radius.

Dr_Crypto

Is your name Warren Avis? If not then you’re not the right person to be renting out cars.