Hi AustralianMustachio,
We're not going to pretend to be some random person who's used Car Next Door - this is us, Car Next Door. We hope you won't be offended that we've stepped in to this conversation.
We saw that there was a fair amount of confusion in this thread, and wanted to clarify a few points:
1: Firstly, in relation to depreciation: the biggest factor in depreciation is time. Your car depreciates every day just because it's getting older. Other factors, like the colour, model, and popularity of the car will also affect its resale value. Mileage is just one of these factors. If you're not driving the car much, the additional kilometres driven by borrowers are likely to just get your car to an 'average' mileage and won't affect the resale value significantly. Google 'how to calculate depreciation of a car' for calculators, or take a look at this article (not ours, but runs through the key arguments)
http://blog.relayrides.com/2013/01/another-reason-why-relayrides-make-financial-sense/2. Most cars that are rented out through Car Next Door are not brand new. A 5-year-old car has already done the bulk of its depreciation in the first few years of its life, and the depreciation cost per km is much lower than for the first 100km it drove fresh from the showroom. You can't calculate depreciation as a straight-line figure of 10c/km for its lifetime.
3. The $5/hr and $25/day rates are the cheapest available - generally for older cars. More expensive or newer cars are rented out for more like $8/hr and $40/day. You can set whatever rate you like for your car.
4. We keep really detailed stats on how far people drive for hourly and daily bookings. The average distance driven in a whole day is around 80km. For hourly bookings, the average is around 7km/hr. A borrower driving 120km in one hour is completely improbable and a really unrealistic figure to use.
5. The argument that 'if it was a winning proposition, the company would be buying the cars ..." doesn't make a lot of sense to us. There are plenty of car share companies that do just that, and that do make money from it. We think that from an environmental and social point of view, it makes a lot more sense to use the cars that are already sitting around idle, rather than buying new cars for people to share. It's crazy, in our view, that everyone has to bear these really high fixed costs of owning a car, whether or not they use it much.
6. It's hard to talk through every point in a discussion thread. If you'd like to give Megan a call on (02) 8035 8000, we would be really happy to talk through any questions or concerns you might have. It's a big step to let other people drive your car, and a lot of owners have questions about it. We've had a few owners who have decided that it's not for them, but many others who find that it's a lot easier than they thought, that they like the fact that their car isn't wasted anymore, and that it makes a big difference to their financial position. There's no joining fee or commitment, so you would be welcome to try it and see.
One last thing - yes, we have comprehensive insurance for everyone. The issue that eyem raised is relevant to a U.S. third-party liability scenario, and doesn't apply in Australia. We'd be happy to tell you more about that too if you're interested.
Thanks for listening - over & out.
(But by the way, we love this blog.)
