Clown cars in the Gig Economy

[LD_TAndK]

A neighbor used instacart for delivery, the delivery person pulls up in a shiny late model suburban and pulls three paper sacks of groceries out of the cavernous trunk. I'm no expert but I'm betting this was a minimum $60k car

I wish I could see the numbers to know whether this person is losing money by working. They're like a modern day jesus working miracles, turning a gallon of gas into a gallon of milk

[obstinate]

This has ALWAYS bugged me as well. The gig drivers are always complaining how they don't make enough money, but they drive tons of miles and huge gas guzzling cars that are expensive to maintain. If I were doing it, you would not catch me in any car other than a Prius or similar hybrid vehicle! And it would be the oldest model the apps allow me to drive before kicking me off.

[JAYSLOL]

Yeah, the new SUVs don’t really ever make sense, but it would be somewhat reasonable if they already owned it and were behind on some bills due to a job loss or something and decided to buy some time running DoorDash or whatever, but I suspect some people really do buy a new loaded SUV to do gig work and wonder why they’re $25k underwater on their car and not making ends meet.  Freaking simple math

[LD_TAndK]

Yeah, the new SUVs don’t really ever make sense, but it would be somewhat reasonable if they already owned it and were behind on some bills due to a job loss or something and decided to buy some time running DoorDash or whatever, but I suspect some people really do buy a new loaded SUV to do gig work and wonder why they’re $25k underwater on their car and not making ends meet.  Freaking simple math

I was thinking they could also be using it for UberXL or some sort of executive cab/airport shuttle. No idea if the profits pencil out for that either, but at least it's the required tool for the job.

[roomtempmayo]

Yes, using huge SUVs and even luxury cars as delivery vehicles is common around here.  If you need to be hustling last mile delivery for Amazon on a Sunday morning with your BMW, maybe you would reconsider the BMW, but that's just me.

In contrast, I once took an Uber where the guy drove a Bolt.  He told me that he only ever charged for free at public chargers, and that the Bolt with free electricity and near zero maintanance basically doubled his take-home over a standard gas car.

[GilesMM]

Door dashers bring in like $20/hour so that would probably cover gas for a suburban for quite a few hours.

[sonofsven]

It's remarkable how close the prices of a gallon of gas and milk are.
One is pumped from the ground, shipped via truck, rail, pipeline or barge to a refinery, and then shipped again to retail stores.
The other is pumped from a cow and trucked to a processor where it is pasteurized and homogenized, then shipped again to retail stores.
I wonder which commodity is more subsidized?
I would guess gasoline, but I know the farm bill is full of subsidies, too.

[LD_TAndK]

Door dashers bring in like $20/hour so that would probably cover gas for a suburban for quite a few hours.

Figure 17 mpg, add in an averaged per-mile depreciation, tire wear, maintenance based on mileage, I bet they're pushing beyond 80 cents per mile. So $20 an hour would get you 25 miles per hour if you're willing to work for free. I'd bet they're cutting it pretty close

[Fomerly known as something]

Honestly, (I’m still on the fence), I’ve considered driving up to the ROTH contribution limit in RE so I can make yearly deposits into it still in retirement.  At that point it would be in whatever car I choose to drive which would not be a suburban but could be a nicer car.

[markbike528CBX]

My mothers caregivers generally seem to have pretty nice vehicles, considering what they get paid by the care service.
If they got paid 90% of the care service cost, then I could maybe see it as reasonable.

They are great caregivers and nice people, the service does great, but it pains me to see the consumer car overspend/wages ratio.

[JAYSLOL]

My mothers caregivers generally seem to have pretty nice vehicles, considering what they get paid by the care service.
If they got paid 90% of the care service cost, then I could maybe see it as reasonable.

They are great caregivers and nice people, the service does great, but it pains me to see the consumer car overspend/wages ratio.

My wife is a caregiver doing community care work in people’s homes and in facilities. She gets mileage paid for, but it’s a pretty standard amount covering the cost to run a basic economy car. Some of her coworkers have bought fancy new SUVs or trucks in the $30-50k range, but we bought a 9 year old Hyundai Elantra in cash for $3k (got a crazy deal on it to be fair). It’s been a perfect little car for the last 3 years and we just can’t imagine spending a ton on something fancy with what either of us make. Both our cars combined are barely a couple percentage points on our net worth.