Trading your car for Uber?

[Maurits28]

I'm wondering how many people traded in their (second) car because they believe they can have mobility when needed by ordering an Uber (or Lyft/any other ride sharing service)?

We have two cars at home, and I only use my car to go to work (10 miles, not possible to cycle due to safety) and back. I travel a bit, so on average I use it 15 times a month, for 300 miles.

However I hesitate to sell the car, because I will be constantly dependent on an Uber, and loose my (perceived) freedom.

Interesting to hear what other Mustachians are thinking/doing about this!

[CoreyTheMan]

So, I actually currently do not have a vehicle and 100% rely on public transport and Uber and I would say, It depends. If you are going to need to use Uber A LOT then it might make financial sense to keep your vehicle. I am guessing since you and your wife still have one car, you should be fine in this regard. Monthly my Uber usage averages around $70 (about 11 rides) and my monthly commuter pass runs about $55 so total transport cost per month is about $125 which is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than owning and operating a vehicle. But I do not have kids and such so that makes it much more feasible for me.

[csprof]

I'm wondering how many people traded in their (second) car because they believe they can have mobility when needed by ordering an Uber (or Lyft/any other ride sharing service)?

We have two cars at home, and I only use my car to go to work (10 miles, not possible to cycle due to safety) and back. I travel a bit, so on average I use it 15 times a month, for 300 miles.

However I hesitate to sell the car, because I will be constantly dependent on an Uber, and loose my (perceived) freedom.

Interesting to hear what other Mustachians are thinking/doing about this!

We did this.  I posted about it a while ago and included a Google Spreadsheet that you can fill in with your own #s to help figure out if it's worthwhile:

https://da-data.blogspot.com/2015/06/why-my-car-cost-more-than-taking-uber.html

As a family of three (two adults, one four year old), we've been completely happy with several bikes + a weehoo bike trailer, one 2007 ford focus, and the occasional uber/lyft ride.  I wish we'd ditched the second car years earlier, but the inertia was strong with me, until reading enough MMM (and relocating to california for a year) finally got me off my butt.

So.  Glad.

But you didn't say what happens with your other car.  For us, the decision was really simple:  we walk or bike to work almost exclusively.  My wife drives to work maybe twice per month when she has meetings or things she has to drive to, and we use it for various weekend and evening stuff.  It gets more use in the winter, but the only times we both want to use a car are sometimes on snowy sunday mornings when she's off to yoga and I go grocery shopping.  But we're pretty bike-intensive.

We've spent $29 on uber so far in September, but all but $6.95 of that was when we had *no* car (shipping it back from california).  I don't have a great tally of work (reimbursable - going to airport and whatnot) vs non-work uber use, but a quick scan looks like we were usually staying under $40/month of uber.

I love not having another car to worry about.

[gerardc]

Bump.

I wish I thought of that before buying. Currently spending 3-4k a year on car ownership (depreciation, gas, insurance, repairs, etc.), would be much less with Uber!

Although, knowing myself, I'd probably deny myself some activities if I knew I could save 5 bucks not using Uber...

A car can be useful for extended week-end trips, or spontaneous errands (which usually amount to no good...). But in practice, I  don't use it that much over a year.

[csprof]

Bump.

I wish I thought of that before buying. Currently spending 3-4k a year on car ownership (depreciation, gas, insurance, repairs, etc.), would be much less with Uber!

Although, knowing myself, I'd probably deny myself some activities if I knew I could save 5 bucks not using Uber...

A car can be useful for extended week-end trips, or spontaneous errands (which usually amount to no good...). But in practice, I  don't use it that much over a year.

We remain happy with it through our first single-car winter in Pittsburgh.  We spent $28/month for the last two months in personal travel using uber, not counting one trip to the airport for vacation where we would have taken uber anyway.  We do have to adjust our schedule a bit - can't overlap, say, a trip to Costco with taking our daughter to music.  But it's been good overall.  Less stress from adjusting the schedule than from taking care of a second car.

But it's different being single-car for a family of 3 than no car at all.  We're not that hardcore. :)

You're in the sf bay - you bike already, I assume? :)