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Why You Shouldn't Rent Out Your Car

Thinking of renting out your car but concerned about damage or theft? These are the most common questions owners ask us about renting out their car

Maryse Dubois

Renting Out Your Car FAQs

Are you thinking of renting out your car to offset the costs or start a business, but have some concerns? Read on for some of the most common questions prospective car owners have for us about sharing their car with their neighbours.

  • Car sharing will be inconvenient
  • Someone is going to crash it
  • Someone is going to trash it
  • I shouldn't have to pay a membership fee to rent out my car
  • My car is going to depreciate in value
  • I like my car and feel weirdly protective of it
  • Someone is going to steal it

Car Sharing will be inconvenient

If you need to use your car, you can block out time so borrowers can’t rent out your car when you need it. You can also put recurring bookings in (weekly team sport for example) so you can ensure you have your car when you want it.

And if something last minute comes up and someone else has rented your car, it’s really easy to jump online and book someone else’s car near you.

Someone is going to crash it

We get asked about damage a lot, so let's break it down. All bookings come with damage and loss cover for the borrower. If a borrower did crash your car (accidents happen!) they'd be covered.

Less than 1% of bookings result in an accident, and in 2017, that rate was even lower with only one in every 1,400 borrower trips resulted in "major damage" (major damage = over $3k of damage caused to the owners car and/or the 3rd party car).

The onus is always on borrowers to prove that they were not responsible for any damage. If a borrower is found to have damaged your car, you won’t be out of pocket and we'll even pay you $25 for every day your car is in for repair so that you can borrow another members car to get where you need to go.

Someone is going to trash it

All our borrowers are vetted - this includes a credit history check, criminal check, driving history check and a fancy computer face matching program. We find that borrowers treat the cars well since they know they belong to real people who are renting out their car and not a company. Sometimes things can slip, so if you end up with a rotten egg and your car comes back dirty or messy send us a picture that shows the borrower’s bad behaviour. We’ll organise to get your car cleaned at the borrower’s cost.

**Oh, and those rotten eggs - BANNED. **

My car is going to depreciate in value

Do you know what the one biggest factor is in calculating your car’s value?

Its age.

On average a new car will depreciate almost 20% of its value in the first year, so unless you have discovered time travel, whether your car is being rented to other people or not it is still going to be ageing (aren’t we all?).

"But it will have more km’s on the clock."

Look, if you drive your car 30 kilometres a month, and suddenly people are renting out your car and it’s getting driven 100 kilometres a month, yes you’re going to see more wear and tear, just like you would if you suddenly started driving your car three times as much.

My question to you is this: Do you really think your eight year old car is going to be worth wildly less money with 160,000km vs 150,000km on the odometer?

Most of our owners find that the extra driving from borrowers isn’t enough to push them over their regular servicing schedule. You’re also paid for every kilometre a borrower drives in your car, to cover fuel and extra wear and tear.

A 2017 report by the RACV calculated the fuel, tyres and maintenance running costs (cents/km) per km for a variety of vehicle sizes. A micro car such as a Suzuki Celerio LF 5dr 2.0L petrol was priced at 11.69c, a medium Mazda6 Sport 2.5L petrol at 16.11c/km and a 4WD Ute such as a Mitsubishi Triton GLX 2.4 diesel at 17.47c/km.

I like my car and feel weirdly protective of it

If you’re the type of person whose idea of a good night is lovingly rubbing down your car with a polishing cloth and painstakingly vacuuming the entirety of your vehicle every second day, you probably aren’t going to be the kind of person who will enjoy sharing their car.

For us we see a car as an underutilised resource, wasting away in value and costing you money just by existing. By renting out your car, you are contributing to your community by increasing the accessibility of cars by sharing yours. We are on a mission to reduce the number of cars being bought and made! One of the best ways to reduce your carbon footprint and help out your neighbours is through car sharing.

Someone is going to steal it

In the unlikely event that your car was stolen during a booking, we would do all we could to recover it. All vehicles are fitted with GPS devices so we would be able to track your car and work with the police to recover it.

Under the circumstance that we couldn’t recover it, you would receive a market value payout for your car.

If you like your car, but feel it's a wasted asset, rent out your car today!