How this Sydney woman turned her rarely-used car into savings for a trip to Europe

Like many of us nowadays, Naomi works remotely from her home in Sydney. She had little use for her car but didn’t want to get rid of it altogether.

She decided to trial Uber Carshare and run an experiment – could she cover the cost of owning her car?

One year on, the answer is a resounding “yes”.

The income from car sharing covers the cost of her registration, insurance, maintenance and usage. And there’s extra leftover to go into savings.

This year, the savings helped make her big goal happen – a trip to Europe. Let’s dig a little deeper.

How it works

Naomi lived in Newtown when she first started sharing. She’s since moved but still shares her car there.

For now, she parks her car near a train station in Newtown. She credits her success to the many uni students who live nearby and don’t own a car. And for Naomi, it’s also a simple train trip once a week to her car to give it a quick clean and check it over.

How do people treat her car?

Naomi takes pride in keeping her car in top condition. We asked if sharing it makes that difficult. Do people treat the car with respect? Keep it clean?

“I’ve been doing it for nearly a year now and am really happy with it. I go there once a week and give it a quick clean. And you know, people are pretty good.”

“What I find is that, if anything, the people using my car are very conscious of not getting blamed for scratches and stuff already on the car. People are pretty respectful and careful.”

This is reassuring when you’re sharing your car somewhere you don’t get to see it very often. Naomi did get to see her car being driven once.

She was in Newtown and noticed someone reverse-parking her car. And what happened in that moment? Her phone rang. Via the Bluetooth that automatically connected to her car, while it was being parked right in front of her.

She promptly hung up the phone. And we’re not sure what the poor borrower thought was happening.

Top tips for sharing success

Naomi’s car has lots of 5-star reviews. How does she make it work so well for her?

1. Keep it clean. This doesn’t take much, just visit your car once a week and give it a quick clean.
2. Be thoughtful with provisions. Make things as nice as possible. Change the air fresheners, and provide phone chargers and pet seatbelts. It’s the little details that people remember.
3. Make it available to share full-time. Get to know your schedule, and don’t make it unavailable if you only tentatively need to use it. This isn’t as hard as it first sounds.
4. Take nice photos. Use your listing to show people what they can do with your car. Try some nice scenic shots.

These four things mean that Naomi’s car is almost always booked out.

Take it to the next level

Naomi took things one step further and gave her car a personality. Her car is called Carlos, and when you click on his profile, you get to read his little story.

We think this is probably Naomi’s marketing background shining through, but anyone could have a crack at something similar.

The upside to sharing Carlos with the world

We asked Naomi what she likes most about sharing with Uber Carshare.

“I like contributing to the community. Given everything that’s happening in the world, I can provide a service that’s affordable and easily accessible.”

“And personally, I'm paying a mortgage by myself, you know, with other expenses. It's really nice to be able to offset it with Uber Carshare. And it's also great that I can still manage it from another country for a month. I could manage the car, answer people’s questions, and give them reviews. That was a big test.”

Test passed with flying colours, Carlos. Nice work, mate.

Curious about sharing your car? Learn more.