Uber offers lease program for drivers who can't buy a car

That's why lease cars are awesome; now, I don't have to pay retail for a nice car. By the time you're done with the lease, there is enough time on the vehicle to determine whether it is a turd or not.

 

Are people that stupid?

Heavy, seriously? Do I dare show you the "Lease Purchase" forum on TTR?

Uber clearly saw that trucking companies are making a killing at it, Uber decided to make a killing at the car side.


There is literally no hope for our survival beyond the hand we feed from.

 

I just read today on MSN that GM is trying out a kind of rental thing in the Toronto area. What I got out of it was they'll have 5 vehicles in a small lot. You need a vehicle, you reserve it with your smartphone. Smartphone unlocks and starts the car during the time you rent it for.

 

I drove for 3 rideshare places at the same time, the main one was Discount Cab in Phoenix, that was a day job. I hauled medical patients all over, and it paid #### good, for 2 months(1100 p/week gross). The others were Lyft and Uber which I did on Friday and Saturday nights which was usually good for 150 - 350 p/night. But the day job took a dump when they supposedly "lost" the contract to Yellow. This all happened while trying to avoid truck driving again and after my mouth wrote a check my arse couldn't cash at the corp. job.

 

That's where they're heads are at. That's the auto industry itself trying to compete with the future ride share Uber world. Rental cars.

 

If you were an Uber driver would you take a truck driver anywhere?

I'd give them the big ol' hairy eyeball before I got close enough to smell them.

 

Now now behave. Not all truckers are bad. Some of us are quite clean and you would not know different if I rode with you as a car hire. Unless you noticed my extra attention examining the Rigs.... heck as a CHL you probably wont know Im armed either.

I remember I was a dirty trucker once. Those days are long gone. When we wife and I ran team, we were actually cleaner than ever showers that take two at a time around the Country have alot to do with that.

As far as the Leases. FFE leased our tractor, ran that into the ground in a year. Hand it to a solo to run off the last 6 months or whatever. Then get another lease. It made no sense to buy a plastic truck that wont withstand team operations over 5 years of bank payments by the time it's paid for the poor thing will be a million plus miles.

There is a alternative, horsepower hours. Railroads charge each other based on horsepower hour used. So if you saw say a Union Pacific train coming by with Norfolk Southern Lashup engines working, you noticed that the NS engines are working really hard, Cheaper to have them pull the lions share and preserve the leading UP engine for when you really need power. For their part the NS gets to send engines where there is a need for it.

Cars have gotten too expensive. I went the other way purchasing a older vehicle based on the idea that a few dollars in the right areas that need fixing will maintain the vehicle. Mine is coming along ok, but Im not attached to it particular. I put about 15 miles on it a month meaning I fill the tank once every two years. There is another car availible and that particular vehicle has recieved approximately 3000 dollars worth of retail parts plus a 1100 engine bearing rebuild already. The way it's behaving it's fixing to get a front end suspension work but winter first then worry about it in spring. It's a model year 2005 and frankly the way it was constructed was mostly plastic, not so much metal.

The last car of any quality was literally a Buick. A 2004, that one did 10 years and reached 200,000 in that time and all we did to it was toss oil changes at it along with tires and transmission fluid replacement. Ultimately the actuator inside the transmission that controls pressure fluid applying to the drive shaft when you press the gas started going bad. It will be 1700 to fix it. We sold the car for 2000. Let some one else deal with the bad actuator. It was a very good car. But it will be a while before I buy something like that again, I need something with a bit more engine and manual plus top end. Traffic here is getting predatory and anyone with the slows are going to get hit.

 

I often get Uber to get to Lifetime fitness, those places are usually in busy suburbs, so I have to park my truck few miles away.
P.S. I smell like a rose, so Uber drivers are always happy to see me ))