Comment by nealmueller | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nealmueller | Hacker News Reader

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Hi there. I'm Neal. The author of this analysis. As I recall, I included the cost of gas, and wear and tear in maintenance. The largest cost of cars is depreciation, and that's kept me from buying a car. The only car I would want (a nice car) is going to depreciate faster than I'm comfortable with. Since doing this analysis I've been carless for 2 years and have used Uber and google buses a lot to get from SF to Sunnyvale where I work and fly planes. Since writing I've used Getaround a few times and Turo never. There's a Getaround next door to me (a nice Volvo) and taking that is often less expensive than uber, but less desirable because I've gotten very addicted to the pleasure of not driving the car that I'm riding in.

I like your suggestions here. I've considered buying a car and renting it out like you suggest, but I currently make $100,000/year doing that with the extra room in my SF house, and that's enough work that I can't afford to extra time to do it with a car also. And I think I'll make more money on Airbnb vs. Turo/Getaround. Homes are easier to monetize than cars.

Again, thanks for digging in!

You get $8300/month from renting spare rooms in your house? That has got to be a big house and you are a /very/ wealthy individual.

I bring this up because it seems like you ride Uber more for the convenience for your lifestyle and less for the cost factor. You could easily buy an old prius and not worry about most maintenance, deprecation, etc. Most ride shares I've been in have been a Prius or similar. As you said, "I've gotten very addicted to the pleasure of not driving the car that I'm riding in." You don't seem to value driving anywhere near being a passenger. Thus, selling the M3. <-- Not sure why you'd ever be buying an M3 if being driven around in a Prius at modest speeds was your thing. Was it just about the image?

Correction, ~$60k/year. Your point is valid that I could buy an old Prius, and I've considered it, or one of those plug-in cars that you can get for basically free after the California rebate, but it won't drive itself sadly. The M3 thing was a bit of a phase. I liked the way it sounded and drove, but I found myself wishing it had better self-driving features and that it was less easily nicked, dinged, and scuffed. One point of clarification; I don't self describe as wealthy or /very/ wealthy. The housing market in SF supports a healthy airbnb market.

you are a /very/ wealthy individual

This is correct. None of these "experiences" have any relevance to your average American (or world citizen)

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