[VPJ74]

We have sold the 2nd car and share the primary car plus Uber and auto. We have a small kid too and it works great for us.

Parking, driving and maintenance of 2nd car is a hassle.

We are also in the market to upgrade our car to an Urban SUV

[sam_babushka]

I would like to draw attention to the initial days/years of Ola and Uber in India. Rides were cheap, drivers were available at the soonest beck and call, and quite a few car owners abandoned their personal vehicles to use this Godsend service. I need not elaborate on the service standards and costs for both these service providers today.

With specific reference to subscription models, any such service has to cover the cost of lease of the car from the financing company, the overheads of maintaining it, the support staff required to run the business, and most importantly, long term profitability. Who will pay for all of this? Yes, the subscriber. Granted, the lease will be much lesser than the monthly EMI an individual car loan holder will be paying on an average. But everything added up, the end cost to the customer of subscription models will be almost the same as owning a car (if not higher)

The answer to lowering cost of car usage, in my opinion, lies in the resale market. It's a much lesser commitment upfront, and if one is 'blessed' with a lemon, sell it forward in a year or two. From my circle, if the due diligence is done right, 1 in 10 cars is a lemon. Which is a decent probability to have for a much lower car usage cost.

Would love to hear other opinions on this.

[Kosfactor]

Nope! There is no rental / uber that is going to be as well maintained and clean like most of our own (Esp BHPians) vehicles. From an apartment to nearest mall perspective this rental/Uber may work but for going out to the countryside a dependable vehicle must be there of our own.

[nishsingh]

Not now, but in about 10-15 years, once the automobile industry has transitioned to being a gadget industry - running on batteries, self-driving (to some extent), and the interface being the main differentiating factor, I think everyone will be opting for the subscription model.

I realize I might have already bought my last car, or maybe might buy my last car in the next 2-3 years.

As such no point in being practical anymore, my advice to everyone would be to go all out and buy the car your heart wants - it would most likely be the last car you buy car anyway.

[jithin23]

Owning a car is better than leasing or subscription. In India, subscription is expensive and the cars are ill maintained most of the times. Subscription or leasing helps in saving tax alone(one ends up paying more for leasing)but comes with several restrictions (e.g. You CANNOT change to a different alloy wheel of your choice aftermarket).
Plus there are a few groups of people who prefer more safety(e.g. 6 airbags/ESP) and versatility in their daily drives. The subscription companies will offer only base models which are not complete as compared.to owning a personal car with the required features.

On a serious note, it's better to own one car for all purposes rather than owning 2 or 3 cars. I own one car which suits all my needs (city commute/highway drives/cross country drives).

[Bh.P]

Originally Posted by wheelguy

When the number of subscribers keep adding up, it adds to better utilization rate of the fleet.

There will always be a trade-off between availability and utilization of the fleet.
If you want higher utilization, you will have lesser cars for a particular subscriber base, and hence there will be a compromise on the availability. So, there will be a uncertainty on having a car available at all times.
On the other hand, if you want to ensure 100% availability at all times, you have to ensure more cars with lower utilization, hence driving up costs.
Either way, I don't see many opting for this.

Originally Posted by jithin23

On a serious note, it's better to own one car for all purposes rather than owning 2 or 3 cars. I own one car which suits all my needs (city commute/highway drives/cross country drives).

Majority who own more than one car, do so because they have multiple people in the family needing to travel at different times and to different places. It is not that they have cars for different occasions. That may only be a small proportion of households.

[Turrrb0]

Originally Posted by wheelguy

Suppose in a gated community having hundred households and around 110 cars, of which 80 of them remain idle most of the time, in that case always availability of 5-10 cars would suffice which will free up space of ~100 parking lots. Every time a car moves out of the gated community on a ride, another car from the nearby buffer arrives to the gated community thereby ensuring full time availability for the users.


We may have lots of daily-drivers here, but trust me 90% of personal cars, 90% of their lifetime remain idle parked somewhere.

Would you mind sharing how you arrived at these statistics?

[wheelguy]

Originally Posted by Turrrb0

Would you mind sharing how you arrived at these statistics?

Observation, assumption, presumption, and guesstimate.

[King_pin09]

Voted for ‘Will give up ownership of extra cars and retain only the Primary car’.

Done this already on previous instances where I had the option of having extra cars.

I follow a One Car for family policy, strictly. This will allow me to connect with the car emotionally and technically, while fulfilling the crave for car driving.

[charanreddy]

Service levels in India are something i am not too confident about.if i want to save time and effort , i believe in reducing the risk and less dependency on third parties. I have multiple instances where Ola ditched me due to issues at their end. I value my time and needs too highly and hence cannot live with uncertainty that is associated with subscription models or for hire vehicles. Hence voted no, cannot trust dependability

[Malyaj]

Voted - "No. I am anxious about the dependability of such services."

In all spheres of life, I am noticing customer support quality dwindling (esp voice based), with few exceptions in every industry. A subscription based service is something which I believe will have quite a bit of dependence on voice based customer support. Executives who are not authorized to make any decisions, difficulty in escalating matters and general lack of resolution is high.

Yes, car ownership also comes with it's dependence on customer support (renewing insurance, maintenance etc) but these are of much lesser frequency and I am ready to live with them. There are a lot of things that could be unsatisfactory with a subscription car delivered to you, more than on one occasion. I do not want to be agitating on the phone with people who are often not in a position to provide you with meaningful resolution.

Slightly OT, but I remember there was a Sunday recently when we were expecting some deliveries from Amazon and due to some reason had ordered food from outside too for both lunch and dinner. I spent so much time coordinating with support staff and clueless delivery executives on phone that I felt my Sunday had been wasted.

[akshay_ritz]

Voted - Other Reasons - The business model is simply not scaleable. It is not solving a problem for a critical mass of people that can lead to product adoption. If it's a niche solution, it has to be pricey to ensure profitability. If it's mass-market, then OLA/UBER will launch a new skew and crush this before it can grow. Hence, I will not trust any such provider and base my decisions on them.

[revsperminute]

Voted- No, will not give up on driving pleasure.

Car Ownership is not just about having a mode of transportation. It is a experience with great rewards. Besides that, I'm sure the Indian consumer will abuse the fleet cars like nothing else. Even though car ownership rate among millennials is a dwindling figure, I still believe in 'old-fashioned' car ownership. There's nothing like the memories you create driving to different destinations in your own vehicle.

[vijayshouree]

Voted No, I am anxious about the dependability of such services.

In my view, the subscription model best suits for consumables such as milk, tata-sky, newspaper etc.. . Subscribing a car is similar to renting a home. Even if you pay rent, you will never get that connect with rented home. Similarly, you will never have that 'mine' feeling with the subscribed car.

For me, car ownership is an experience in itself. Nothing beats the experience of one traveling to places in his/her own car.

[adi.mariner]

We had multiple cars when my parents were working. But since their retirement and me moving out, we only have one car each. IMO, with a subscription/leasing service, there is never a feeling of ownership even though technically the car is yours. I would definitely drive it carefully but there will be never be a connection with the car. This decision is definitely made by the heart and not with the mind. For now, 1 car is enough for our family. But when the need for a 2nd car arises in the future, I would definitely own it and not lease it.