Tag: renting cars

Only $600 Per Month to “Subscribe”!

Guest Post by Eric Peters

Here’s a look at the Future of Transportation, also known as “transportation as a service” – the new business model that is being pushed hard by several major car companies, for the obvious reason that they stand to make a lot more money doing business this way.

The idea is that instead of selling you a car, you pay to rent cars – plural. Rather than a single monthly payment toward ownership of a single car, you pay a monthly subscription fee – ongoing – to never own any particular car but to have the use of several different cars.

Cadillac calls this “experience the brand.”

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GM’s New Rent-a-Car Business Model

Guest Post by Eric Peters

Renting is a much better deal than buying . . . for the landlord. You – the renter – never own anything. But you pay for everything.

Forever.

This appears to be GM’s view of the future of cars, which it plans to rent to you rather than sell to you.

It’s actually sound policy – for GM – given the cost of new cars (not just GM’s) as well as the declining affection for cars, especially among those in the 35 and younger bracket – many of whom aren’t interested in ever owning a car but occasionally need one.

GM launched Maven – its in-house ride-sharing (renting) service last January in anticipation of a radically changing car market, one presaged by services such as Uber and Lyft. The difference here is that Maven is GM, while Uber and Lyft are simply ride-sharing services that use whatever make/model vehicle their drivers happen to own.

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