Good, efficient, used vehicle for ride sharing? (EG. Uber / Lyft)

[19bonestock88]

So if I’m gonna keep driving past December, I’m gonna have to get another, newer, vehicle... and while it’s still months away I have thought about cars for a little while... I know I won’t be buying new, I’m looking at used cars well under $10k... the immediate thought is a Prius, but that seems too easy and almost overdone...

I also thought of a newer diesel powered car such as a Jetta, Golf or maybe a Cruze? But I also like the manual transmission, which I don’t think the first gen Cruze TD has...

I also thought of bigger vehicles (for UberXL and such) and my first thought was the Mazda5... did you know the second gen 5 came with a six speed manual? It surprised me too...

Any thoughts?

[Ecky]

As someone who has never done ride-sharing, what are the most important criteria? How many people will it be transporting, and does your vehicle selection change the pool of people who share?

[19bonestock88]

Vehicles have to have four doors at minimum. I’ve seen cars like the Spark used but I imagine they’re cramped and many ridesharing “experts” recommend midsize or bigger... Prius is really popular (for obvious reasons), though for my city and it’s steep hills I considered finding something AWD to keep from having issues in winter, such as a 06-09 Legacy 5MT...

I briefly considered the Mazda5 because it’s a small minivan and it’s available in a manual which would make hypermiling possible

[redpoint5]

I'm not big on Uber/Lift because I don't think it pays well enough after all expenses are factored in.

That said, I'd get a new Chevy Bolt if it were me. With incentives here, I could probably get one for the low $20k. No maintenance, and electricity is about 2 cents per mile where I live. Federal incentives reduce in April, so my guess is these used EVs will appreciate, or at least hold their value.

If it really needs to be below $10k, Prius is the right tool for the job. Diesel fuel prices will be increasing soon.

I wouldn't get a manual because some passengers will think it's weird, and it jerks them around a bit. Stick to an auto.

[19bonestock88]

I had forgotten about diesel prices going up, good call on that one...

IF I chose an EV, it’d likely be a used Tesla, for nothing other than their Supercharger network which would allow me to charge the car without coming home (an 80 mile commute), but my credit is SHOT so I’m not even gonna try and finance a $35-40k car, and since I don’t own my home anyway I couldn’t install the home charger for any EV...

Ideally I’d like to get a car just new enough to allow me to keep driving for a few years and build a nest egg with which to try again to begin home ownership. I could cop out and find a manual 07 Ion sedan and transfer all my mods and keep going, but my car IS kinda small and kinda hard on fuel in commercial use...

Ideally I’d like to save up enough to buy a car outright but I’m willing to try and secure a small loan for the right car, but with bad credit I doubt I’d be able to finance too much, and my budget (rideshare income aside) is pretty tight...

Prii hold their value really well last I checked but I seen an 07 with just past a quarter million on it for $1995... I figured I’d pass...

If I’m stuck buying a midsize (automatic) car and can’t afford a Prius, I’d also like to find either a Chevy Malibu (08-12) or Saturn Aura (07-09) with the 2.4 and 4speed auto. I’m leery of the GM 6T70 as it had the famous 3-5-R waveplate issue... I don’t know how well the Ford Fusion of that era held up over time...

At the price point I’m shopping in, I’d either have to get lucky buying an automatic that had known reliability or get a manual, which so far has started a lot of conversations with riders, and usually gets compliments...

[redpoint5]

Who are you ridesharing for? I thought vehicles had to be no older than 10 years?

[19bonestock88]

I’m currently driving for Uber and Lyft; they require a vehicle no more than 15 years old

[JSH]

I would get a used Prius with an extra set of wheels and snow tires for winter. (There is a reason that Pri have taken over the taxi market)

If you frequently need to transport 4 people plus luggage I would get a Prius V.

Dieselgate VW TDIs could be another option and VW is flooding the market which is dropping prices. Eerything that was touched by the retrofit has an extended warranty. There are 3 generations and the warranty varies. My 2014 is covered until 120K miles. However, diesel is more expensive than regular and a TDI will return lower mpg than a Prius. Fuel for the TDI has averaged $0.09 per mile so far while the Prius it replaced averaged $0.07 per mile

[Frank Lee]

[19bonestock88]

Been looking more at cars, seen a couple nice 10-11 Malibus for around $5k-ish, between 100 and 120K on them... I think one had a V6 though...
I also seen a 2012 Mazda 5 (6MT) with 120k that I liked pretty well...

But I’m not buying for another several months, so I don’t need to jump the gun