The Benefits of Using a Carshare vs. Getting a New Vehicle

August 26, 2023 by Jeff Hayward Leave a Comment

When it comes to getting a car, there are many things to think about such as costs, convenience, and environmental considerations. Whether to go with a carshare program or a personal vehicle is a decision to be made based on your circumstances, but here’s a basic guide.

First off, if you’ve already owned a vehicle in the past, then you’re aware that paying for one is one of the highest common average household expenses — sitting at roughly 20% of your overall costs. According to RateHub.ca, owning one amounts to around $1,000 per month when you factor in gas, insurance, maintenance, and other considerations such as parking.

The source says leasing may be a little cheaper, but there are pros and cons with that as well — such as being limited in kilometres driven per month, as an example.

Since my partner and I gave up our old, sometimes trusty Volvo about five years ago, we’ve been using everything from a cargo bike to a carshare to run errands and get around. We’re in the early stages of considering getting a car again, but as it stands, I don’t think we could afford one–at least a new one. (Decent used cars aren’t exactly cheap right now in Canada either.)

Since I was doing some math about how much we’re currently paying for a carshare versus buying/leasing a new vehicle, I thought I’d make it into an article for anyone else considering the same thing.

We’ve been using our local carshare (Communauto) for a while now, enough to come up with an average cost per month. The cost of other carshare programs may vary, but for the purposes of this article, I’ll go with the one we use for more accurate numbers.

For the most part, my partner and I use the carshare probably three or four times per month for groceries and appointments. We used it recently for a family vacation out of town–booking it for four nights, which brings up the average billings over the past six months, which is what I based the calculations on.

Based on our driving habits from March to August–a few trips here and there, with an extended road trip–our billings come to a current total of $1,699.53 during that time. If we divide that by six months, we have a figure of $283.26 per month.

Again, that figure can vary wildly depending on what carshare company you use, the type of vehicle you rent (we mostly drive a Toyota Corolla LE hybrid, which we will use in our leasing calculation), and how often you need a vehicle (and distance driven.)

Now, there are some other important things to add with this figure:

• Fuel is included. There is a credit card kept in the carshare vehicles we can use at the pump, which gets charged to Communauto. That’s significant as gas prices continue to rise.

• Insurance is included for both my partner and I.

• We do not have to pay for any repairs/maintenance, which can be pricey especially when the vehicle ages and starts to fall apart. (On that note, the vehicles from Communauto are well-maintained.)

• We pay $12.50 in carshare membership fees per month, which is already factored into the above numbers.

To compare what it would cost us roughly per month to lease a Toyota Corolla hybrid, I went to Toyota’s Canadian website to price out a basic model (LE).

Without adding any bells and whistles (such as a dash cam) or premium service plans, the site informs me we would be making 260 weekly lease payments of $113.25 (20,000 km per year allowance, 7.99% lease rate, $0 down payment.)

That’s roughly $453 per month over the same period of time. (For comparison sake, financing the vehicle would require 156 bi-weekly payments of $266.68.)

In the lease scenario, the lease end value of the vehicle would be $12,231.40–significantly less than where it started at a suggested dealer price of $26,590. This end value is also the price to buy the car at the end of the term.

These numbers do not include insurance, fuel, or maintenance. When you factor these in, you’ll likely arrive at a number near $1,000 that we shared near the start of this article.

Now, I know a lot of you are screaming at me right now. “But I need a car to get to work and/or to get my kids to soccer practice!” That’s fair. I’m not saying a carshare is ideal for everyone. I work from home and my wife’s business is within walking distance, as well as any stores we need to go to. For us, the carshare makes sense.

However, there are of course advantages of having your own vehicle in the driveway versus the carshare model.

For one, I have to walk (or bus) a minimum of a kilometer or so to access the closest carshare hub. (Unlike some rental companies, they don’t bring the car to you.)

Another negative is that vehicles aren’t always available. We need to book one well ahead for any trips or even shopping, especially during summer. Communauto has some other vehicles strewn around the city that you can block 30 minutes before driving, but you still have to get to them (they’ve yet to put any in my neighbourhood)–and there’s no guarantee any will be available on a given day.

We’ve missed a lot of events as a family because we couldn’t book a vehicle, or the timing didn’t work. (Sometimes you just want to jump in your car and head off to a concert in the park, as an example, but you’ll miss a good portion of it if you have to travel to your car first.)

On the plus side, at least for me, is the exercise. Because we don’t have a car sitting in our driveway, I tend to walk to the grocery store (and take a $10 cab home maybe twice a month.) Most days I’m getting my 10,000 steps in, which is keeping me somewhat svelte and in decent cardiovascular health. It also helps me to control stress, which for me can spiral.

I feel that when we had a car, we would also use it for short trips that we could otherwise do on foot. I think this contributes to humanity’s overall laziness–like driving to the convenience store 500 feet away, for example.

It’s also nice just to walk when you can, to take in the sights and observe things in your city you normally wouldn’t while driving.

Of course, our carbon footprint is likely lower because we’re driving a lot less (and also not driving a 20-year-old car that didn’t have the same emission ratings as Communauto’s newer hybrid cars. Not that it matters, as our brilliant (cough) provincial government lifted emission testing for passenger vehicles. But I digress.)

Again, the choice comes down to what you can afford, and what you use a vehicle for. Obviously if you’re hauling around materials for work, you won’t want to use a carshare. But if you’re only driving a handful of times per month, or taking the occasional road trip, then a carshare might make sense to you.

From a purely cost perspective, you can see that our carshare is about $700 less per month than leasing a new vehicle when you factor in fuel, insurance, and other costs. However, you lose the convenience of having access to a vehicle at any given time.

Here are some pros and cons of a carshare in point form for clarity:

Pros:

• Considerably cheaper than operating your own vehicle (assuming you also have car payments to make)

• Routine maintenance is taken care of by carshare company

• No parking permits required (most of the time)

• Reduced environmental impact

• Get more exercise from walking

Cons:

• Vehicles not always available on short notice

• Accessing vehicles may require initial travel (on foot or transit)

• Shared vehicles might mean weird smells/pet hair (although you can report this)

• Relying on others to return vehicles on time for our trip (for the record, the car has only been returned late once or twice during our membership.)

I hope this article has been somewhat helpful if you’re considering a new car or using a carshare program. The rest is up to you!

PS: We are not affiliated in any way with Communauto–it just happens to be the service we use.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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Photo credit: Oli Woodman on Unsplash

Filed Under: Advice & Confessions, Featured Content Tagged With: budget, cars, environment, tips, transportation