Turo at local airports

[NotarPilot]

I’m considering possibly venturing into this side hustle by buying a car and leaving it at a local airport to make it available for GA pilots to use when there isn’t a car rental option at that local airport. Do you think this would be beneficial for GA pilots? I know that location plays a big part in where to station the car(s) but do you find that getting ground transportation to be one of the biggest challenges when visiting smaller airports?

[DonMuncy]

If done right, it might work. If I knew there was a (some) vehicle(s) available at the smaller airport where I wanted to stop, I would gladly Venmo or Zelle a reasonable amount to the owner and use it to go eat lunch etc.

Establishing a price, advertising the availability, and factoring in the deadbeats who would take advantage might be a daunting task. Add in the problem of who is going to maintain it (flat tires, oil change, semi-cleanliness, etc.) and it could get tough.

Perhaps if enough guys who hangar at one of those fields put a car at his place and spread the word....

What is the consensus of our group about what they think would be a reasonable price, and how they would handle the fuel.

[NotarPilot]

6 minutes ago, DonMuncy said:

If done right, it might work. If I knew there was a (some) vehicle(s) available at the smaller airport where I wanted to stop, I would gladly Venmo or Zelle a reasonable amount to the owner and use it to go eat lunch etc.

Establishing a price, advertising the availability, and factoring in the deadbeats who would take advantage might be a daunting task. Add in the problem of who is going to maintain it (flat tires, oil change, semi-cleanliness, etc.) and it could get tough.

Perhaps if enough guys who hangar at one of those fields put a car at his place and spread the word....

What is the consensus of our group about what they think would be a reasonable price, and how they would handle the fuel.

I’ve only rented a Turo once but I liked how the platform is set up. You take photos of the car, the dash, the fuel gauge, etc. You pay through the app and Turo keeps a portion of 15 to 40% depending on the level of “protection” you want, kind of like insurance only they don’t call it that. 

I would like to see the option, on Turo, of being able to rent it for less than a day. I’m not sure that’s an option. But maybe something like being able to rent it for 2 or 3 hours to go get lunch or run an errand. 
 

And the deadbeats you mention would certainly be a concern of mine. I also believe that doing it right might involve registering the car under an LLC to protect you and not registering it in your own name.

[Pinecone]

There is a website that lists airports with FREE cars.

https://www.airportcourtesycars.com/

Local airport does not have one, but if someone is around, they will give a ride.  Or there is a nearby Enterprise to rent one.

There used to an airport nearby that had an old beater, free for use.  If the gas was low, you would stop and put a few gallons in.  The muffler fell off, so some pilots got a replacement went over and replaced it.

Just some info.

Not sure if I would use a paid courtesy car versus a Lyft/Uber

 

[ZuluZulu]

If you held the car through an LLC I wonder how hard it would be to get your LLC listed in ForeFlight's "FBO" tab as one of the services available at your airport... 

[A64Pilot]

IF and I don’t know if it has returned to normal, but I used to rent an Enterprise cheap car for about $30 a day. Cheaper than a couple of Uber rides.

Others I know that frequently fly to the same airport will buy an old cop car and just leave it there.

I assume insurence on trying to rent out a car would eat up any profit you might make.

I never understood how the rental car companies could make money at $30 a day, then I discovered that as they bought large numbers of cars they got them so cheap that  they sold them a year or so later for what they paid for them. That’s when I knew Hertz buying Tesla’s was BS, because Musk makes everyone pay the same, he doesn’t even lend cars to car mags, one reason they hate him.

[N201MKTurbo]

1 hour ago, A64Pilot said:

IF and I don’t know if it has returned to normal, but I used to rent an Enterprise cheap car for about $30 a day. Cheaper than a couple of Uber rides.

Others I know that frequently fly to the same airport will buy an old cop car and just leave it there.

I assume insurence on trying to rent out a car would eat up any profit you might make.

I never understood how the rental car companies could make money at $30 a day, then I discovered that as they bought large numbers of cars they got them so cheap that  they sold them a year or so later for what they paid for them. That’s when I knew Hertz buying Tesla’s was BS, because Musk makes everyone pay the same, he doesn’t even lend cars to car mags, one reason they hate him.

You can't get an Enterprise car for $30/day any more. The last one I got ( a month ago) was more like $90...

[NotarPilot]

34 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

You can't get an Enterprise car for $30/day any more. The last one I got ( a month ago) was more like $90...

Yeah I agree, just like you can’t just a 150 for $30 an hour anymore. 

[NotarPilot]

6 hours ago, Pinecone said:

There is a website that lists airports with FREE cars.

https://www.airportcourtesycars.com/

Local airport does not have one, but if someone is around, they will give a ride.  Or there is a nearby Enterprise to rent one.

There used to an airport nearby that had an old beater, free for use.  If the gas was low, you would stop and put a few gallons in.  The muffler fell off, so some pilots got a replacement went over and replaced it.

Just some info.

Not sure if I would use a paid courtesy car versus a Lyft/Uber

 

I think these examples are few and far between. 

[N201MKTurbo]

49 minutes ago, NotarPilot said:

I think these examples are few and far between. 

I get curtesy cars at over half the airports I stop at. Heck Yuma has a brand new Mercedes two seater… They got mad because I put gas in it.

[The Other Red Baron]

I'd love to have Turo on/near airports.  We flew into Longmont once last minute and couldn't get a rental car.  There were some Turo options in the area but all of them looked like you had to go pick it up.  So that meant getting an Uber any way.  I didn't really get the point other than a way to rent a cool random car for a day you wouldn't be able to drive otherwise.

[Shadrach]

I’d be into it. I”ve used Turo 3 times. 2 of my 3 experiences were perfect. I just did a 4 day backpacking trip in the Sawtooths. I TURO’d an Outback for 5 full days for $61 a day. It was parked in short term parking at the Boise Airport less than 100yds from baggage claim. Lockbox on the driver side window. So much easier and faster than rental car BS.  I check TURO first and the rental car companies second.  I would think that the number of AirBnBs in the area would be a good indicator of demand for a Turo rental.

[NotarPilot]

7 hours ago, Shadrach said:

I’d be into it. I”ve used Turo 3 times. 2 of my 3 experiences were perfect. I just did a 4 day backpacking trip in the Sawrooths. I TURO’d an Outback for 5 full days for $61 a day. It was parked in short term parking at the Boise Airport less than 100yds from baggage claim. Lockbox on the driver side window. So much easier and faster than rental car BS.  I check TURO first and the rental car companies second.  I would think that the number of AirBnBs in the area would be a good indicator of demand for a Turo rental.

Thank you for your input as well as everyone else’s. The airport I’m considering to start out at would be San Diego Brown field (KSDM), which seems to lack an on-site rental company and seems to get a decent amount of traffic that would likely make it a little profitable. 

[Pinecone]

Hmm, I have status with Hertz.  So get to rental lot, walk out to the proper space (listed on a board), get into car and drive off.  Don't even have to deal with a lockbox.

 

[Hank]

1 hour ago, Pinecone said:

Hmm, I have status with Hertz.  So get to rental lot, walk out to the proper space (listed on a board), get into car and drive off.  Don't even have to deal with a lockbox.

 

Me, too, with Avis and Hertz. But most places I fly to don't have rental cars at all, much less "rental lots." At Peter O. Knight in Tampa, plusher than my typical haunts, Hertz had several cars dropped off for various people; often I can arrange Enterprise to leave one, but many of them close at noon Saturday so I'm on the hook for all day Saturday and Sunday . . . . Not what I want to go to lunch!

[Shadrach]

2 hours ago, Pinecone said:

Hmm, I have status with Hertz.  So get to rental lot, walk out to the proper space (listed on a board), get into car and drive off.  Don't even have to deal with a lockbox.

 

indeed, but you’re not renting a late model Outback for $61/day, tax and fees included. Lots of teaser rates with rental car companies but the next best deal was <30% for less car.

The best thing about Turo is the selection of cars at reasonable prices. SUV? Sure. Tesla model 3? Yup. Want to go cheap? 8 year old Camry for $23/day. I booked a 1987 Porsche 944 for a trip to Charlottesville just for S’s and G’s.  The selection is usually pretty good and you know exactly what you’re getting. I needed a four-wheel-drive wagon for my Boise trip. I did not want to deal with an “or equivalent.”

[EricJ]

3 hours ago, Pinecone said:

Hmm, I have status with Hertz.  So get to rental lot, walk out to the proper space (listed on a board), get into car and drive off.  Don't even have to deal with a lockbox.

There are many airports where rental car company status stopped meaning much for GA several years ago.    I've had status with Hertz for a couple of decades, and also with Avis.    Many airports where the FBO is separated from the terminal used to still provide service where either you or your car would get picked up and dropped off at the FBO.   A couple summers ago I wound up walking about a mile in the sun from an FBO to the terminal.   They'd stopped delivering the cars to the FBO a couple years previous, and then they stopped answering the phone so nobody would know to come get you, even if you arranged it with them ahead of time.   

It's not at all like it used to be, at least at some places I go.

[N201MKTurbo]

I was trying to get a Hertz at some FBO recently (Spokane I think). When I called their reservation number they sent me to a special FBO reservation desk. The quotes from them were crazy high. I called back and said I wanted to pick the car up at the local office. The price was 40% less. I called the local office after I made the reservation and they drove right over and picked me up. If I would have made the reservation through the FBO desk, it would have come from the same place.

[Pinecone]

I rented from a local Enterprise near LaPorte when I did my transition training and picked up my plane.

We called and arranged to have the car picked up at the airport instead of shuffling things around.  Later that week, the office called me and wanted to charge $200 to pick the car up at the FBO.  WTF?!  For less than 5 miles?????

They were going to be nice and cut that in half.  I told them that doing so would lose me as an Enterprise customer.  So they waived the fee.  Strange thing was, for free, they would have driven me back to the airport, OR they were closed, they would have refunded me the cost of an Uber to drop the car at their office.

Makes NO sense.

[N201MKTurbo]

Yes, I think the rental car companies have discovered that they can monetize us rich folks with private planes.

[ilovecornfields]

7 hours ago, NotarPilot said:

Thank you for your input as well as everyone else’s. The airport I’m considering to start out at would be San Diego Brown field (KSDM), which seems to lack an on-site rental company and seems to get a decent amount of traffic that would likely make it a little profitable. 

Have you talked to @kortopates? That’s in his neck of the woods. Reminds me of a cartoon I saw in the Union-Tribune when the Mexican cops were stealing American cars. The question was “How does a Mexican cop stop your car?” And the answer was “he steps on the brakes!”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/06/24/mexican-police-are-using-stolen-cars/b6317ec2-1a9d-4b20-bf1d-951f1fe709b6/

[NotarPilot]

4 hours ago, ilovecornfields said:

Have you talked to @kortopates? That’s in his neck of the woods. Reminds me of a cartoon I saw in the Union-Tribune when the Mexican cops were stealing American cars. The question was “How does a Mexican cop stop your car?” And the answer was “he steps on the brakes!”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/06/24/mexican-police-are-using-stolen-cars/b6317ec2-1a9d-4b20-bf1d-951f1fe709b6/

Interesting article. Just goes to show, you get what you pay for.

[T. Peterson]

On 10/3/2022 at 8:56 AM, NotarPilot said:

I’m considering possibly venturing into this side hustle by buying a car and leaving it at a local airport to make it available for GA pilots to use when there isn’t a car rental option at that local airport. Do you think this would be beneficial for GA pilots? I know that location plays a big part in where to station the car(s) but do you find that getting ground transportation to be one of the biggest challenges when visiting smaller airports?

I have discovered that the one big obstacle to personal airplane travel is not having a car at the destination. It used to be that rental cars were cheap and ubiquitous. That is no longer the case and has effectively limited our trips to only visit family or friends.

The other day I mentioned to my wife that we might consider carrying a couple of electric bikes to expand our destination options. She just laughed out loud at me, so that option disappeared like a toupee in a tornado. 

I am not much of an entrepreneur so I can’t intelligently advise you other than to say that as a consumer I am certainly interested in a broader availability of car rentals at GA airports. It would be interesting to know if others feel as I do, or if I am unique in my experience.

Torrey
 

 

[T. Peterson]

On 10/3/2022 at 6:10 PM, N201MKTurbo said:

I get curtesy cars at over half the airports I stop at. Heck Yuma has a brand new Mercedes two seater… They got mad because I put gas in it.

Courtesy cars are fine for a lunch run, but not for a couple of days of sightseeing.

[MikeOH]

6 hours ago, ilovecornfields said:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/06/24/mexican-police-are-using-stolen-cars/b6317ec2-1a9d-4b20-bf1d-951f1fe709b6/

Wonder if anything has changed in the 32 YEARS since that article was published?