Are you thinking about starting or have started driving for a ridesharing app like Uber or Lyft? One of the first questions on your mind will be “Is buying a car for Uber a good idea in Canada?”. You’ve come to the right place, this article will help weigh the pros and cons of an investment in your new job.
Do You Need a New Car?
There’s a few reasons why buying a car for Uber could be a good plan. The primary one probably being ‘professionalism’. You want to show up in a nice shiny car when you pick someone up and if you do, they may just give you a higher review.
2019 Toyota RAV4 rated as one of the top cars for Uber
This is very short term thinking. New cars are expensive, and even if you’re out every day, you’re going to struggle to pay off a brand new car on an Uber driver’s pay. Besides, it’s less the new-ness of the car that’ll affect your review, more than anything else it’s the clean-ness of the car.
That’s not to say a good quality used car is off the table. The thing you really want to consider on your end is efficiency.
Weighing Costs
There’s no point in starting this gig if you’re not going to make any profit on it. So you need to make sure your net gain is higher than the cost of buying a car for Uber.
Minimum wage in Ontario is currently around $15 dollars an hour, so that’s a good starting place for calculations.
Multiply that by however many hours you plan to be working and then take away all the expenses of working those hours. Primary culprit is fuel costs. But there’s also insurance premiums and if you buy a new vehicle: car repayments.
If these calculations put you in the negative, then we’ve got a problem. But it is one that a new used car could possibly help with. If you’re currently doing Uber in a gas guzzling truck then you’ll definitely want to look for a more fuel efficient vehicle to drive.
Best gas milage SUVs in 2022
Of course you should also factor in the cost of a used car to your calculations. Figure out how long it would take you to pay for with your Uber money, and you can decide if it’s worthwhile.
The industry may return to full strength in time, for now however, it may be best to just do a deep clean of your current car and use that instead.
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