As a counterpoint I bought a car for about $3000 4 years ago and have put a bit over 40k miles on it. Maintenance, insurance, registration, etc. have added up to about $7k (you don't need full coverage insurance on a $3k car). Fuel costs are about $10k (13 miles per gallon at about $3.30/gallon). Total cost of ownership is about $20k.
An uberX at $2.00/mile would have cost me $80k.
I could have bought 4 cars and driven them the same mileage for the price of uberX. I've been able to drive this car deep into the cascades, olympic peninsula, etc. for awesome camping trips--something uberX would never let me do. I also never worry about parking on the street because, hey it's a $3000 car who cares?
edit: Car is a '99 Jeep Cherokee if anyone cares, with over 180k miles on it now (and should easily go to 250k+ miles with regular maintenance).
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As a counterpoint I bought a car for about $3000 4 years ago and have put a bit over 40k miles on it. Maintenance, insurance, registration, etc. have added up to about $7k (you don't need full coverage insurance on a $3k car). Fuel costs are about $10k (13 miles per gallon at about $3.30/gallon). Total cost of ownership is about $20k.
An uberX at $2.00/mile would have cost me $80k.
I could have bought 4 cars and driven them the same mileage for the price of uberX. I've been able to drive this car deep into the cascades, olympic peninsula, etc. for awesome camping trips--something uberX would never let me do. I also never worry about parking on the street because, hey it's a $3000 car who cares?
edit: Car is a '99 Jeep Cherokee if anyone cares, with over 180k miles on it now (and should easily go to 250k+ miles with regular maintenance).
So you made a good point. If UberX can lower its cost to about $0.5/mile then it's way more competitive.
* Or UberX can be lucrative for people who doesn't need 10k miles per year.