The owner of a Chevrolet Corvette C8 managed to earn $32,000 by renting out his sports car through the Turo platform over three years. This experience blurs the line between a car as an asset and a liability. Here are the key points of his story:
The Corvette Financial Experiment
In recent years, cars have been clearly divided into two categories: a few true financial assets and the vast majority – liabilities. One Corvette owner’s story may blur this line. At first glance, it looks like real earnings.
He earned approximately $32,000 by renting out his mid-engine sports car to others. This is a significant amount, but after accounting for depreciation, the hassle of bookings, and other factors, the question arises – was it worth it?
The Real Picture of Income
As the owner reported on Reddit, he lives in Vancouver, Canada, and his Corvette was the only available C8 in the area. This allowed him to set a price of around $300 per day. Most rentals occurred in the summer when demand was highest.
Most bookings were short, two to three days for weddings or photoshoots. This helped maintain relatively low mileage. Overall, the owner estimates the car was rented for about 120 days over the three years of his ownership. However, not everything was perfect.
One driver removed the roof and placed it on the ground, damaging the vinyl wrap in the process. Another accelerated to 150 miles per hour on the highway, unaware they were being tracked via GPS. That renter was blocked on Turo. Aside from such clients, the financial picture is not as optimistic as the $32,000 income figure might suggest.
The Numbers Behind the Wheel
The owner explains that he bought the car for $106,000 and then sold it for $76,000. That’s $30,000 in depreciation. Thus, he drove the car for three years and earned about $2,000, not including insurance, fuel, and maintenance. These additional costs almost certainly put him in the red, but the compromise might still have been worth it. The Corvette is undeniably a great car.
Nevertheless, some noted that the compromise seems uneven.
“So you’re telling us that after several years of part-time employment, extra stress, and tax complications, you made a net profit of $2,000?” said one commenter.
The question remains: is it worth doing everything that comes with renting out a car of this class if, in the end, after several years, you walk away having lost only the cost of insurance, fuel, and maintenance, and didn’t have access to it for 120 days out of approximately 1,100 days of ownership?
This story well illustrates modern trends of asset sharing and the “gig economy” applied to expensive goods. It shows that even with high demand and rates, the real economic benefit can be minimal, and sometimes negative, if everything is calculated carefully. The success of such a business critically depends on specific conditions: the geographical uniqueness of the offering, the stability of demand, and, no less importantly, the behavior and responsibility of the renters. A financial model that works for one owner in one city may prove unprofitable for another. The key takeaway is that such schemes are rarely passive income – it’s work involving management, risks, and constant hassle, which can significantly diminish the joy of owning such a special car.