[yurishimo]

The 499 euro price tag for the "all access" seems quite expensive from an American point of view. I can get a decent car with good gas mileage for about half that and outright buying a used car will save me a lot more in less than a year. Most people who would be tempted to go without owning a car in the US don't do much driving anyway, so they don't spend a lot on gas as is.

While I think this could work in NYC, Seattle, or San Francisco, most other American cities have plenty of infrastructure and affordable parking to support a high percentage of car ownership amongst citizens.

Heck, there was even a HN article a day or two ago about how parking spaces in America outnumber actual cars by a huge margin in most American cities and towns. I think in one city it was 80 to 1.

Unfortunately, the US is still too spread out for these types of services to be useful in all but a few cities.

[alistairSH]

That's about $580 US. The average monthly payment on a NEW car in the US is around $500 [0][1]. Add in parking (even "free" parking isn't), depreciation, gasoline, insurance, and registration fees and that's pretty darn close to $580.

From my perspective, living the DC suburbs, I would love to have an all-access app for multi-mode transport. I own two cars (one for me, one for wife). I walk to work, so my car only gets driven on the weekends, and only if my wife and I are doing different things. It's a VERY expensive way to maintain my weekend "freedom". Lyft/Uber would fill much of the gap, except I frequently go camping 2-4 hours away. If Lyft had a "long term borrow" plan, I could get rid of my $400/month car payment and all associated costs.

[0]https://www.thebalance.com/average-monthly-car-payment-41376... [1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2016/06...

[unit91]

> The average monthly payment on a NEW car in the US is...pretty darn close to $580.

True. However, car long-term ownership also can reduce the overall cost substantially, a possible benefit you lose with services like this.

My 2002 Sierra cost me $15K when I bought it in 2007, and it's still my daily driver. That's roughly $113 per month. Maintenance has been infrequent and inexpensive, and I do the work myself. I'm WAY below $580 per month.

[nawitus]

You should compare the monthly price to leasing, which is around $250/month for a decent new car. Using your "other costs" the total goes up to $330/month. (However, I think the other costs would be higher).

[ghaff]

Rent a car for the weekend? Though there's obviously some transaction overhead associated with doing that.

[alistairSH]

I've considered it. But, the transaction overhead isn't small. I'd need to reserve the car in advance, Lyft to the rental agency, etc. Currently, I can decide to go to the mountains on a whim Friday afternoon.

[ghaff]

That makes perfect sense. It also highlights some of the reasons why, a lot of the time, people own items that they don't use frequently. e.g. you may only use a lawnmower 15 times a year but most people aren't going to rent one each time.

[alistairSH]

Absolutely.

But, the cost of a car/truck is massive relative to most people's overall budgets. So, there's probably lots of room for optimization through transit-as-a-service.

[ghaff]

Sure. The cost of a car and, potentially, the cost of garaging a car in a city definitely merit a harder look at alternatives than other items may. There are definitely city-dwellers who don't drive a lot and, with increased transportation options in a lot of cities, the marginal car-owner increasingly has other options they can consider.

I know a couple in SF who don't own a car that probably wouldn't have been able to do so prior to Uber/Lyft, Zipcar, food delivery, etc. Of course, they also don't really do outdoor trips requiring a lot of gear on a regular basis and their kids are grown up and moved out as well.

[lambdadmitry]

> I can get a decent car with good gas mileage for about half that

That implies public transport inferiority compared to owning a car. It's not the case for a lot of European cities.

[alkonaut]

The value of not worrying about buying/selling/maintaining a car is different to different people but I’m definitely ready to pay $100-200/mo for that convenience.

Next up is parking. If some car sharing service also includes parking near me, and that would otherwise be $200/mo then it’s suddenly very interesting.

[Sharlin]

Trust me, 499e per month is really steep from Finnish perspective too. Not really sure what's the target customer demographic here. Maybe companies, as an alternative to leasing a car.

[deanclatworthy]

You can get a very good lease for 500e in Finland (I have many friends who do this)

[dharma1]

I think the nice thing about this is you can adjust usage/payments - like if you travel a lot, just stop paying for a month or two. Not sure you can do that with regular leased cars? I also like the free <5km taxi and free public transport rides with this

[deanclatworthy]

It's not free for less than 5km. If it was I'd sign up tomorrow. It's a 10e flat fee for < 5km.

[nordify]

"Free" if you pay for the 499€ service tier.

[Sharlin]

Plus you don't have to worry about parking. Or gasoline.