Uber Drivers can now Lease a Proton Car…Is it a Good Option?

Aspiring Uber drivers whose car is too old or, erm, if they don’t even own a car, can now rent one through Quick Ride SB, a car leasing service for the purpose of providing Uber services. With just a deposit of RM1,000, you can lease a Proton Saga for RM45/day or Proton Persona for RM55/day—that’s about RM1,350 to RM1,705 a month—for a duration of three years. Besides the cost of maintenance, road tax and insurance being included in the package, the cars will come with free WiFi and a digital tablet. Drivers who want to get in on this programme must become a full-time Uber driver, so if you only moonlight as one, move along…

Last year, when the gomen legalized ride-hailing services, taxi companies began renting out private cars as well and thousands of taxi drivers ditched their rental taxis for private cars even though the rental was much higher – ie. around RM1,000 a week for a private car compared to only RM350 a week for a taxi. Still, the taxi drivers felt they had better earning potential driving for Uber or Grab despite the high overhead cost.

Now, this leasing programme is sounding pretty good. However, considering that you can buy a Proton Saga 1.3 Standard CVT for RM40,800, and your monthly repayment would only be RM530 (90% margin of financing, 3% interest rate and 7-year loan period), the lease does sound like a very pricey option. Even after allocating 1% of the car value for annual maintenance cost and the RM70 road tax every year, and RM1,300 insurance premium, you’d be paying…taps calculator maniacally…less than RM700 a month.

That said, the reasons one would lease a car are to be able to get the car immediately without a heavy downpayment and to NOT commit to a depreciating asset. And who knows, after a couple of years, you might find that this is not the career for you and you do not need the car anymore. If these are important factors to you, then ignore everything we said in the paragraph before this, and Happy Hustling (in the positive sense of the word) in your new Proton car.

Uber also recently launched UberTaxi, to hail taxis, and UberFlash, to quickly hail the nearest private car or taxi, so more power to Uber drivers.

image: quickride.my