No, not that Karma!

I'm excited and honored to announce that I'll be working to launch http://www.carmacar.com for the next few months as part of a http://www.techstars.com startup accelerator program on mobility companies.

Our goal is to provide consumers with a hassle free vehicle user experience, inclusive of items such as insurance and maintenance, but with ultimate month to month flexibility and no commitments. Not as expensive as a rental car, and not as much of a commitment as a full lease or loan product. Let me know your questions and thoughts!

Interesting concept. Carma Car seems to differentiate itself from others like Turo and Getaround by making you rent for the entire month. Competitors seem to be marketing to people who dont have the need for a car everyday and for those who dont have parking available and being able to rent the closest car for cheap. But Carma is more like actually owning a car long term?--without the hassle of buying car insurance or yearly maintenance. At those prices, why wouldn't someone just lease a car for $199 besides the short term nature?

Well, that 199 would often require a pretty big down payment, and wouldn't be inclusive of insurance costs and (usually) any maintenance. So yes, there is some combatting the ridiculously low priced, highly incentivized, lease programs out there right now, but those will subside as resale values continue to weaken from a historically high point that we passed through. And the short term nature/flexibility is key, a lot of consumers, particularly younger demographics, over index on leasing, and even a 36 month lease can seem to be a daunting commitment. A lot of people like variety and/or getting what they need. Seasonal consumer could want/need an AWD SUV/Crossover in winter months, but might prefer a sedan in summer months, or a convertible as a fun splurge for one month. Doing work around your house? Maybe you want a pickup truck for a month. Do you spend 4 months a year at a second home, but don't want to keep a car there full time, etc etc etc.

Maintenance is also a big element of ownership. If something goes wrong/weird sound/etc, you need to take the car in, you'll pay the $150 diagnostic fee, then after results come out, you have to decide whether you want to do the work, or push it off for longer, knowing that something more detrimental might happen. It's a lot of stress and decision making for day to day car users. Not likely a huge thing for the enthusiastic and well informed group we have here on Car Chat, but this is a huge deal for many mainstream consumers.

Or, you want an extended test drive of a lot of vehicles within a segment? Take a no strings attached month in lets say.. a Genesis? an Alfa Romeo? Brands that you may not be willing to jump into for a full lease period, but want to try something beyond the 15-30 minute dealer test drive?

So we'll hope to slot in between the rental and lease worlds as they currently exist, and possibly a stair step to the on demand subscription model that may come to the fully autonomous pods of the future.

I like the idea as long as the monthly payment is decent and the car/SUV offered are what I am interested in. If I could only lease a car for one to two years at a reasonable payment I would because I like to change cars often but it seems the sweet spot is 3 years.

Would be a great option for those on short term assignments. This year's summer interns are here through mid August and not all of them have cars which can be tough as central NJ doesn't have great public transit.

If the variety of cars is plentiful, then I can see the appeal. My comments were going off the website, where they cite cars like the Honda Accord, Focus, etc. My initial impression was centered around paying the 200-300 monthly payments for a "relatively" used, mainstream car (they cite cars with <30K miles). If that is the case, I would much rather have that cheap lease deal and get a new car. I think rental car companies have set our expectations to have low mileage vehicles. I rent 3-4 times a year at Hertz or National and get peeved with anything more than 10K miles. They often do have a lot of low mileage vehicles to choose from.

very interesting and innovative! wish you all the very best with it and i'll let others know about it.

oh and change your website copyright year in footer to 2017 /peeve

I don't think the value (commercially) should be Carma vs Leasing, rather it should be the flexibility. In a span of 11 months I went through 3 vehicles because I thought I knew what I wanted but ended up not liking what I bought, lost a bit on trade-in equity. Carma's advantage is the ability to switch from car to car, hassle free and worry free; the limitations would be on the mileage bit (average US driver puts on ~14,500 miles a year....even the max plan of 1,000 miles a month does not equate a normal driving distance for US drivers).

Expand on the fleet of vehicles and suddenly you'll have a larger following who are looking beyond basic transportation to living out their car dreams. Cadillac announced a program last year about $1500/month for a large selection of Cadillac vehicles you could choose from....something like that.

If you did (I'm guessing) $800/month, but had a GS, 5-series, A6, G90 to choose from...that would be compelling. It would be on par with what my payments would have been had I leased/financed it with the flexibility of changing models when I want.

questions pbm:
- do the unused miles roll over?
- how are miles tracked? transponder / obd-ii connection?

It's a cool concept. Which cities are being served by the program?

Thanks for the feedback and thoughts everyone!


Still determining a lot of the details like above. Current thoughts are yes to rollover, and yes to having an OBD transponder like Automatic, etc. for usage and insurance.

Launch city is still being determined, but targeting areas with growing populations of younger demographic, but still car dependent areas. Areas include Denver, Austin, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Atlanta, DC metro, and a few others.

Something that I would be interested in seeing is a "free" car when travelling (assuming that the destination city is also served by this car-sharing service).

If I was driving a Camry, for example, at home, I would like to be able to pick up a similar Camry when I arrive at the destination airport, instead of having to go to the hassle of paying for a "mid-sized rental" car, only to be handed the keys to a Hyundai Elantra.

Great rec!