Elisabeth Behrmann Bloomberg April 26, 2016 11:55 CET BEIJING -- BMW Group's Mini brand plans to help its customers turn idle downtime into cash by helping them rent out their cars. Mini plans soon to make its new cars available with devices that enable owners to rent out their vehicles. The system includes features that accept payment and track the vehicle to make sure the renter doesn't go for a one-way joyride. "It's going to be kind of like Airbnb on wheels," Peter Schwarzenbauer, BMW's Mini boss said, referring to a scheme that allows people to rent out private rooms to travelers. "There'll be those who say, 'Never, ever will I lend my car to strangers.' Then there'll be others who'll love the idea of halving their leasing rate." If the test goes well, BMW plans to expand the service to its namesake brand, Schwarzenbauer said, adding that the technology is easy to install and will be available at "no significant cost" to the owner. Mobility services The rental feature is part of BMW's push into so-called mobility services as ride-sharing operators like Uber Technologies Inc. provide consumers with alternatives to owning a private vehicle. BMW already runs car-sharing in cities in Europe, and it plans to add options like vehicle delivery and a taxi-like chauffeur service this year in a new shared fleet introduced this month in Seattle. BMW plans training and certification for the chauffeur service to ensure the company offers a premium product, Schwarzenbauer said, adding that there's been a promising response from people wanting to become drivers. The chauffeur operation will use fixed pricing rather than Uber's dynamic method, where fares rise during times of high demand, he said. A rollout to about 10 U.S. cities is planned.
Anyone interested in ever renting out their car, CHECK WITH YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY FIRST. For example, my insurance policy excludes coverage if my car is involved in a loss "while being used in the automobile business" and renting a car is considered being in the automobile business.
For everything that is holy, there is what our car is coming to. Too bad Patton didn't do a better job.
This is just stupid. My wife can't drive my car why the hell would I rent it someone else. I am sure MINI will make money out of this somehow. Also on the down side this will eat up you mileage warrenty.
Sure.... I'm going to want to rent out my MINI to some random individual that may or may not be able to shift a manual transmission... Who may or may not take care of my MINI.... Yeah, sure.... And yeah, BMW wants to help me do this.... Yeah sure.... Who comes up with these hairbrained ideas?
There is a service doing this now. https://turo.com For many of us this service doesn't make sense. Yet there are lots of people out there that want to make something back on their parked car.