Do you own a car? Want to earn £450 a month from it? If so, Airbnb-style personal car rental could be for you

Car-sharing apps like Turo can be a money-spinner for those whose cars spend more time on the driveway than on the road, discovers John Evans

- John Evans

Sales people are fond of reminding us that after a house, a car is the second most expensive thing we ever buy. Add the fact that many people drive fewer than 7000 miles a year and the result is a rather expensive asset sitting on the driveway doing nothing but costing money in servicing, fuel, depreciation and interest. In these times of rising living costs, that hurts.

What to do? How about renting it out for cash? I know what you're thinking and I agree. I mean, I have trouble lending my car to a family member, never mind a complete stranger. However, what if you could rent out your car Airbnb-style to vetted users, with comprehensive safeguards (financial and duty of care) in place and, in return, make around £400 a month?

Companies enabling peer-to-peer car sharing like this include Hiyacar, Getaround and Turo. In 2019, one London-based renter boasted to This is Money of earning £25,000 in two years from renting out her fleet of eight cars on car-sharing app Drivy, a now-defunct service bought by Getaround the same year. Writing on the Hiyacar blog, an employee of the company claims to have earned an average of £450 per month over the past five months renting out her Mini in London. Joy Isaacs, who splits her time between London and Cambridgeshire and who rents out her two cars, a Seat Leon and an Audi A1, through Turo at around £60 each per day, claims to have been earning £700 per month in recent times and occasionally as much as £1000.

Isaacs rented out her first car, also a Leon, in 2013, first through EasyCarClub, then through Turo, after the latter bought the company.

"At first, I was concerned about letting strangers drive my car - I hated them moving my seat and mirrors - but I quickly got used to it, and in any case, I made certain that I set out dos and don'ts in my rental agreements," she says.