I'm unemployed and it is a thought for the short term.

 

Is that even possible? I though Über had a policy that the car has to be tops 3 years old or so...!?

 

+1 the X308 is too old.

 

Do Uber and Lyft, ...the dude that picked me up for the airport last was doing that and his wife was also. Thing is, his car was like a 2010 Mazda...worst you could do is ask them.

 

It varies by state in the US - in Denver for example, you just need to pass a 19 point vehicle inspection, regardless of the age of the car (driver needs a health check too!). Uber has full details on their site.

 

I’m in the same boat — retired and bored — and got Lyft to make an exception for my pristine ‘01 XJR. But I never went through with driving for them and I’m glad I didn’t. There are several reasons, but the short answer is, an X-308, especially supercharged, is just too expensive to operate to make a profit. It sucks gas, especially in stop and go urban driving. And a busy driver can log well over a thousand miles a week. That’s a thousand miles of the hardest driving there is. My XJR would start breaking things pretty early on.

Several years ago I owned a VDP Supercharged, which would have been an excellent “black car” alternative to Cadillac or Benz, charging higher rates and attracting a better class of clientelle. But still it wouldn’t have paid. Every Uber and Lyft driver I’ve talked to tells me they’re barely getting by. The driver of a (surprisingly roomy) Civic sedan told me that after expenses she hardly makes minimum wage.

According to a couple of Kindle books I’ve read whose authors do this full time, you’ve got to be willing to give up your family life almost completely. You need to run Uber and Lyft SIMULTANEOUSLY and be ruthlessly competitive. This means serving the bar crowd, and that entails plastic seat covers in the back so the vomit cleans off more easily. And even the top drivers max out at around $50,000 per year.

As workplace automation drives ever more desperate middle class people to turn the family sedan into taxis, the market will become more and more cut throat. Already Uber-type cars outnumber taxis in New York City, causing even more congestion.

I live in the Bay Area, and from my bike shop in a quiet corner of the Piedmont district, last week I fired up my iPhone to summon a Lyft and was astonished at how many cars were in my immediate vicinity, desperate for a call. My wait was under a minute.