I hope I read this wrong but somewhere in the article this guy was leasing a brand new 2015 ford escape for $162 a week!!!!!!!! That's $648 a MONTH!!!!!!! Something is very wrong here, who leases a Ford escape for $650 a month!!!! http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/07/uber-wants-to-disrupt-the-auto-leasing-industry.html
I can't tell from the wording of your post if you think $650.00 is too high or low. IMO .......... $650.00 is a good price.
Most of these guys that are UBERing have little or no credit history. UBER makes it possible for them to get into an acceptable vehicle for the job by essentially self financing through a third party affiliate. And 650/mo is NOT a good lease price, at least for the general public with decent credit.
A lot of people rent cars for $162 a week. It's actually a pretty good deal if it has unlimited mileage. It's not unusual to pay 40-50 or 60 dollars a day to rent a car and then you pay an extra 30-50 percent in added taxes...local, federal, special rental car taxes, tourist taxes....it adds up quick. Have you ever taken a cab ? Ask a cab driver how much he makes. There are a lot of fee structures for cab drivers. If the cab company (yellow cab) owns the car, then the driver has to pay 69, 79 dollars a day to drive the car and he keeps everything he earns from customers. Around here (Dallas, Ft Worth) they only earn about 300, 400 a day and then they have to deduct their gas (1 tank a day ) and car fee. Cabbies love cash. If you use a debit card or credit card, the company takes 7 percent off the top (from the cabbie) for the luxury of a customer using an electronic payment. There are other structures in place if you own your own car, but you are going to pay one way or the other. But $162 a week for an Escape........that's pretty good if that's all you pay and there are not any other extras. Besides, if you are a cab driver you might put 300 miles a day on your car. That's 1500 miles a week, 60k a year if you work 5 days a week or so. It's a good way to run your car into the ground. You may as well do it to someone else's car.
The $162 a week I think is just the car which means you have to factor gas/insurance and wear and tear. All I know is that you can lease a Toyota Camry for about $225-250 a month...with maybe $500 out of pocket..$650 a month gets you into a Mercedes E-350 an Infiniti Q70 ....a BMW 5 series an Audi A6...
What many people don't understand about leasing is that if you sign an agreement where you are only allowed 10,000 or 15,000 miles a year and go over that amount that they think they have to pay the .15 cents or .25 cents for each mile they go over......you don't ....I know people who have leased including myself that if you go into a new car lease after the 36 month term is up they will wash away any miles over the miles you signed for at the beginning of the lease....of course if you decide to not lease again yes you will be charged for the overage on the odometer... But stay with the same company and hand in a car with 4500 miles over the limit you signed for and they will gladly look the other way.
MOST of these UBER leases come with unlimited mileage. They fully understand who they are leasing to.