How Karshare helped Vicki and Ali afford a car in the city centre
Vicki and Ali live in an apartment complex in Manchester city centre, working in Tech and Science respectively. They were previously living in Leeds and when they knew they’d be moving to Manchester they “were debating whether to keep the car or not when looking at places to live.” Having driven regularly since the age of 17, Ali was more reluctant to say goodbye to their Toyota Yaris Hybrid, but parking is scarce and expensive in the city centre.
Around the same time that Vicki and Ali were deciding on whether to keep their car or not, Vicki was scrolling on LinkedIn which led her to the discovery of Karshare. “I used to work with Ben [from Karshare] and I saw on LinkedIn that he’d got a new job, so we arranged to have a chat as I was really interested in the platform. It was then decided before we moved over to Manchester that we would pursue with Karshare, which made the decision for us that we would keep our car!”
“Karshare allows us to keep our car when living in a central location and gives the opportunity for other city centre folk to have access without increasing the number of cars on the road.”
Not only can they now keep their car and cover the costs through car sharing, but having made over £1000 in 4 months, there’s also money left over at the end of the month. “The idea was, anything that we’d get from sharing the car would cover our parking and general maintenance costs and anything left after that is just a bonus. We use the additional income for fun things!”
When asked about how Vicki’s finding Karshare so far, she said she enjoys “that people have a really seamless experience with it. They come, they collect the car, they drive, they bring it back and then they’ll leave positive feedback!”
“Even in the worst case scenario, I trust that it will be handled by Karshare.”
Vicki knows that Karshare will always be on hand to help, as during the petrol shortage a renter unfortunately returned the car with little petrol that meant Vicki couldn’t get to the station to refill it. “Karshare came down the same day with a jerry can and filled the tank up enough for us to go to a station. That’s the most extreme scenario that I’ve had so far but I was really impressed with it. If the worst case scenario were to happen, I do have full confidence that Karshare would handle it in the way that was sold to us when we joined.”
Vicki’s not shy about spreading the word of car sharing to her peers.
“I will talk to anyone who listens to me about Karshare. People are so curious when I tell them we’ve hired our car out on the equivalent of Airbnb for cars. Once I’ve explained to them how it works, they think it’s a great idea!”
Her advice to people who are exploring the idea of car sharing is to “have an open mind and all of the questions that you inevitably have will be covered and addressed - it really is so straightforward it almost feels a bit too straightforward!”
If you’re interested in sharing your car, find out more here. If you’d like to rent Vicki and Ali’s Toyota Yaris Hybrid in Manchester, you can rent it here.
