Car: buy or use a subscription service?

Are you still owning your car or use a #subscription model to drive one?

Cars are no longer offered for a fixed one off price but in all advertisement now on a price per month in lease or personal contract hire models.

What is included in the offer differs per country but the industry is moving us away from ownership into driving a specific car for a fixed period and fixed set of miles / kilometres included. At the end you simply return this car and select another one with a new contract.

Although this model has been around for business users for a long time it is being pushed into the consumer market for only a few years now.

But car subscription does not stop there. Car manufacturers and other players in the industry are already looking and experimenting on how to provide us different business models that keep us engaged with their brands for an even longer period. Business models that do not just contractually bind us with their brand for a fixed period but that evolve with you and your wishes and needs over time. This could be because of a new addition to the family that might lead to different requirements of your car or you would like to drive a different car during your holiday to be able to take more stuff with you. This flexibility is what we as consumers are interested in. No longer own a specific care but have a solution for your transportation requirements at any given time. This next phase on car subscription models is already available in trial versions.

#PorschePassport is a variant of that. For a fixed price per month you can drive any Porsche in your category and you can go back and swap for another model when you want. Other variants of this business model are introduce by lease companies as #HertzMyCar that utilises their existing fleet of rental cars and independent dealers using #Flexwheels to monetise their fleet of new and even second hand cars they have in stock.

Will you buy or subscribe to your next car?