What do people in Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley think of UBER? (Pasadena: 2014, renter)

[PDR2015]

Originally Posted by annonymous0381

In the next month or two they are having a career fair.

Uber/LYFT are good temporary jobs that can help you get back on your feet. You do need a vehicle though... so perhaps you should first get a vehicle that is approved for the two platforms.

[NickofDiamonds]

Maybe your girlfriend will let you move in with her and you can then drive her car !
She probably treats you better then your Mother does.

[Rkstar71]

I worked security at a gated community where the residents must call in in advance anyone going in to visit them. This includes all workers and deliveries and anyone just picking them up. I'm amazed at how many empty headed people show up there not knowing the address of the person they are coming to see. This especially the Uber Drivers. The cabbies know the address but not the Uber drivers.

[jm1982]

I've mostly had good experiences with Uber. There was one weird situation where the driver looked like they were only a few minutes away, but then didn't seem to be moving, then they went the other direction..not sure if they did it on purpose or what. I cancelled though and explained what happened to Uber and they handled it.

Requested for another driver to come and that was fine, but for some reason they went to the alley behind my house..I guess on their mapping system it shows that as the address..which is kind of weird. I had heard from an Uber driver in Florida too that their maps suck...I don't think they run off Google Maps for whatever reason. I do notice that when you look in the Google Maps app now it does show Uber as an alternative and gives a fare estimate, which is kind of cool. They must have done some deal with them for that.

Anyways I think most people will have a much better experience with Uber versus taxicabs, which is the only other alternative...of course there is the public transit too, but that's not the same thing obviously.

The SFV isn't too great of a place to not have a car. Maybe you could look into renting a car, might be worth it if you are using Uber everyday. Shop around for rates though as they vary a lot. Not sure how long you'll need one for. You can also look on Relay rides there are people that are looking to cars for a month for lower rates, like $500 month sometimes. If you end up spending $30 a day on Uber for example to get around, it could be cheaper.

Since it sounds like you have access to a car some of the time, this might not make too much sense for you though..you'll have to run the numbers yourself.

Also regarding your girlfriend's 30k Civic...not sure about that. Also many of the new expensive cars you see on L.A roads are leased. You can lease a new Mercedes sometimes for around $300 a month or so.
Example:
http://www.mbencino.com/mercedes-lease-offers-specials/

[bruhms]

I like it. I've only had one problem where the driver dropped me and my friends off in an alley instead of the residential street just before it.

[DistrictDirt]

I live downtown and use Uber and Lyft all the time. My car pretty much stays parked these days and I'm considering renting it out at LAX via a service like FlightCar so I'm at least covering the car payment + insurance.

[jm1982]

You could rent it out on relayrides too...you've probably already heard of them.

It's kind of interesting as I've seen people on there that have multiple cars, not just like 2 , but some have like 10 cars on there...not sure exactly how that works if they actually own all the cars or what.
It seems like some good money could be made if you could actually finance that many cars.

[nightlysparrow]

Originally Posted by jm1982

You could rent it out on relayrides too...you've probably already heard of them.

It's kind of interesting as I've seen people on there that have multiple cars, not just like 2 , but some have like 10 cars on there...not sure exactly how that works if they actually own all the cars or what.
It seems like some good money could be made if you could actually finance that many cars.

Yes, a friend's son is in relay ride, has multiple cars, about 8 now, which he parks around the neighborhood because he lives in an apartment. He bought them all as salvage vehicles from Craigslist. The cars are not bad. It doesn't take much to have a car considered as "totaled"; if the airbag deploys, for example, the car is declared totaled and must be resold with a salvage title.

[disgruntled la native]

I prefer Uber to a cab for sure. A cab + tip is actually about the same price as an Uber black car (the luxury). Uber X is super cheap. I've gone from west LA to downtown for $18.

That being said, surge pricing is horrible. It's become far too routine. And that makes uber almost as expensive as a cab, even uber x.

So when Uber isn't surge priced, or horribly surge priced, that's when it's amazing.

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by nightlysparrow

Yes, a friend's son is in relay ride, has multiple cars, about 8 now, which he parks around the neighborhood because he lives in an apartment. He bought them all as salvage vehicles from Craigslist. The cars are not bad. It doesn't take much to have a car considered as "totaled"; if the airbag deploys, for example, the car is declared totaled and must be resold with a salvage title.

Interesting, Yeah I have heard that. I am looking at used cars for sale now and I see a ton of cars that are listed as salvaged title. It seems for some of them they aren't asking too much less than clear title...but who knows if people are buying at that price.

It's interesting that they allow salvage title vehicles, I know that uber requires clear title vehicles..but that's a bit different of course.
Looks like you need a 2005 or newer
https://support.relayrides.com/hc/en...do-you-accept-

Makes me wonder now how many of the cars on Relayrides are actually salvage title vehicles.

Of course the return is going to be higher since the renter probably doesn't even realize it's salvage title or might not even car since they are just renting it.

Does your friend's son do this full time? I'm guessing it would be hard to do it with a regular 9-5 type job since some people might want to rent in the middle of the day and stuff.

Do you know how much he paid for the cars? The one big expensive I would think would be insurance..but maybe there are big discounts when you own that many cars?