A study by Kelley Blue Book reveals the trend towards car and ride sharing services like ZipCar and Uber pose no real threat to new car ownership. According to the 2016 Kelley Blue Book Ride Sharing/Car Sharing Study, 80 percent of the respondents indicated that owning or leasing a vehicle provides a sense of freedom and independence. Among car sharing and ride sharing users, 74 percent of them said that they would be driving themselves sometime in the next 6 months.
“Ride- and car-sharing services are getting a lot of attention these days and we wanted to better understand the current landscape of these app-fueled platforms and how they may impact both consumers and the auto industry moving forward,” said Karl Brauer, senior analyst for Kelley Blue Book. “While there are numerous benefits to ride sharing and car sharing, our data reveals that owning a car still reigns supreme, with reliability, safety and convenience all being major factors.”
Most plan to own a car
While car- and ride-sharing are viewed as viable alternatives to renting a car or taking a taxi, more than three-quarters of the survey respondents indicated that they plan to buy or lease their own vehicle within two years. Among the reasons cited for ownership, 81 percent said having their own vehicle is more reliable than sharing, 80 percent said it’s safer and 74 percent said it is more convenient than relying on these services.
Among those survey participants who don’t own vehicles, 57 percent said they didn’t because of affordability issues, while only 5 percent indicated that their transportation needs were met by car- or ride-sharing. It should be noted, however, that 69 percent of the respondents agreed that ride-sharing is a great way to combat drunk driving.
Awareness doesn’t equal use
Another interesting result was the fact that awareness of car- and ride-sharing doesn’t necessarily translate into usage. While nearly three in four said they were aware of ride sharing operations like Uber and Lyft, only 16 percent said they actually have used these services—most of these being Millennials and city dwellers. Car-sharing awareness was only 43 percent, with actual use 7 percent.
With such low levels of usage, it’s likely that most Americans will prefer to own and drive their own vehicles for the foreseeable future.
So, you want to drive for Uber? Check out KBB’s list of what to drive.
