Introduction:
If you’re a rideshare or delivery driver, your car isn’t just a set of wheels – it’s your livelihood. With so many options for getting on the road, from car subscriptions to rent-to-own plans, it can be tough to decide which route to take.
Car subscription services promise flexibility and all-inclusive convenience, while traditional ownership (or financing) offers long-term value. Lately, rent-to-own (RTO) programs like Shad Rentals’ have emerged as a best-of-both-worlds solution: the flexibility of renting plus the equity of ownership.
Yet, a lot of gig workers hesitate, thinking “RTO means paying more for a car that depreciates, so is it worth it?” In this blog post, we’ll debunk that myth and show why Shad Rentals’ friendly, flexible RTO plans can leave you better off than an endless subscription.
By the end, you’ll see how owning your car – even a used one – beats returning it with nothing to show, especially when the plan is built around your needs. Let’s drive in!
The Myth of Depreciation vs. “Nothing to Show” Payments
Many drivers weigh the pros and cons of owning a car versus subscribing. Some charts (like the one above) list depreciation, maintenance, and other costs as drawbacks of ownership while touting subscriptions’ flexibility. But here’s the catch: even after factoring in depreciation, owning leaves you with something – a car with real value – whereas subscription payments leave you with nothing tangible at the end.
One common hesitation with rent-to-own is the fear of depreciation: “Why pay extra over years for a car that will drop in value?” It’s true that vehicles depreciate a new car might only be worth ~69% of its original value after two years, and about 49% after four years.
In other words, a car loses roughly half its value in 4–5 years. But here’s the important part: that remaining value is yours when you own the car. Once you’ve paid off an RTO car, “the vehicle’s value, however depreciated, belongs to the owner”.
You have an asset you can keep driving payment-free, trade in, or sell for cash. It might be worth less than when new, but it’s far from worthless!
Now consider a car subscription. You might pay $200, $300, or more per week for the privilege of driving a nice car with insurance and maintenance included. It sounds convenient until you zoom out on the timeline. After two years of subscribing at, say, $250/week, you’ll have spent over $26,000 and at the end of those 104 weeks, you own $0 of the car.
All those dollars simply paid for the temporary use of a vehicle. As an Australian car comparison site bluntly puts it, with a subscription “you won’t build any equity in the vehicle, and you don’t have the option to sell it when you’re done”. It’s like renting an apartment: years of payments, no property gained.
For a gig driver, that “nothing to show” outcome can be brutal. Rideshare and delivery work is often a long-term hustle if you stick with a subscription for the long haul, you risk getting stuck on a treadmill of payments that never end.
Sure, you avoid worrying about selling a used car later, but you’re also avoiding ownership completely. And while some see “no long-term commitment” as a plus, think about what that means: if you ever stop paying, you’re instantly without a car to earn income. Depreciation is a small price for eventual freedom.
After all, once an RTO car is paid off (or even mostly paid off), you could drive with no weekly fee beyond fuel and upkeep dramatically boosting your takehome earnings. In contrast, subscription fees continue forever if you keep renewing, eating into your profits every single week
Long-Term Savings: RTO vs Subscription by the Numbers
Let’s put this into a relatable scenario. Meet Aiden, a Sydney Uber driver. Aiden needs a car for work and is considering two paths:
- Option 1: Car Subscription. He finds a hybrid sedan for about $250 per week on a subscription (pretty typical, as many subscriptions run $200–$300/week for a standard car). That weekly fee covers the car, insurance, registration, servicing everything except fuel. There’s no big upfront cost and he can cancel anytime with a couple weeks’ notice. Sounds easy.
- Option 2: Shad Rentals Rent-to-Own. Aiden checks out Shad Rentals and finds a similar hybrid available on RTO for maybe $300 per week. That higher weekly amount also includes rego, CTP insurance, and GST, just like a subscription, so it’s all-inclusive. However, there is an initial deposit of $2,000 required (which, importantly, goes toward the car’s price). The term is flexible – he could choose a 3- year plan to keep payments manageable, with the option to pay it off sooner if he can.
Now, fast-forward two years (104 weeks). Under the subscription, Aiden pays $250 x 104 = $26,000 and has $0 equity he doesn’t own a bit of that car. If he wants to keep driving, he must keep subscribing (or start over with another vehicle).
Under Shad’s RTO, Aiden pays roughly $300 x 104 = $31,200 plus his deposit. At this point, he’s very close to paying off the car (perhaps a few months of payments left if it was a 3-year plan). Crucially, Aiden now has a tangible asset: the car itself.
Let’s say the car was worth $30k when he started; after two years it might be worth maybe ~$18k (assuming ~40% depreciation). That’s $18k of value he’s building toward. In fact, Aiden could even decide to sell the car immediately after payoff for around that amount if he needed cash, or keep it and enjoy no more weekly payments.
Even accounting for the fact that Aiden paid a few thousand more with RTO over those two years, he’s coming out ahead in net worth. The subscription route cost $26k for use-andreturn; the RTO route cost maybe ~$33k total (including the deposit) for use-and-keep, yielding a car worth ~$18k that he owns outright.
Subtract the car’s value, and Aiden’s net cost for those two years of mobility is around $15k. Compare that to $26k “net cost” with subscription (since there’s no asset to subtract) the difference is huge.
Of course, exact numbers vary with car models and depreciation rates, but the principle stands: owning your work vehicle gives you equity. Financially, RTO can be far more cost-effective in the long run than an indefinite subscription.
In fact, even a subscription industry piece acknowledges that for drivers who prioritize long-term savings and ownership, the lack of equity and higher monthly costs in subscriptions are dealbreakers. The so-called high cost of ownership (depreciation, maintenance, etc.) is offset by the fact you’re investing in an asset. With Shad’s rent-to-own, every payment inches you closer to full ownership it’s like putting money in your own piggy bank on wheels.
Why Shad Rentals’ RTO Puts You First (Flexible, Driver-Friendly Features)
By now, we’ve made the case for ownership over endless renting. But not all rent-to-own plans are created equal. So what makes Shad Rentals special? In short, Shad has designed its RTO program around the needs of gig drivers and anyone seeking flexibility. They understand that driving for income can be unpredictable, so they built in features to remove stress and give you control. Here are some standout benefits of Shad Rentals’ rent-to-own plan:
- All-Inclusive Weekly Payments – No Surprises: With Shad, your weekly rent-toown payment covers everything you need to stay on the road: vehicle registration, CTP (compulsory third-party) insurance, and GST are all included.
There are no hidden extras or gotcha fees sneaking up on you. This is very similar to how subscription services bundle costs except with Shad you’re bundling toward ownership. Knowing that your basics are handled means one less headache each week, letting you drive with peace of mind.
- Early Payout Freedom (and Discounts!): Flexibility is a cornerstone of Shad’s ethos. You’re welcome to pay off your car early at any stage of your contract whether that’s dropping one final lump sum or making extra payments along the way. There are no penalties or restrictions for wrapping up sooner; you’re in control of your timeline.
In fact, Shad rewards you for early payoff: you get a $50 discount for every week remaining on your plan when you clear the balance, plus they’ll deduct any unused rego from the final price. Those bonuses can add up to as much as $78 off per week knocked off your term effectively refunding you for finishing early! This is a game changer for drivers who might come into some money or just want to eliminate weekly payments faster. Unlike a rigid lease or some loans, you won’t be penalized for ambition you’ll be celebrated for it with Shad.
- “Offset” Extra Payments & Flexible Schedules: What if you have a great week and want to put a bit more money into your car account? Shad offers an offset-style feature: any extra payments you make can either reduce your future weekly payments or shorten your contract effectively giving you a discount on interest or total cost. It works somewhat like a mortgage offset or prepay your diligence pays off.
Additionally, Shad understands not everyone gets paid weekly. You can choose a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly payment schedule, whatever matches your income cycle. So if you drive Uber and get paid fortnightly, set up fortnightly installments no more juggling weekly bills that don’t align with your cash flow. This flexibility in payment frequency means no more stress over mismatched billing; it’s tailored to your lifestyle.
- Custom Plan Lengths & Low Deposit Options: Shad Rentals lets you customize your plan from 1 up to 4 years. Maybe you’re planning to drive full-time for a couple of years only, or maybe you want a longer term for smaller payments either way, you decide. Deposits start from just $2,000 (much lower than a typical 20% car loan down payment) and you can choose to pay more upfront if you want to reduce your weekly amount.
Basically, higher deposit or shorter plan = less total payout in interest, which is a fair trade-off you control. This level of customization ensures that the RTO plan fits your budget and timeline, not the other way around. It’s ideal for gig workers, since you can calibrate how much you can afford per week and how long you want the commitment to last.
- Payment Holidays When You Need Them: Life has ebbs and flows. Maybe you want to take a break from driving and go on holiday, or you hit a slow patch and earnings dip. Shad has your back with payment holiday options you can pause your payments for up to 4 weeks per year. During this break, you keep the car and simply pay the paused weeks at the end of your plan (essentially extending it by that many weeks). This is a huge stress reliever for gig drivers, who often don’t have paid leave. Knowing you can take up to a month off annually from payments (and presumably from driving) means you won’t be trapped by your car contract.
Try asking a traditional lease or loan for a one-month hiatus not likely! And while some subscriptions let you cancel anytime, you’d have to return the car and re-subscribe later (subject to availability). With Shad’s RTO, you pick up right where you left off, in the same car, with the same path to ownership, once you’re ready to resume. It’s flexibility on your terms.
- Upgrade, Transfer, or Exit Easily: Circumstances change Shad gets it. Maybe you want to upgrade to a bigger or newer car during your rent-to-own term; maybe you need to step away from driving and want someone else to take over. Perhaps you just decide car ownership isn’t for you right now. Shad Rentals has built-in solutions for all of these. If you fall in love with a different car or your needs evolve (say, you want to switch from a sedan to an SUV to start doing UberXL), you can upgrade to another vehicle at any stage of your contract for just a small $990 documentation fee.
No massive penalties, no restarting from scratch just pay the fee, pick your new ride, and continue your plan (likely adjusted for the new car’s price). On the other hand, if you can’t continue the plan for personal reasons, you don’t lose everything you’ve paid in Shad lets you transfer the contract to a family member or friend for the same $990 fee. They step into your shoes and carry on the payments toward owning the car. This is a rare and remarkably fair feature; rather than repossessing the car or penalizing you, Shad enables someone you trust to benefit from where you left off.
Finally, there’s the return option: if truly needed, you have the freedom to return the car and walk away through a straightforward, flexible exit process. In other words, you’re never trapped. Shad’s philosophy is clearly that life happens, and a car plan should adjust to you not ruin you. These options mean an RTO contract with Shad has many of the “no long-term commitment” benefits that subscriptions boast, but with the crucial difference that you’re building equity the whole time until or unless you choose to exit.
- No Hidden Fees or Sneaky Fine Print: Unlike some financing deals or even subscriptions that surprise you with swap fees or excess mileage charges, Shad prides itself on transparency. The contract is open, fair, and simple – no hidden fees, no small-print tricks. Everything is laid out from the start, so you’re not going to be blindsided by random charges. For gig drivers who have heard horror stories of surprise fees (whether from lease turn-in damage fees or subscription over-mileage fees), this clarity is refreshing. You know exactly what you’re paying and what you’re getting.
In short, Shad Rentals has engineered its RTO program for peace of mind. Every feature above is geared to remove stress and hand control back to you as the driver. As their own motto says, “everything is built to give you control, flexibility, savings, and freedom”. It truly feels like a plan designed with drivers, not against them.
Car Subscription Pitfalls – and How RTO Avoids Them
We’ve touched on some of these in passing, but let’s explicitly compare how a rent-to-own plan like Shad’s stacks up against typical car subscription models in areas that matter to gig workers:
- End Game (Ownership vs. Forever Payments): With RTO, there’s a clear finish line: make your payments, and the car’s yours. Even if you decide not to keep it forever, you have the option to sell it or trade it you have equity. With subscription, there is no finish line; it’s pay-as-you-go until you stop, at which point you have nothing.
For someone who relies on a car to make a living, having an end game is huge. It means potentially years of driving with no car payments once paid off, which is effectively a raise for yourself. Subscription never affords you that relief you could drive full-time for 5 years on subscription and still be paying in year 6 with no end in sight.
- Total Cost Comparison: Subscriptions often tout “no depreciation risk” and “one simple fee” as justification for what are usually higher weekly/monthly costs than an equivalent rent-to-own or finance payment. It’s true, convenience costs more. You’re paying a premium to have the option to swap cars or cancel. For gig drivers who plan to use a car continuously, those higher fees really stack up over time. In contrast, RTO payments are usually lower than subscription fees for a similar car because you are taking on the commitment to eventually own (and thus the depreciation risk).
Over a few years, the difference can be thousands of dollars in your favor. Plus, remember those early payoff discounts and deposit options you have ways to bring the cost down further with Shad’s RTO. Subscriptions give you no such ways to save; you can’t “prepay” a subscription for a discount, for example, because there’s no asset being financed. And while subscriptions claim you avoid maintenance costs, Shad’s weekly payments include routine costs like rego and CTP, and the cars are typically under warranty or come with maintenance plans too.
You’re not likely to face major unexpected expenses during your RTO term any more than you would with a subscription’s covered maintenance. Essentially, RTO gives you similar protection in the short term, and huge savings in the long term.
- Mileage and Usage: Here’s a big one for rideshare and delivery folks: mileage limits. Many car subscription services impose mileage caps (for example, 1,000– 1,500 km per month is a common range, with fees for exceeding). If you’re driving full-time, you can blast past those limits easily, racking up extra charges or having to constantly monitor your odometer. With RTO it’s your car (or will be), so you generally don’t have strict mileage caps.
Shad Rentals knows its customers are often Uber drivers putting substantial kms on the clock; their approach is likely accommodating to high usage (they wouldn’t include rego/CTP if they expected only light personal use). Owning a car means you can drive it as much as you need – there’s no overage fee for “too many trips this month”.
This alone can make rent-toown far more gig-friendly. The freedom to work more without asking permission or paying penalties is crucial for maximizing income.
- Vehicle Choice and Customization: Subscriptions often let you swap cars and try many models. That’s fun, but in reality, gig drivers typically find a car that’s fuelefficient, comfortable, and meets rideshare requirements and stick with it. You’re running a business, not sampling the buffet. The ability to swap might not be very useful if you need specific cars to do specific ride categories (you’re not going to switch to a two-seater sports car for fun if your job is UberX, for example).
On the flip side, owning means you can customize your vehicle if desired add that phone mount, get custom seat covers, maybe even a dashcam or advertising wraps without worrying about violating a subscription return condition. Ownership gives you pride and freedom to set up your car exactly how you like, which can make those long hours behind the wheel more pleasant. With Shad’s upgrade option, if you do want to change vehicles, you can it’s just a bit more structured (and less frequent) than a subscription swap-on-demand.
But you also won’t face the “swapping fees” or limits some subscriptions quietly impose (some charge extra for too-frequent swaps or premium models). Everything in Shad’s plan is straightforward: one small fee to change once, not a habitual temptation to swap that could distract you from your end goal of ownership.
- Commitment and Exit: Subscriptions are month-to-month or relatively short term; that’s great if you only need a car briefly. But if you’re a full-time driver, you likely need a car indefinitely the “no commitment” benefit of subscriptions is less of a perk and more of an excuse for them to charge you high rates.
Shad’s RTO gives you flexibility without strings. Yes, you commit to a plan, but as we covered, you have outs (transfer or return) if absolutely necessary so you won’t be destroyed by a contract if life changes. It’s a reasonable middle ground: you commit so you can save money and build equity, but you’re not locked in come hell or high water.
It’s worth noting that even subscriptions often require, say, 30 days’ notice to cancel and may bill an annual joining fee. And if you quit and come back later, there might be new setup fees. With RTO, you’re investing in your car from day one, which psychologically can feel more rewarding than just renting. Each payment is a step forward, not just an expense.
To sum it up, car subscriptions may be fine for short-term or very casual drivers, but for committed gig workers, they often prove to be an expensive, restrictive loop. Rent-to-own flips the script: it turns your driving from an ongoing expense to an investment in yourself. You get many of the same conveniences (inclusive costs, flexibility) with Shad Rentals, but instead of being a customer forever, you end up the owner. As one industry analysis succinctly noted about buying/owning: once the loan is paid, there are no further payments, and the vehicle’s value however depreciated – is yours. That’s the key difference. Why keep renting your income tool when you can own it and keep the value?
A Rideshare Driver’s Realization (Example)
Let’s revisit our driver Aiden from earlier, or imagine yourself in his shoes. You’ve been driving for a rideshare company for a couple of years. In Scenario A, you chose the subscription route it felt low-commitment and worry-free at first. But now, looking back, you realize you’ve paid thousands to a company and if you stopped tomorrow, you walk away empty handed.
Maybe you even had to limit your driving some months because of mileage caps, which meant fewer earnings. You have nothing to sell, nothing to show, and if you want a car next week, you have to keep paying. It’s a bit of a hamster wheel, right?
In Scenario B, you went with Shad Rentals’ RTO. Yes, there were moments it felt like a commitment you had to budget for that weekly payment, and you put down a deposit initially. You even paused for two weeks last year when you fell ill (thank goodness for that payment holiday!). But today, you’re on the home stretch of your plan. In a few more weeks, the car will be completely yours and your bank account will suddenly keep an extra $300 every week because you’re done with payments.
You’ve essentially given yourself a raise without driving an extra hour. Plus, you’ve got a reliable car you know inside out, which you could sell or maybe use as a trade-in if you want to upgrade to a new vehicle later. The pride in ownership feels good you set a goal and achieved it. Meanwhile, your fellow driver friends who went the pure subscription route are stuck in that loop of returns and new contracts.
This is the crossroads many gig drivers find themselves at. And it often dawns on them when it’s a bit late “I spent all that money renting, I could have owned by now.” The good news is, with a program like Shad Rentals’, it’s never too late to switch lanes toward ownership. Even if you’ve been subscribing, you can start an RTO plan and in a couple of years be miles ahead financially.
Conclusion: Break the Cycle and Drive Smarter with Shad
At the end of the day, whether you’re an Uber driver, a courier, or a savvy commuter, the goal is to maximize the value of every dollar you spend on your vehicle. Car subscriptions might have a place for ultra-short-term needs, but if you’re continuously driving to earn, you deserve more than an endless string of receipts you deserve keys to your own car. Rent-to-own bridges that gap perfectly, and Shad Rentals has elevated RTO with a host of driver-centric features that make the journey to ownership as smooth as the ride itself.
Why keep paying indefinitely for a car that will never be yours when you can invest in one that will be? Even a depreciated car can be sold or continue to serve you without payments a subscribed car just vanishes from your life along with all the money you sunk into it. With Shad’s flexible plans, you aren’t locked down you’re empowered. You control how and when you pay, you can adapt your plan to life’s twists, and you have an asset waiting at the finish line. It’s the smart way to drive for those thinking about their future.
So, for all the gig drivers and go-getters out there: don’t fall into the trap of the perpetual subscription. Avoid the subscription loop and drive smart with Shad. It’s time to break free, take the wheel of your financial destiny, and enjoy the ride knowing that each mile is bringing you closer to owning your dream car. The keys are ready drive smarter with Shad Rentals today!
Ready to ditch endless payments and start building ownership? Visit ShadRentals.com.au to explore our rent-to-own deals, or give us a call to chat about how we can get you on the road to owning your car. Don’t rent forever – rent-to-own and reap the rewards. Your future self (and your wallet) will thank you!
