Maven's 'Peer Cars': Your Mobility Future Is Someone Else's Ride

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

A pilot project we discussed months ago is now up and running in Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Chicago. Launched by General Motors’ Maven ride-sharing arm, the new peer-to-peer service goes beyond the existing fleet of GM-owned vehicles (which Maven users can rent for varying periods) and into the realm of the privately-owned car.

Yes, there’s owners who are now letting their car work for them.

Called Peer Cars, these 2015-or-newer GM vehicles appear alongside Maven Cars whenever a Maven user in a participating market takes out their phone and opens the app in search of a low-cost, short- or long-term rental.

The user experience is the same as renting a typical Maven car (read about Bozi Tatarevic’s experience here). Open the app, locate your preferred car, travel to that location, unlock the car with your phone, and drive off. Owners needn’t meet the renter in order to size them up — GM takes care of that. It also installs the necessary unlocking device, takes photos, provides a $1 million insurance policy, and collects 40 percent of the revenue earned from the rental. Owner assistance is available from either Maven or OnStar.

It’s assumed the vehicle owner will make his or her loan payments by putting the car on the Maven rental market, choosing when it’s available, and for how much. GM claims owners can set a price within a range that’s up to 20 percent higher than a regular Maven vehicle — or 20 percent lower.

“Your car is one of the most expensive things you own. Sitting idle, it is a wasted asset,” said Julia Steyn, vice president of General Motors Urban Mobility and Maven, in a statement. “It’s time to put your car to work. Maven’s peer-to-peer offering is a smart way for owners to offset their vehicle investment.”

Of course, racking up extra miles with someone else behind the wheel also means these owners will hit their maintenance periods sooner, as well as add wear and tear to the vehicle — potentially lowering their resale or trade-in value. For lessees, it means using up more of your annual allotted miles. This could earn you a penalty in the event of an unexpected end-of-year road trip, assuming there’s no other option besides taking your own car. We hope would-be Peer Cars owners spend some time with a calculator before taking the plunge.

That said, Steyn’s words could certainly resonate with a number of people who see this as a way of getting out of working a second, low-wage job, or simply as a way of reaching the car payment finish line sooner.

GM plans to collect data from the three test markets before rolling out Maven’s Peer Cars in additional U.S. cities this fall.

[Image: General Motors]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Bimmer Bimmer on Jul 24, 2018

    What's next? Renting out your wife, while you're on a business trip or in a meeting, because you can't "use" her? /s

  • Ajla Ajla on Jul 24, 2018

    I only wear one set of underpants each day but I own like 30. Such a waste when all those other underpants could be rented out for big bucks. Anyway, I know where my hands have been. I wouldn't be keen on letting strangers feel up my machines.

  • ToolGuy My latest vehicle acquisition is slightly older than this one, same parent company, but has a full frame, rear-wheel drive and a longitudinally-mounted pushrod V8 gasoline engine. Almost like it was engineered and manufactured by a completely different group of people. Hmmm...
  • EBFlex Smart people
  • Wjtinfwb "Rovelo" tires? Good to see TTAC is not above the shameless commercial endorsement of unknown product like it's bigger print competitors.
  • Wjtinfwb Looks in decent nick for a Junkyard car. Other than the interior being partially gutted for some trim pieces, you could probably drive it out of the junkyard. Maybe a transmission issue and the cars value precluded a $2k or more fix? J cars were pathetic when introduced in '82 and never really got any better. But GM did sort out most of the reliability issues and with a modicum of maintenance these would run a long time if you could stand the boredom. Guess this owner couldn't.
  • GS340Pete I see a lot of these on the road. I can't remember the last time I saw one on my local Chevy dealership's lot. They've never in my memory had a few lined up with balloons. Short sighted to kill it off? Perhaps. But I certainly think the rows of $65k and up trucks is short sighted. That's going to bite soon. Looks like they're piling up already.And what about the Trax? Malibu or Trax? Gotta be honest, I'd pick the Trax.Although it should have 50 more HP IMHO. And why are so many preaching doom about the 'wet belt' engine?RIP, Malibu. Ride the highway in the sky with the Impala (talk about short sighted.)
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