Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Car Sharing

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

My family was part of a car share for a couple of years. We owned the car,
others bought a share which was a proportion of the blue book value of the
car, and paid a proportionate share of insurance and operating costs. My
insurance agent advised us to simply carry the insurance as a private party,
because anybody who drove the car was covered.  The title of the car
remained in our name.  The car share ended when the car starting having
expensive mechanical issues and we all decided, because of the mileage on
the vehicle, to bail on the car.

One of the issues with the car share was that one family had little kids and
left the car messier than others, and there was a disproportionate use by
one family, for them it was their main car, for others it was the second
car. So even though the costs were equally divided, the mileage was not.  

Currently we have a van which is shared by anybody who puts gas in it, the
insurance and maintenance is owned by a member who primarily uses it. We
used to co-own a couple trucks in the same way but they each died and were
not replaced.  

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood