Roadshow's guide to car subscription services, an alternative to buying or leasing – Roadshow

It’s 2020. We have drones and hoverboards, our phones unlock by scanning our faces, and anything in the world can be delivered to your door with a couple of clicks. Why should we be stuck with buying or leasing as our only means of procuring a car to drive? Hell, nah.

Thankfully, vehicle subscription services are becoming more and more popular. Think of it like any other subscription: Sign up for what you want, cancel it when you’re done. Whether from automakers or third-party companies, there are many ways to subscribe to your next new car. 

The OEMs

If you’re familiar with any vehicle subscription service, it’s probably one of these. In essence, you pay a monthly fee to a manufacturer for access to several vehicle models in its lineup. In addition to access, this fee covers the cost of insurance, maintenance and roadside assistance.

Access by BMW

BMW now has a pilot program running in Nashville for its subscription service, Access by BMW. The program is a two-tiered affair and isn’t cheap (Porsche has a similar program we cover later in this article). The first tier, which BMW is calling “Legend,” will set users back a cool $1,399 per month and gives access to vehicles like the 4 Series, 5 Series and X5 (but not the M models) as well as the excellent M2. Upgrading to the $2,699 M tier and things start to get really interesting with access to the M4 Convertible, M5, M6 Convertible, X5M and X6M.

BMW has also added a new entry-level Icons tier that gives users access to cars like 330i, 330e, i3, X2 and the M240i convertible. It will set you back $1,099 per month but it features all of the same benefits that the more expensive tiers offer like unlimited car swaps.

You can order vehicles through the Access by BMW app, and so far there doesn’t appear to be any restriction on vehicle swaps. Your monthly subscription fee includes insurance, and roadside assistance, as you’d expect. The program will be facilitated by local dealers and not by BMW corporate and BMW hasn’t given word on if or when it will expand the program beyond Nashville.

Book by Cadillac

Cadillac’s service was one of the first OEM subscriptions to be announced when it debuted in January 2017. Initially it was available only in New York City. As the program continued, its service area expanded to drivers in Dallas and Los Angeles, but then Book by Cadillac ceased operations by the end of 2018. However, it looks like it’s coming back later in 2019 in a slightly different form.

When it was up and running, it first required a $500 enrollment fee before requiring another $1,800 per month for the service itself. However, the upside was that it offered access to some of Cadillac’s best cars, and it allowed you to swap cars up to 18 times per year. Plus, when you were accepted, your spouse could legally drive the car, too. Insurance and concierge service were included in the cost.

Say you wanted an Escalade to drive around during the week, and then you wanted to swap it out for a CTS-V for the weekend. Not a problem. With Book, you’d just fire up the app and make your selection, and a concierge service would drop off your vehicle for you. The deductible for its included insurance was $1,000, and leftover filth in the car (dog hair, weird smells) would incur a $150 fine.

Care by Volvo

Volvo launched its Care by Volvo service at the Los Angeles Auto Show in 2017 alongside its new XC40 crossover. The Swedish automaker has since vowed to include all of its models in the Care program, but currently, we only have pricing for the XC40.

The Care by Volvo plan for the XC40 starts at $600 per month for the T5 Momentum trim and goes up to $700 per month for the T5 R-Design, both of which you can configure yourself. You start with a $500 deposit that gets applied to your first month’s payment.

Some of the more critical aspects of the Care by Volvo plan are the excess wear and use protection included with your subscription. Basically, this means that Volvo will forgive $1,000 in mileage overages and vehicle damage at the time you return your car. If you park exclusively by feel, you may still end up paying for deep scratches or dents, but this should help soften the blow.

Volvo also includes a road hazard plan for tires and wheels so if a box of nails drops off the back of someone’s handyman truck and your tire picks them up, it’s covered. If you fall into one of Detroit’s man-eating potholes and your rim is destroyed to the point where it will no longer hold air or can’t be balanced, that’s covered too. Curbing the hell out of your Volvo’s rim wouldn’t be included, however, so practice your parallel parking in something else.

Under Volvo’s service and maintenance plan, all repair and wear items are covered in the first three services (10,000, 20,000 and 30,000 miles). This includes things like brake pads, wiper blades and fluids. This sounds pretty good, but typically in the first 30,000 miles of car ownership, maintenance items aren’t that big of a deal; for example, having to replace a set of brakes at 30,000 miles on something like the XC40 would be atypical.

Lastly, unlike the more expensive programs by Cadillac and Porsche, Care by Volvo only lets you swap cars every 12 months in most markets. While that’s still better than most lease programs, it’s not ideal for those of us who suffer from a lack of car commitment.

Carpe by Jaguar Land Rover

Most of the OEM subscription services that we’re talking about let you swap cars out whenever you feel like it and cost a boatload of money. Only Care By Volvo locked you into a car for a 12 month period, but not any more, because now Jaguar Land Rover is getting into the game with Carpe (as in carpe diem, which I think is Latin for “Dead Poets Society is one of the best Robin Williams movies”), a new subscription service that is, for the time being, only available in the UK. 

Like most subscription services, it’s all-inclusive so your monthly fee takes care of the car, insurance and maintenance, leaving you to deal with fuel and not much else. Carpe isn’t cheap, but neither are Jags and Land Rovers, so your basic E-Pace SUV will run £910 (around $1,200) per month and range (get it?) up to £2,200 for a Range Rover Sport HSE. Interestingly, Jaguar Land Rover isn’t requiring a deposit, but should you choose to put one down anyway, it will lower your monthly subscription cost.

While Carpe is currently UK-only, we wouldn’t be terribly surprised if it hopped the pond, given how hot the subscription market segment is right now. Roadshow has asked Jaguar Land Rover if it has any plans to bring Carpe here, but so far, it’s remained tight-lipped on the subject. 

Lexus Complete Lease

Lexus launched its Complete Lease program in the first quarter of 2020 with the newly unveiled UX and UX Hybrid crossovers. The program offers a two-year, 20,000-mile lease inclusive of insurance and maintenance for a single, non-negotiable price. Details are still a little thin at this point, with Lexus refusing to divulge whether prospective lessees will configure and order their cars at a dealership or online, and how just how much one would expect to pay for the program. The program launched in seven states including California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. So far, 80 dealers in these states have agreed to participate in Complete Lease. 

Lexus has confirmed that the program has the potential to expand to other models if the initial program with the UX proves to be popular.

Mercedes-Benz Collection

Mercedes-Benz has been talking about launching its pilot program for a car subscription service for months and now it’s a reality. The program is called Mercedes-Benz Collection and, like most of the other OEM programs, it’s not cheap but it might be worth it if you really love that three-pointed star and live in Atlanta, Nashville or Philadelphia.

The program is called Mercedes-Benz Collection, and it provides a pretty broad range of cars to those who subscribe. The plan, like others from OEMs, has more than one tier. The Reserve tier will cost $1,595 per month and give you access to vehicles like the C43 AMG, the E400 wagon and the GLE350 SUV. For $2,995 per month you can access the Premier tier, and with that, you can drive around in a C63 S sedan, a G550 SUV or an SL550 roadster.

If your jaw is on the floor over the price of the Premier tier, you’re not alone. That’s a lot of cash per month, but the ability to “flip” into different vehicles with minimal notice through the Mercedes-Benz Collection concierge service is pretty cool. As with most subscription plans, cars are delivered to you cleaned and fueled, and the plan includes insurance.

Joining is a relatively simple process. You just have to download the Mercedes-Benz Collection app and go through the prompts, which include sending a photo of your driver’s license, and in around 24 hours you should have a decision on your application. You then pay a $495 application fee, and you’re in.

Porsche Passport

Porsche’s Passport service is expensive, but it gives you a lot for your money. First, you pick one of two tiers. The first tier, called Launch, will set you back a tidy $2,000 per month and gives you access to an unlimited stream of Caymans, Boxsters, Macans and Cayennes.

If you’re a true baller, you can upgrade to the Accelerate plan, which runs $3,000 per month and gives you access to those three magic numbers that drive every Porschephile crazy: 911. Panamera, too. That said, exclusive models like the GT3 RS are off-limits no matter what. Sorry.

The next thing you need to know, and perhaps the biggest bummer about the whole Porsche Passport program, is the geographical area it serves. While it launched in Atlanta, Passport is now also available in Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego and Toronto, Ontario, but that’s it. Apart from that, it’s all sunshine and roses. Porsche doesn’t put any kind of restriction on the number of vehicles you can change into, and its insurance is decent, though still with a $1,000 deductible.

Unlike Book by Cadillac, Passport includes full-detail washes as part of its fee, so you’ll never (in theory) be charged for turning in a dirty car. There are also no mileage restrictions, so if you feel like road-tripping your borrowed Panamera S around the US, that should be fine.

When you apply to join, you’ll pay a $500 application fee, and Porsche expects you to be a member for no less than 31 days. The rest is simple and handled through either Porsche’s app or its concierge service.

Porsche Drive

Porsche Drive is a short-term car rental service that offers short-term rentals — think between 4 hours and a week — of Porsche vehicles with mileage caps. Costs vary significantly based on which model you choose and the length of your loan, but a week in a 911 with a 1,500-mile limit will cost you just shy of $3,000. Just like Passport, Drive is available in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego and Toronto, Ontario

Porsche Host

Porsche Host sees the brand partnering with peer-to-peer car rental service Turo to offer short(ish) term loans from a week to a month of customer-owned Porsche vehicles from specially selected “five-star” Turo hosts. The program launches in October and is limited to Los Angeles and San Francisco. The cars can be booked through the Turo app.

Audi Select

Audi’s Select vehicle subscription service has two tiers available to prospective members. The new Core Collection tier runs at $995 per month — that’s around $400 cheaper than the other option — and gives you access to the S3 and S4 sedans, Q5 SUV and the TT. The other tier available is called the Premiere Collection and costs $1,395 per month. It offers more Audi models, as well as more frequent car swaps, two a month in this case. 

For your hard-earned money, Audi takes care of insurance, maintenance and roadside assistance. Drivers have unlimited mileage in the vehicles, with the only out-of-pocket expense being fuel. Members also receive two days of service from Silvercar — an Audi-only rental car company — and concierge service with pick-up and drop-off of vehicles. If you love the brand with the Four Rings, it’s not a bad way to go.

Genesis Spectrum

Genesis is getting into the subscription-style lease game with Spectrum. The program is like a standard lease that rolls in all your maintenance and insurance costs with your monthly payment. Like Lexus’ Complete Lease program, you can’t necessarily swap cars, but Spectrum does give you access to all of Genesis’ product line. The 36-month leases start at $489 per month with $2,699 down for the G70, $569 per month with $3,999 down for the G80 and $909 per month with $5,499 down for the G90.

Spectrum will see a limited release starting with the 45 Genesis dealers in Florida, and it’s not totally clear if or when Genesis will expand the program to other markets. Read more in Genesis’ announcement here.

Third-party services

These subscription services aren’t directly backed and managed by a vehicle manufacturer. Most offer used or off-lease vehicles, and prices vary pretty widely, as does the level of bundling. Some services, for example, provide insurance bundled with the vehicle while others will help you find insurance. Others, meanwhile, leave you to figure it out yourself. The benefit to third-party services is that they’re usually much cheaper than the OEM options, and represent lower-cost ways of getting into a vehicle.

Canvas

Canvas is a different kind of subscription service altogether. It was backed by Ford Credit and offers Ford and Lincoln vehicles exclusively, but rather than it having brand-new shiny cars for you, you’re paying for used off-lease vehicles that are several model-years old, but that could all change because Ford has sold Canvas to another subscription-service company, that company being Fair.

The details of the purchase of Canvas by Fair haven’t been made public, so we don’t really know how this will affect Canvas going forward or current Canvas customers, for that matter, but we’ll update this page as more information becomes available.

Flexdrive

Flexdrive allows you to select a car via its app, pay a weekly fee — which differs from car to car — and pay for mileage on top of that. One of the benefits is that Flexdrive doesn’t make you choose up front how long your subscription will be, unlike Canvas. This, plus its week-to-week pricing, offers a ton of flexibility which might be cool for someone who only needs to travel occasionally.

Like with other subscription services, routine maintenance is included, as is insurance. But as with Canvas, you’re not getting a new car. Model years range from 2014 to 2017 and costs aren’t superlow either. A 2015 Honda Accord in Atlanta will run you either $219 per week or $876 for four weeks.

Flexdrive is currently available in select parts of Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Less

Less is a Bay Area-only service that functions much like a traditional lease with the exception that you’re allowed to change your car once per year during your three-year contract. Less also offers a monthly discount on your lease that it says will offset the $399 annual membership fee, which is, incidentally, the only money you pay to Less directly. Your monthly payment goes to the dealership from which you get your car.

Your choice of cars is pretty decent in terms of quality if not variety, with around 12 options at any given time. Less selects luxury cars and SUVs from Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, each with a sticker price more than $60,000, and negotiates rates in bulk that allow for the discount that it passes on to the customer.

Plans allow for 12,000 miles per year with an overage fee of $0.25 per mile after that. Maintenance is provided by the manufacturer’s prepaid maintenance plan, which is included in the negotiated cost of your lease. Drivers will be expected to pay for their own insurance though, so make sure that you’re factoring that into the cost.

This is a more traditional route to go for those who are fine with extended commitments and those who just want to save a little dough.

Borrow

Borrow is an electric car-only subscription service that will give you an EV for three, six or nine months at a time. Borrow functions more like a rental service since all vehicles remain the property of Borrow. The EVs that it provides to customers are all used and available in the Los Angeles area only.

Customers can currently choose from two tiers of electric vehicles, each with different pricing. The lowest-cost tier is the “City” plan. Those who opt for the City plan can choose either a Nissan Leaf or a Fiat 500e, and prices range from $499 per month for three months to $399 per month for nine months.

The next step up is the “Premium” plan. This gives users access to either a BMW i3 or a Volkswagen eGolf. This tier ranges from $624 per month for three months to $524 per month for nine months. There is a third “Platinum” tier planned that offers a Tesla Model S, but this isn’t yet available to subscribers.

Insurance is not included with the monthly subscription fee but Borrow says that it can assist with finding insurance and bundle it with your monthly payment. Maintenance and roadside assistance are both included.

Borrow is the most lifestyle-focused of the third-party options with its promises of swag bags, new products, event and restaurant discounts. While it might be good for someone who’s in Los Angeles for a predetermined length of time, with used EV prices being what they are, it’s probably not a great option for someone who is living there permanently, kind of like a furnished apartment near a movie studio.

Hertz My Car

One of America’s biggest car rental firms — Hertz –is getting into the subscription plan game with its My Car pilot program in Austin, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia. The plan will allow users to choose between two vehicle packages which start at a steep $999 and extend up to $1,399. The cheaper Tier 1 program gives users access to full-size sedans, small SUVs and small trucks, which would include the Nissan Altima, the Toyota Tacoma and the Volkswagen Tiguan.

The pricier Tier 2 gives access to the Tier 1 stuff  plus larger SUVs like the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Infiniti QX60, full-size trucks like the Ford F-150 and luxury sedans like the Cadillac CTS. Now, this is a pricey option for solidly “meh” rental cars, but the upside is that you get unlimited mileage for the length of your rental, though you will have to return your vehicle to one of the five currently participating rental locations. Is it worth it? Maybe, if you need to pile miles on a company car but your business doesn’t want to buy or lease.

Fair

Fair is another leaselike program with the benefit of being almost totally online. Users have to download the Fair app and scan their driver’s license to get approval. Fair then runs a soft check on their credit to determine the maximum payment that they’d qualify for and shows a collection of vehicles in their area that they can afford.

Again, where it differs from a lease is that the user isn’t locked into a set-length contract. Fair offers customers the option to trade up or return vehicles. Another key difference is that unlike other subscriptions, Fair asks that you make a “Start Payment” which is higher than your typical monthly payment and is linked to the overall value of the car.

Fair offers a three-day/100-mile return policy that will allow users to return the vehicle if they don’t like it, but after that or if there is any damage on the vehicle within that period, the Start Payment is nonrefundable. So beware.

Fair does not include insurance in the cost of your monthly payment, but like some of the other services we’ve covered, it will help you find insurance. Routine vehicle maintenance is included — think oil changes, fluids and tire rotations — but other expenses will come out of your pocket.

Everything else happens through the app. You make your payment through the app by linking a bank account, your vehicle documents are found in the app, etc. It seems fairly convenient, and with no obvious mileage restrictions (based on documentation), it could be a good way to go for most people wanting a car. Fair also offers a great deal of choice when it comes to what vehicles are offered, whether you’re looking for an economy car, a truck or SUV or even an EV.

Carma

Carma, based out of Detroit, has pilot programs running in Columbus, Ohio, and Chicago and is focused on the mainstream car shopper as well as the dealer/retailer side of things. While it doesn’t have a hard and fast list of vehicles that will be offered, the founders are clear that they won’t be catering to any kind of commercial customer. Lyft and Uber drivers, look elsewhere. Drivers are required to be 21 years of age and have a clean driving record.

Originally published in 2019, and regularly updated.