Uber says it can replace car ownership. My used Toyota Yaris proved its point.
An analysis comparing the costs of owning a used Toyota Yaris versus relying on ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft in Washington, D.C. The author concludes that for their specific lifestyle, car ownership was significantly more expensive than using gig-economy transportation.
Why it matters
It highlights the changing economics of urban mobility and the potential for ride-sharing to disrupt traditional personal vehicle ownership models.
I bought a used car. It was much more expensive than using Uber or Lyft. Alex Bitter/BI I bought a used car one year ago and compared the costs with using Uber and Lyft. The car was much more expensive, even though I made choices to save money. It shows why Uber says that its service competes with car ownership. No one had ever been this excited about a used Toyota Yaris. That was my thought as my wife and I picked up the keys to the car we found on Facebook Marketplace one morning in August 2025. For the first time in seven years of living in the Washington, DC area, we were car owners. It was also a rebuke of sorts for one of the companies I write about most often.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in