What car ownership during a global pandemic looks like
In February 2019, the New York Federal Reserve board reported that a record 7 million Americans are 3 months or more behind on their car payments.
This was before COVID-19 and the global pandemic hit.
Yesterday, the New York Federal Reserve Board released it’s Q2 2020 report on Housing Debt and Credit with the first numbers on auto loan debt since shelter-in-place orders took place across the country.
According to the report, individuals aged 18-29 and 30-39 are the highest at-risk for serious auto loan delinquency.
Turo was interested to see if our peer-to-peer car sharing community was feeling a similar financial pressure. So our team conducted a survey that evaluated the impacts of COVID-19 on our host community.
Two pieces of evidence stood out:
About 60% of Turo hosts are offsetting the costs of car-ownership during the global pandemic.
Turo is providing significant economic stability for hosts ages 25 to 34. These hosts are the highest at-risk age population for auto-loan default according to the New York Federal Reserve Board.
Not only do hosts ages 25 to 34 make up 40% of Turo’s marketplace (with the 35-44 age group as a close second at 37%), of the 26% of hosts who said that they rely on Turo to make their car payments each month to avoid delinquency 41% of those hosts were aged 25 to 34 years old.
Of the hosts that said that they do not rely on Turo for monthly auto loan payments, the largest majority of those hosts were also ages 25 to 34 years old and use their Turo earnings to offset the cost of car ownership, pay off student loans or credit card debt, or add to their personal savings.
So what does this mean? Americans who are the most financially at-risk for owning a vehicle are turning to peer-to-peer car sharing to help cover their monthly auto loan or to provide a supplemental source of income. Turo is economically empowering the most at-risk age group and continuing to provide economic opportunity during times of financial instability.
Even during a global pandemic, Turo is a proven and innovative way to ease the financial burden of owning a car.