What started out with three vehicles and 50 members has grown to 40 rides and nearly 1,500 members for the Peg City Car Co-op.
“At first it was a bit of a trickle. We had some moments we saw a bit of growth but it was moderate growth for the first five years. The last couple years we have seen really significant growth where we are seeing year over year growing 30 per cent,” Philip Mikulec, operations manager said.
“We’re at 40 cars now but in the next two years things, if they keep growing they way they are, we could be at 100 cars.”
How it works is people buy a membership, and then pick up and drop off the vehicle at set locations. They currently have cars, vans and trucks in their fleet.
“A lot of people own a truck and they use the truck for the purpose of a truck once a year,” Mikulec said.
“Our truck is being used for the purpose of a truck most of the time.”
Ginny Collins has been a member of the co-op for four years and said she joined to save money and reduce her carbon footprint.
“I think what I spend on the car co-op in any given year is maybe slightly more than car insurance alone would have been — the savings is huge. That allows me to put more money into travel, into my house. The savings has been extremely noticeable,” she said.
The cost of owning a vehicle is more than just its sticker price. When you factor in things like insurance, gas and maintenance, CAA found that owning a car in Manitoba costs an average of $8,300. That rises to $10,000 for a truck and $11,000 for an SUV each year.
“The largest cost is depreciation, which is something people don’t think about because it’s not like it’s dollars and cents coming out of your account, but depreciation has to be factored in,” said Kristine D’Arbelles of CAA.
“Even if you are going to resell it you likely won’t be able to sell it for what you purchased it for.”
D’Arbelles added that even if you don’t have a loan on your car, there are still expenses.
“If they don’t have a car payment they kind of tap themselves on their back and say ‘yay’ and there’s this nice weight off your shoulders. It’s nice you’ve paid off your car and you don’t have any car payments anymore, but you do have many other costs that go into owning and operating a vehicle.”
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