Peer to peer sharing of everything from apartments to cars is taking off, except when it comes to luxury cars, because they are valuable and people will steal them. That's what luxury car-sharing company HiGear discovered, after a spate of car thefts forced it to shut down. The thieves used stolen identities to boost four members' vehicles worth a total of $400,000.
That's bad news for rich people who want to rent out their cars, but not so bad for regular people, says Liane Yvkoff at CNET.
In a letter to members notifying them of the service termination, HiGear's management stated that in their analysis, other non-luxury vehicle sharing networks, specifically GetAround and RelayRides, are not as vulnerable to theft because "everyday vehicles" do not offer enough return on investment to sophisticated car theft rings.
It always sucks when some bunch of stinkers ruin the sharing economy for the rest of us, but on the other hand, a “luxury car-sharing company”? So, like, you borrow one just because you want to drive a Lexus around, since if you actually needed to get somewhere you would just use a normal car-share? Kind of good riddance.
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