Turo cars that can make you $10k or more per year

Renting cars on Turo is a repeatable process: clean the car, take pre-trip photos, set up or deliver the car, retrieve the car, take post-trip photos. And repeat for the next guest. So why not aim to get paid as much as possible for doing these same steps over and over?

That was my train of thought when we decided to expand our Turo fleet. When researching which models to purchase, I started with Turo’s Carculator and identified all models that can earn at least $10,000/year in my area (NYC / NJ / Long Island). Turo provides additional data points for estimated values and annual return on investment (ROI), but I decided to dig a little deeper and do my own research using actual prices found at local dealerships on Cars.com (I took an average of all available listings).

Turo’s estimated values are based on pricing data for model years 2018 – 2024. It incorporates new and used vehicle prices and represents an estimated mid-point price across all trims. It does not include taxes, registration fees, or dealer adjustments.

I use slightly different criteria when searching for cars. I only consider models that are three years old or less (so 2021 or newer), with less than 12,000 miles/year (so 36,000 max), no accidents, and clean titles. This results in far fewer available models for purchase, and likely a higher mid-point price than Turo’s estimates.

Next, I used a metric usually reserved to determine whether the price of a stock is high or low based on a company’s earnings, P/E ratio, and applied it here to each model. I sorted my list based on this metric to identify the cars with the best price to earnings ratio (the lower the number the better). This results in models that provide the best bang for the buck.

We ended up buying a few models from this list: BMW 228i Gran Coupe, Ford Bronco Sport, and Volkswagen Passat (only because I was able to find one for the price of a Jetta). I will report my actual earnings for these models one year from now to see how accurate Turo’s estimates are. I had my own reservations about some of the potential earnings listed below for certain models, like the Chevy Trailblazer. I looked at available listings on Turo and didn’t see anything that would lead me to believe it could generate $10k a year.

Earnings potential is only one metric among many you should use when considering which cars to buy. Don’t forget about reliability, resale value, performance, consumer reviews, and even intangible things like the type of activity a certain model might attract (off-roading, excessive speeding, etc.). Poor reliability scores turned me away from the Volkswagen Taos, for instance.

Definitely use your own judgment before purchasing anything on this list, and do your own research for your area! This is not advice, just my own research methodology that I decided to share.

While it is time-consuming to gather all this data, anyone can do this for their local market. And when making such a big investment in your business, more research is better than less. Here are the results: