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From self-driving cars and electric vehicles to the decline of the traditional sedan, the auto industry is grappling with change on many fronts today, and the retail side is no exception. Upstarts such as Tesla and its direct-sales model are challenging the established dealer-franchise model, and now, consumers have a new alternative to buying or leasing a car.
Vehicle subscription services are proliferating among automobile brands and third-party companies. It’s a novel idea: Pay a flat monthly fee for your car that typically covers insurance, routine maintenance and roadside assistance, and cancel when you’re done. There’s also the ability to swap for a different model or a newer version of the same model.
Subscription providers tout their services as simplifying the car-buying or -leasing process, with no haggling and much smaller down payments. The services also render a car’s depreciating value irrelevant, since it simply goes back to the subscription provider when you’re done.
Subscription services are targeted to millennials and other consumers who need a vehicle but aren’t necessarily interested in ownership; as solutions for people on temporary work relocations or others for whom a long-term lease makes no sense; or simply for enthusiasts who find the ability to drive multiple different models appealing. In some cases, companies tout the services as being less expensive than traditional leasing, once you factor in insurance, free oil changes and tire rotations and other things. But many of them, frankly, are expensive. It’s perhaps no coincidence that luxury brands were among the first to embrace the trend.
Here’s a rundown of what’s on offer and what may be coming soon.
Access by BMW
BMW launched its Access by BMW as a pilot program in the Nashville area in April 2018. It gives you access to luxury sedans such as the 330i, plug-in hybrids like the 530e iPerformance, crossovers like the X5 xDrive35i and performance cars such as the M5, with the ability to switch vehicles as often as you like, or to keep the one you have as long as you want.
There are now three membership plan tiers: Icon, at $1,099 a month; Legend, at $1,399; and BMW M, which costs $2,699 and offers access to the automaker’s top-of-the-line M performance models. There’s a $575 activation fee at first delivery, and you can move between plans at any time, with your monthly fee prorated accordingly. You can also pause your subscription at any time for a $200 fee.
Membership includes insurance ($1 million liability policy with a $1,000 deductible for drivers), maintenance, full-detail washes and roadside assistance, and there’s no limit on switching vehicles. You make your requests via a mobile app that asks you about your needs, and a concierge delivers a vehicle that suits those needs, freshly detailed, fully charged or filled up with fuel, to you at your desired time. You can cancel at any time, and BMW says it will end your subscription after the current month expires. Mileage is capped at 2,000 per month.
Autoblog’s verdict: It ain’t cheap, even by BMW standards. But if money isn’t an issue, the ability to switch in and out of Bavarian luxury vehicles is definitely a novelty.
Mercedes-Benz Collection
Launched in 2018 in Nashville and Philadelphia, Mercedes-Benz Collection works with a mobile app, which you use to apply for membership and request a vehicle to be delivered by a concierge wherever you like. You can flip vehicles as many times as you like, and you’re also encouraged to rate your experience with each vehicle to help the service better match you with the right car. There are no mileage limits, and maintenance, roadside assistance, insurance and flips — again, unlimited in quantity — are included. Insurance includes $1 million in liability insurance coverage, $2,000 medical payments to offset any out-of-pocket or deductible costs, and a $1,000 deductible.
A $495 activation fee starts you off, and there are two membership plans: Signature, which runs $1,095 a month, and Reserve, which costs $1,595. The former features vehicles such as the Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 sedan, the GLC 300 SUV and the SLC 300 Roadster, while Reserve offers the AMG C43 sedan, the GLE 350 SUV and the AMG SLC 43 Roadster. Vehicles are within the three most recent model years, and you’re free to move between plans, with your monthly subscription fee prorated. You can also pause it for a $200 fee. The program has a minimum 32-day commitment.
Autoblog’s verdict: Slightly more affordable than its prime German competitor, Mercedes appears to have dropped a more-expensive Premier tier, which carried a monthly bill approaching $3,000. Your move, BMW.
Audi Select
Audi picked the Dallas-Fort Worth area to launch its subscription pilot, which it calls Audi Select. Five models are on offer: the A4, the A5 Cabriolet, the S5 Coupe and the Q5 and Q7 crossovers, all from the current or prior model year. For $1,395, you get two swaps per month, or a maximum 180 days in any single vehicle, plus unlimited mileage, insurance, maintenance, 24/7 roadside assistance, full car detailing with every swap and so on. Also included is two travel rental days per month from Silvercar, which offers 25 locations in 19 cities. At the time of this writing, the company was also offering the first month free for new members with a three-month commitment.
Audi Select membership is a 12-month commitment, but you can cancel at any time free of charge, so long as you give at least seven days’ notice before the end of a monthly billing cycle. Insurance is up to $300,000 liability, with a $2,000 medical payment in Texas and $1,000 deductibles for both comprehensive and collision.
Autoblog’s verdict: Pairing the service with Silvercar is definitely a nice perk if you travel regularly.
Canvas
Canvas, a subsidiary of Ford based in San Francisco, says its mission is to rethink car ownership to meet the needs of modern drivers. For now, Canvas is limited to Los Angeles and the Bay Area, and while it offers mostly Ford and Lincoln vehicles, models from other brands are available, with lightly used, off-lease vehicles that stretch back a few model years. There’s also a newer Lincoln + Canvas program that fuses some of the benefits Lincoln offers to its customers, including concierge support and access to the Lincoln Way app.
Users are directed to Canvas’ website, where you pick a car and subscribe for anywhere from one to 12 months, with lower rates for longer commitments. You can either pick up your new wheels or have them delivered. Insurance covers up to $300,000 in individual liability and $5,000 in medical payments and carries $500 deductibles for comprehensive and collision coverage. Maintenance is covered at approved service locations, including parts and labor (pickup and delivery are free for 2017 Lincoln drivers). When your subscription ends, you can renew it or simply walk away, with a unique guarantee that offers a full refund if you’re not satisfied within the first three days. There’s also a referral program that offers both existing and new members $150 in credit.
Pricing is a bit more complicated than many other subscription services. It’s based on the type of vehicle, of course, but also the length of your subscription — again, with lower rates the longer your commitment — and how much you drive. So you start by picking your vehicle segment, starting with sedans at $329 a month and going up to luxury Lincoln vehicles at $509 per month. Then you decide how long you want to subscribe, with a 12-month term adding $50 a month and a single-month subscription running $375. Then you pick your mileage plan. The 500 miles-per-month tier is free, while you can pick 850- and 1,250-mile-per-month tiers up to unlimited, which tacks on an extra $100 each month. And yes, you can switch mileage tiers on the fly.
What’s that all mean? If you pick a sedan and go the cheapest route — a 12-month plan capped at 500 miles per month — the cost is $379 per month. On the other hand, if you want a luxury vehicle for just a month with unlimited mileage, it’ll set you back a cool $984.
We searched for cars using the San Francisco Bay Area as our location and didn’t find anything less expensive than a 2015 Ford Focus SE sedan for $355 a month (the Ford Fiesta, priced at $329 per month, was said to be “coming soon”). There also were, when we checked, no Lincoln models in stock, with larger Ford SUVs such as the Explorer and Flex topping out the range.
Autoblog’s verdict: Finally, a subscription service for the masses! As long as you don’t mind driving older-model vehicles, this service appears well-suited to consumers who are uninterested in traditional vehicle ownership but aren’t a part of the so-called 1 percent. Keep in mind that Ford is phasing out sedans from its lineup, so assuming Canvas has a long-term future, it seems safe to assume the selection of Ford passenger cars will dwindle over time, though that’s probably several years away.
Porsche Passport
https://www.porschepassport.com 
As you might guess by now, Porsche’s subscription service isn’t cheap, but it does offer you access to a lot of great cars and fun driving, with no mileage limits and unlimited flips. There are two plans, both of which include base and S models. Launch costs $2,000 per month and features eight variants of the 718 Cayman, 718 Boxster, Macan and Cayenne. The other plan, Accelerate, costs $3,000 and offers 22 variants. It offers the four Launch models, some in higher-performance versions, plus the 911 Carrera and the Panamera. All are from the current model year.
As with many other services, the program will pick the perfect vehicle for your needs, which you enter into an app, if you want to go that route. Insurance coverage is $1 million liability coverage, plus $300,000 for an uninsured motorist, $2,000 medical payments and a $1,000 deductible. You can keep a vehicle for as long or as briefly as you want, and you’re free to move between the different plans. A $500 fee to join is nonrefundable.
Autoblog’s verdict: Sure, it’s priced well beyond the means of most of the common proletariat, and many of these cars can be leased for far less. But it’s not every day that you get the opportunity to swap Porsches as your daily driver, with no limits on mileage. Porsche also added two new programs called Porsche Drive and Porsche Host that allow you get behind the wheel for anywhere from four hours to a week. In addition to being pricey, Porsche Passport is currently offered only in Atlanta, home to Porsche’s North American headquarters. Another drawback: There’s no ability to pause your membership. Proof that nothing, reader, is in fact perfect.
Book by Cadillac
https://www.bookbycadillac.com 
Book by Cadillac was one of the first luxury-vehicle subscription services when it launched in March 2017, but it’s currently on hiatus and is not accepting new members. Cadillac opted to “temporarily pause” its $1,800-a-month service effective Dec. 1, 2018, after it said the service proved more costly than expected.
However, it’s expected to relaunch sometime in the first half of 2019 and lean more heavily on the luxury brand’s dealer network for things such as business operations, maintenance and repairs. Not a lot is known yet about how it will look, but Cadillac has said the service will relaunch as a pilot program in select cities, with less of a focus on customers being able to swap vehicles. The original program allows up to 18 vehicle swaps per year, but Cadillac said it saw fewer customers doing that than it expected.
Autoblog’s verdict: TBD
Care by Volvo
https://www.volvocars.com/us/shopping-tools/purchase/care-by-volvo 
Volvo announced its subscription program at the 2017 L.A. Auto Show, tying it to the XC40, which launched the following spring. It’s since added the S60 sedan. The vehicles are currently offered for monthly payments starting at $700 and $750, respectively, for 24 months, or an extra $100 for R-Design versions. There’s also a $500 deposit to get started.
Subscriptions come with a 15,000-mile per-year cap, and you can switch to a newer vehicle after 12 months by renewing for another 24 months. You get 24/7 concierge service, maintenance, wear-and-tear replacements for things like wiper blades and brakes and insurance coverage through Liberty Mutual with $250,000 bodily injury protection per person and $500,000 bodily injury coverage per accident, with a $500 deductible for both comprehensive and collision coverage.
Autoblog’s verdict: Care by Volvo is one of the few subscription services that isn’t geographically limited, though the two-year commitment may put off some customers. While the monthly rate has increased somewhat since the program was originally announced starting at $600, it’s still a relative deal. Care by Volvo also offers the ability to purchase the Volvo after the subscription runs its course.
Lexus Complete Lease
https://www.lexus.com/lexuscomplete/ 
“Don’t call it a subscription” seems to be the order at Lexus, which describes its new Complete Lease service as a “full-service lease program” exclusively for the new UX subcompact crossover. It’s offered through roughly 80 dealers in seven states: California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
Complete Lease includes a two-year term with a total of 20,000 miles allowed. You get all scheduled maintenance, two years of connected vehicle services including SiriusXM satellite radio and Lexus Enform Remote Destination Assist on models equipped with navigation. Insurance is through Travelers with a $500 deductible, a $250,000 per-person and $500,000 per-accident bodily injury limit and $250,000 property injury limit, with other rates and coverage that vary by state.
There’s no word yet on monthly rates; Autoblog sought that information from Lexus to no avail. But we know that the UX is the most affordable Lexus model, starting at $33,025 for the UX 200 and $35,025 for the hybrid UX 250h. Both are offered under the program.
Autoblog’s verdict: It’s hard to fully judge without pricing information. But from our personal experience, it can be tough to keep within a 10,000-mile-per-year limit. The two-year term also makes it less flexible than other services.
Jeep Wave
https://www.jeep.com/jeep-wave.html 
Currently more of an owner-loyalty program, Jeep says it plans to expand Jeep Wave into a subscription program sometime in 2019 in the northeastern U.S. It’ll reportedly offer Good, Better and Best tier plans — nothing like truth in advertising — with different options for insurance coverage and concierge services. It also plans to launch a borrowing service to encourage Jeep owners to try out other Fiat Chrysler brands, including Dodge, Alfa Romeo and Maserati.
There are no prices yet, and we don’t know what vehicles will be offered or what’s included.
Autoblog’s verdict: TBD
Carpe
Carpe is Jaguar Land Rover’s subscription program, open to drivers with good driving records and offering all-inclusive, 12-month plans that cover insurance throughout Europe, roadside assistance, unlimited mileage and a new vehicle every year. It’s currently offered only in the U.K., with insurance provided by Allianz (or you can use your own) and a vehicle excise tax included.
Pricing starts at 491.67 pounds per month (around $633 as of this writing) for a Land Rover Discovery Sport SUV and tops out at 941.67 pounds ($1,200) for a Range Rover Sport. (Yes, there are Jaguar models offered too, including the e-Pace and XF.) You also pay a 250-pound placement fee, plus value added tax.
Autoblog’s verdict: The pricing doesn’t sound too bad, especially at the lowest tier, where it’s comparable to Care by Volvo. And it’d be nice to be able to cruise anywhere in Europe. But, of course, it’s not available stateside. And with Jaguar Land Rover facing red ink as well as thorny issues over Brexit, well, we’ll just have to see what happens.
Mobiliti
Mobiliti offers new and recent model-year pre-owned cars, trucks and SUVs from a variety of brands. Subscriptions start at $450 per month (or maybe $549; read on below) and include insurance, routine maintenance, limited warranty, roadside assistance, vehicle registration and title and license. There’s no cost to join, you can commit for as little as one month and you’re allowed to swap vehicles once every 30 days. Mobiliti operates the service with dealers, touting it as a way to move inventory, including used cars, control pricing and generate new customer leads. It also offers a Mobiliti for Business service for companies that need a fleet or vehicles for employees.
It’s reportedly operating in Austin, Texas; New Jersey; New York City; Florida; Virginia; and Pennsylvania. For consumers in the Detroit area, where the company is based, it reportedly touts its service to people who are in the area on temporary assignment and don’t want to be tied to a long-term lease.
Autoblog’s verdict: There’s not a lot of concrete detail offered on Mobiliti’s website, compared with other services. But this seems like a sensible value worth pursuing. The one-month minimum commitment is undeniably attractive.
Flexdrive
Atlanta-based Flexdrive partners with dealerships in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, New Jersey, Northern California, Philadelphia, South Florida and Virginia, with more locations to come. You apply for membership — users must be at least 25 years old, a requirement that the company says helps keep insurance costs affordable — and find vehicles through a mobile app. You can subscribe to a vehicle for as little as seven days, or as many as 28 days at a time, with unlimited renewals. Vehicles are mostly full- or midsize late-model sedans and compact vehicles, though SUVs are also available, and some locations may offer luxury cars, trucks and hybrids. Deposit amounts vary by dealership and the type of vehicle, and some markets include mileage caps.
Monthly prices start in the $400 range for vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf, Toyota Corolla and Mini Cooper and range into the $900 range, where you can choose from options such as the Infiniti Q40, Ford Mustang or Volkswagen Tiguan. Like Mobiliti, you pick up your vehicle at the participating local dealer. As a member, you’re also the only one allowed to drive the car, since you’re the only one covered under the insurance plan.
Autoblog’s verdict: With the flexibility built into its subscription plans, Flexdrive appears to be an attractive and aptly named service. But since you’re working with dealers, swapping vehicles may be less convenient or quick than other services where concierges deliver cars to your door.
Fair
Touted as a “commitment-free” and paperless end-to-end solution, Fair uses a mobile app, through which customers get prequalified using your driver’s license and bank account. The company then runs analytics to determine your eligibility and the range of monthly payments you can afford. Then you shop for cars in your area, pick one and sign for it in the app. You pay a start payment that varies by what you’re pre-qualified for and the vehicle you select, and it applies each time you subscribe to a new vehicle. Fair helps coordinate delivery or pickup.
The service offers more than 30 different brands, all pre-owned or certified pre-owned cars, trucks and SUVs from participating dealers. All are less than six years old, with less than 70,000 miles on them. And there are some real deals in the mix: We found options as low as $105 a month (a 2015 Nissan Versa and a 2017 Mitsubishi Mirage), though you can go much higher than that with cushier vehicles, reportedly including a McLaren 570S for around $4,000 a month. You’re also charged a one-time start payment on each car that is based on the value of each vehicle.
Plans include a limited warranty, 24/7 roadside assistance, routine maintenance, insurance with a $500 deductible (or you can use your own) and protection against damages such as minor dents, worn tires and chipped windshields. Most vehicles are limited to 10,000 miles a year, though you can pre-purchase extra miles and be refunded if you don’t use them all.
Autoblog’s verdict: There’s a lot to like here, starting with the affordable prices and a policy that allows users to opt out at any time. You also get your payment prorated if you return your vehicle in the middle of a billing cycle, and you have the ability to return a car for a full refund within three days and 100 miles. Fair also offers widespread availability, with dealers in at least 28 cities, northern Virginia and statewide in Connecticut and New Jersey.
Inride
Inride is offered exclusively in the Washington, D.C., area. After paying a $500 nonrefundable joining fee, you use the Inride mobile app to request a range of vehicles that are heavy on European imports, your needs matched with the perfect vehicle, dropped off by a concierge. You can flip cars as often as you like and keep a car as long as you want. When you start, you pay for the first 31 days, with membership renewed automatically if you don’t otherwise cancel. You’re free to move between plans, with your fee prorated, or you can pause membership for a $200 fee.
Three tiers are offered: Premier, which runs $995 a month; Ultra, at $1,495; and Supreme, which costs $2,295. The tiers offer access to upscale vehicles including the Ford Mustang, Porsche Panamera and Tesla Model S, respectively.
Subscriptions cover 1,500 monthly rollover miles — that’s 18,000 miles a year — with any unused miles rolled over for each month that you continue for up to two months (miles above that cap carry a 50-cent per-mile surcharge). You also get unlimited flips and insurance, with a $1,000 deductible, $1 million liability coverage and $2,000 for medical payments. The company advises members who get into an accident to dial a number in order to have a fresh vehicle delivered; they’ll then handle everything with the damaged vehicle.
Autoblog’s verdict: This one’s definitely aimed at a more well-heeled crowd — but hey, that essentially describes much of D.C. these days, right? If you can afford it, though, the unlimited flips policy means access to a lot of fun cars. The flexible terms on membership length is definitely appealing as well.
Drive Flow
Drive Flow, which bills itself as “like having a multicar garage at the push of a button,” is offered in the North Carolina cities of Raleigh and Winston-Salem. It offers full subscription plans — any car you want with the ability to flip between makes and models at any time — or a single-vehicle plan in which you subscribe to a single make and model. The latter is called Prospector. It runs $899 a month and includes access to either the BMW 3 Series, Volkswagen Atlas or Audi Q5, with a monthly limit of 1,000 miles. You can flip for free once a month, so long as it’s the same make and model. Or pay to upgrade to a multivehicle plan.
There are two multicar plans: Pioneer, which costs $1,099 a month (vehicles include the Audi S5, Volvo XC60, Acura MDX and Chevrolet Silverado), and Adventurer, which runs $1,599 (Jaguar XJ, Porsche Macan, Chevy Corvette and more). Mileage for these plans is capped at 1,200 miles. You’re free to move between plans any time, with a prorated monthly fee, and you can pause your subscription for $400.
Drive Flow follows the concierge model in which you can tell the app about your needs and Drive Flow will match them with what it considers the perfect vehicle. And the concierge coordinates drop-off with you. Insurance coverage includes $1 million in liability and $2,000 in medical payments, with a $1,000 deductible. There’s a $500, nonrefundable join fee and a minimum one-month commitment, though you can cancel at any time with 30 days’ written notice.
Autoblog’s verdict: Drive Flow’s two multicar plans offer a nice variety, though again, they’re on the pricey side. Being able to go month-to-month is also nice. Another plus: Unused miles can be rolled over for three months at a time, which is helpful if you need to do a decent amount of driving.
Yoyo
Currently in pilot phase in San Francisco, Yoyo bills itself as an on-demand, pay-per-mile subscription service through which you can drive any car you want and swap it at any time, all for less than the cost of car ownership. When you’re done with your car, you can either drop it off at Yoyo, or press a button in the app to signal that it’s ready for pickup. Membership includes comprehensive insurance, repair and maintenance, roadside assistance, ability to add a second driver and discounts for referring other subscribers.
The service says it’s using its pilot program to work out the kinks before launching in other cities and is not yet accepting members. But it has audacious goals, saying it has a plan to cut driving costs by 50 percent for 10 million members in 10 years. It is accepting founding members through a reservation program. Yoyo also appears to have launched a few crowdfunding efforts in the past.
Autoblog’s verdict: TBD
Less
Less claims that its service costs at least 15 percent less than any traditional lease — a bold claim, especially considering that the company says all payments, outside of a $399 annual membership fee, go to other entities. The San Francisco-based company says it negotiates to get the best value from dealerships, manufacturers and banks, and passes the savings along to members. “You can think of us as Costco or Netflix for cars,” it says on its website.
Members commit for 36 months, with the ability to drive a different car each year for up to three vehicles. You learn pricing after credit approval for your first vehicle, and all vehicles include a prepaid maintenance plan from the manufacturer that includes drop-off at a participating dealer and a free loaner vehicle while your car is in service. Mileage is capped at 12,000 miles per year. The service is limited to the Bay Area, with a fleet of 2017 model-year BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi vehicles listed on its website, all with sticker prices of around $60,000.
Autoblog’s verdict: Three years is an eternity among subscription services and may turn away some prospective customers, such as people on temporary work assignments. It’s hard to fully judge Less without more information on what it costs.
Borrow
Unique among its competitors, Borrow offers short-term leases of electric vehicles for a flat monthly fee that incorporates maintenance, charging credits and 1,200 miles per month. There’s no down payment, but a reservation fee is applied to your first month. One thing not included? Insurance, though they say they can help you find coverage.
Subscription terms are flexible, with three-, six- or nine-month terms offered. At the end, you can simply end your plan, continue a new one or change plans, of which there are four offered. With City, you can choose a Fiat 500e or Nissan Leaf. Campus offers the Smart Fortwo electric drive. Premium gets you into a BMW i3 or Volkswagen e-Golf, while Platinum offers access to the Tesla Model S. Prices become more affordable the longer you commit. They start at $399 a month for a nine-month City plan, or $499 a month for three months, while getting into a Model S in the Platinum plan starts at $1,499 a month. For now, the service is limited to Los Angeles.
Autoblog’s verdict: Borrow’s prices seem reasonably in line with leasing when you factor in the lack of a big down payment, and the different membership term lengths hold appeal. But the lack of included insurance is a knock. Bonus points for the novelty of focusing exclusively on EVs, though that business model and the scarcity of EV charging infrastructure also probably limits where this plan can be offered geographically, if indeed Borrow catches on and expands.
Carma
Detroit-based Carma, which is part of the Techstars Mobility business accelerator, offers a subscription platform directly for consumers, though it also offers consulting and in-car telematics services for companies that want to get in on the subscription game.
For consumers, it offers a wide array of vehicles and brands, plus the ability to swap vehicles once a month, with plans built around mileage driven. A 500-miles-per-month plan starts at $499, 800 miles starts at $549 and a 1,200-miles-per-month plan costs at least $599, with each extra mile costing 40 cents. As with other services, maintenance and insurance are built in, but there are no details about the latter. There’s also no down payment.
Founder and CEO Azarias Reda told TechCrunch in 2018 he envisions the service fitting somewhere between traditional car-rental services and car-sharing services such as Zipcar on the one hand, and the high-cost commitment of car ownership on the other. “Millennials are the biggest consumer of leases,” he said. “They’re already driving this notion of, ‘I want to access this vehicle but not necessarily own it.’ Subscriptions combine those desires.” It reportedly has pilot programs running in Chicago and Columbus, Ohio.
Autoblog’s verdict: Prices appear relatively reasonable, although the least expensive, lower-mileage plans will limit the pool of customers to those in cities or those who have very short commutes. Based on limited available information, Carma appears to offer a fairly wide array of vehicles.
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