Everyone talks about Turo income. Fewer people talk about the full cost picture. Here's an honest breakdown of what it actually costs to run a rental car business.
Turo income calculators and YouTube earnings breakdowns tend to focus on the revenue side. The reality is that your net income — the number that actually matters — is revenue minus costs, and the cost side has more items than most new hosts expect. Here's the honest, complete cost picture for a Turo operation.
The platform takes 15–40% depending on your protection plan. On a $75/night rental, you're keeping between $45 and $64 before any other costs. This is the most visible cost and hosts typically factor it in. But it's just the beginning.
If you clean yourself: factor in your time at whatever you value your hour at. If you hire out: $30–$60 per clean is typical for a standard turnover, more for deep cleans. For a vehicle doing 15 trips/month, that's $450–$900/month in cleaning alone. This is one of the biggest costs most new hosts underestimate when running their initial projections.
A vehicle used for rentals accumulates mileage 3–4x faster than a personal vehicle. Oil changes every 3–4 months instead of annually. Tires every 18–24 months instead of 4–5 years. Brake pads more often. A realistic maintenance budget for a rental fleet vehicle is $150–$300/month, including oil changes, tires amortized over their lifespan, and a buffer for unexpected repairs. This assumes no major mechanical failures — those are a separate contingency budget item.
Your car is worth less every mile it accumulates. A Toyota RAV4 that you paid $32,000 for might be worth $24,000 in two years if driven 40,000 miles as a rental. That's $8,000 of depreciation — roughly $333/month. Most hosts don't put this number in their monthly cost sheet, but it's real money that affects your net worth even if it doesn't come out of your bank account monthly. When you sell the vehicle, you'll feel it.
Beyond Turo's plan (which is built into their commission), if you carry any supplemental personal or commercial insurance, that's an additional monthly cost. Even if you're relying entirely on Turo's coverage, make sure you've done the math on what deductible exposure you carry and budget for it.
If you send cars out full (you should) and guests don't return them full, you're eating the fuel cost difference. If you offer delivery, your time and mileage are costs. If you have a vehicle that's frequently low on fuel when returned, either enforce your fuel policy more firmly or factor the top-up cost into your per-trip expenses.
Take your monthly gross revenue. Subtract Turo commission. Subtract cleaning. Subtract maintenance (monthly average). Subtract depreciation (monthly estimate). Subtract any insurance premiums. What's left is your actual net income — and it's typically 35–55% of your gross revenue. For a vehicle earning $1,200 gross, net is realistically $420–$660. That's still meaningful money, but it's important to have the real number when making business decisions about how many vehicles to run and at what price point.
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