Michael Chuang argues that Motor Envy's car-subscription service is economically superior for a typical consumer because of greater transparency and elimination of trade-in uncertainty. He explains Motor Envy discloses all costs (startup, upfront charges, monthly payments, maintenance), contrasts this with hidden or uncertain costs under traditional ownership—especially unpredictable resale/trade-in value—and defines "total cost of ownership" as purchase price + financing costs + maintenance/service + transaction/exit costs. He issues a challenge/guarantee that a customer's calculated total cost of ownership will be lower than the cost of a Motor Envy subscription for the same car.
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Another reason why I'm just so confident that the Motor Envy subscription service is a better option than buying a car for a typical consumer is that the economics are simply better. At Motor Envy, we believe in total, complete transparency. You will know exactly how much you're going to pay down to the penny of your car, the time that you subscribe with Motor Envy, everything from the startup cost, the upfront charges, as well as your monthly payment for as long as you keep the car. Being as transparent as we are, it is actually a disadvantage to us because we tell you every penny that you're going to pay. You know when most people, in fact when everybody goes and buys their car, you don't truly know how much money you're going to pay. You know how much money you're paying as far as the sticker price or what's on the dealer invoice. You may even know how much money you're going to pay when it comes to financing your car and the interest rate. Probably don't know how much you're going to pay maintenance or unexpected repairs while you have the car. But the one thing you definitely do not know is what the car is going to be worth when you're done with it. Look, within the car business, it is well known that dealerships make most of their money on customer trade ins. When you have an existing car and you go buy a new car, guess what? The profit on the new car is relatively small. The profit is all in your trade in. They're going to lowball the crap out of this trade in and that's how the money's made in this business. When you have a Motor Emmy subscription, you never have to worry about a trade in ever again. So to be fair, I will enable this challenge. If you take your total cost of ownership, which is defined by the purchase price of the car, plus the financing costs of the car during your ownership, plus all the maintenance and service you have to pay for the car, plus the cost that you have to pay to transact and get out of the car at the end. That is your total cost of ownership. And if you take all those costs and add it together, I will guarantee you is lower than the cost it would be from Motor Envy for your car subscription.
