Anyone who grew up in the late 1980s and early 1990s pretty much expected everything to be virtual by now. Our comics and sci-fi movies all confidently predicted that, this far into the 21st century, we’d all be donning our headsets, plugging in our food tubes and setting off to work or on holiday without ever leaving our rooms.
As you may have noticed, that hasn't happened (unless of course this really is The Matrix in which case why don't we see more of that nice Mr Keanu Reeves around?) and in spite of increasing connectivity between human, computer and smart devices, we do still have to leave our houses quite a bit if we want to do anything. The real world remains disappointingly un-virtual.
However, there is a way in which virtuality is increasingly going to play a part in our lives and it’s in our ownership of cars. Clearly, you can’t download a car but you can own one virtually, if you remove that word from its strictly cyberspace-related sense. As with all futures, this is one that won’t arrive suddenly, popping into existence some random Tuesday morning, fully formed, but one which will come about bit by bit, trickle by trickle. In fact, it’s already begun . . .
Extraneous chores
Virtual car ownership means having the benefits of using a car when you need and want to but, potentially, without the hassle of actually having to go out, buy it, insure it, tax it, have a parking space for it, or generally do any of the boring, extraneous chores that surround having a car.
While hire-by-the-minute services such as GoCar already give members access to cars, parked for free on urban streets, on an ad hoc basis, these services are limited, work on a first-come-first-served basis and, if you have a long journey in mind, be prohibitively expensive, thanks to 45c per km mileage charges.
No, this brave new world is coming about through the auspices of old-fashioned car rental firms. These companies are moving beyond their traditional airport desks and realising that there are potential customers out there who need cars other than for holidays.
George O'Connor, managing director of Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Ireland, told The Irish Times that "in the last year we have seen a huge increase in demand for 'virtual' cars, especially from people who work and live in the city centre. Very often these professionals already have a car at their disposal, but have a short-term need – travelling to a meeting or going on a weekend away – for which a rental vehicle has a number of key benefits.
“They can take advantage of very attractive weekend rates and services, they know they’re getting a fully-serviced and valeted new car with all the latest technology, which also gives them an opportunity to make a really positive impression, for example on clients or business prospects. A virtual car can also help save on costly mileage expenses.”
Currently, Enterprise can rent you a small car (a Ford Ka or Fiat Panda or some such) for the princely sum of €15.99 a day on the weekend rate, which runs for Friday to Sunday. There are no mileage limits (unlike the car-sharing schemes which charge by the mile) and all you pay for on top is to have an extra driver added to the insurance (€10 per day, but that's only for pretty basic third-party cover) and, of course, the fuel, which has helpfully become rather cheaper of late.
Run that daily rate out to a full month though and you’re looking at about €500 – and that’s for a pretty basic small car, albeit one you don’t have to pay the insurance and tax on.
Bubble payment Still, Volkswagen can offer you a similarly sized Up for €139 a month on PCP, and while you’ll have to come up with a deposit and bubble payment for that, it shows that, for now, renting is only better value if you only need a car for a few days a month. It’s an option for those who live near or on decent public transport routes.
Not quite owning a car is about to become very big business indeed, as it’s predicted that the way we buy vehicles is soon to become much more akin to the way we buy mobile phones – we’ll sign up to a service, rather than buying single, specific car.
"Consumers, especially what you might call the younger, 'direct debit generation', have become accustomed to buying a large range of often high-priced products and services on a pay-monthly basis. Phones are the obvious example but there are many other sectors where this is now prevalent – from software to medical insurance and entertainment. Why not cars?" asks Rupert Pontin, head of valuations for influential car residual experts Glass's.
As well as consumer buying habits, leasing is growing because car makers across Europe are extremely keen to keep their factories operating at somewhere near capacity. To achieve this, they have been offering extremely attractive lease deals to buyers of new cars since around the time of the credit crunch.
Car leasing
“Since 2012, the number of buyers opting to lease their car has risen significantly. Once buyers start leasing, they tend to switch permanently. The chances of them opting to buy their next car, either outright or with a loan, is low.
“Against this backdrop, a low-cost monthly lease payment for your vehicle makes a lot of sense to more and more people. It is a trend that we can see no reason will lose momentum or reverse. Owning a car will very likely become a thing of the past for most.”
To the Irish psyche, ever-obsessed with owning rather than renting, this may sound as far-fetched as those VR head- sets seemed in the 1990s, but it really is already happening.
Most electric car leases include some option of access to a conventional petrol or diesel car for longer journeys, and electric car sales jumped by 400 per cent in Ireland last year. Companies from Peugeot to BMW to Audi are experimenting with hugely flexible personal lease options where you pay a monthly fee and, essentially, drive whatever you want, whenever you want. A frugal diesel for the Monday to Friday commute – a slinky sports car or rugged off-roader for the weekend.
Like most changes to motoring that have been raised and foreshadowed this past decade, this is one that requires us to be more active, better organised consumers. But this is one virtual future that is very real.
'An opportunity to drive a car better than my day-to-day car'
Declan Pierce, a presenter with 104FM, is one who has made a partial switch to virtual car ownership. "It was a conscious decision – very much so. It was purely a convenience thing. It was an opportunity to drive a car that was better than my day-to-day car," he says.
It started purely by chance, and in a way I couldn’t have predicted – I hurt my left arm badly while playing football. Changing gears became painful even when I recovered, so I rented an automatic from Enterprise and suddenly I was hooked on the idea of car rental for short periods.
"My other job [aside from FM104] is fronting the McGettigan's Group of global bars as a brand director. This involves a large amount of travelling both here and abroad. I drive to places like Letterkenny and Limerick, and before a work trip I rent a brand new automatic and suddenly a work trip becomes very luxurious. I enjoy the drive and I enjoy the experience of the brand new car for a short-term period. It's actually a lot of fun.
“I’m lucky that I work my own hours and this gives me lots of freedom. However, the process only takes a few minutes to sort. If I have a work trip on Monday, I call the company and request my car for the week ahead, usually on the previous Thursday or Friday . . . it’s as simple as that. I’ve never been stuck for my choice of car.
“I purely rent every so often as a treat for longer journeys. As I say, it makes life on the road a little more relaxing when you know you are driving a brand new fully-serviced car.”
Declan still has his own car at home but prefers to use these quick and easy rentals to save wear and tear on his own wheels, or merely for a bit of motoring novelty.
