I didn't believe it until I saw it on the web. One shop I went to recently had changed its name, The new owner said it had been called rent-a-rim.
What, people are renting rims?
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Yes, it's true. It's not enough that people rent furniture, when they could buy it at Goodwill Industries for much much less, or that they rent TV's when at least before digital, they could buy a new 14" color for $60. But they are also renting rims, for 40, 50, 56 dollars a week for four. That's almost 2100 to over 2900 a year,
Although some or all of it is rent-to-own, which is also verryyy expensive. "My job is my credit."
And btw, the bigger rims rent for more when bigger rims give a a worse ride. Yes indeed, bigger rims with the same radius tires have a shorter sidewall, and it's the sidewall that soaks up most of the bumps.
"Low aspect ratio tires" aren't about a softer ride. They're for the performance buff who wants more responsive steering and cornering. That is "better handling". You see, sports cars generally have a lower center of gravity so that they can take corners at higher speeds than a sedan. Normal tires are a weak link when it comes to hard cornering because the sidewalls flex a lot so that you don't really feel the road through the steering wheel in a corner. The low aspect ratio tires don't flex nearly as much, so you have a better "feel" for the road in a corner and, presumably with experience, can better judge how far you are from going into a skid. That's an important consideration to a race car driver, but how many of us drive like that on our daily commute to work? How many of us could afford to drive like that on our daily commute to work with all the traffic tickets we'd get.
But, it's like everything else. The vast majority of us don't drive like we're racing against whomever is in front of us, so we'd never really appreciate the difference the tires make. A guy who uses a hammer once every few years to drive a nail to hang a picture would do well with a $3 claw hammer from Wal-Mart. A professional carpenter who's driving nails all day long is able to discern the subtle differences between different hammers, and is willing to pay $60 for an Estwing hammer because of those subtle differences in how it feels in his hands and how well it performs. It's the same story with tires. A professional race car driver would appreciate the difference in handling, but most of us wouldn't. But, of course, selling only to professional race car drivers is a very small market, so the vast majority of these tires are sold to "wannabe" race car drivers that figure they've got a fast car and are willing to dish out a lot of money on it because they think it's going to make it perform better.
I fully agree that for the average person, these tires aren't necessarily desireable, and they'd do better by buying normal tires that last longer and cost less. But, that's not the people these tires and rims are marketed to.
In Winnipeg at least, low aspect ratio rims are much more likely to be damaged by our magnificent potholes.
Still, you have to agree that there is a small business opportunity in renting rims and low aspect ratio tires for those who want to try these kinds of tires out before buying them. How else would one make a well informed decision on whether to spend $2000 or more on something like this? It would make sense to spend $200 renting them for a few months before making the commitment to spend $2000 buying them.
Why screw around with half measures? Leasing a BMW is essentially renting the whole damn car. Of course, in an era of $50,000 pickups, many people are renting it from the bank. The only difference is the size of the vig.
People that lease cars will almost always be able to claim the cost as a deduction against their income. A real estate agent, for example, will use his car to drive prospective home buyers around to the different houses he's commissioned to sell, and he doesn't want to be doing that in a old jalopy. Much of the trust he tries to instill in his clients relies on their perception that he is "successful" in what he does, and he can't do that if it appears he can't afford a second pair of shoes. He wants them to believe that he makes a very good living selling houses so that his clients figure that he knows what he's doing and that they would do well to follow his advice. So, he'll lease a brand new car every year to make it look like he can easily afford a nice car. But, the cost is a business expense and is deducted against his income, if he has enough income to cover it.
Companies will lease cars for their sales people. My sister used to be a sales representative for Nordic Pharmaceuticals. She'd have to drive up to Flin Flon and Thompson in Northern Manitoba every so often, and you can be a good 20 or 30 miles from the nearest phone on some stretches of that road. So, the company would provide her with a new car every 2 years, and she would also use it for her own personal use. The company would claim that as a business expense on their corporate return because their sales people need reliable cars to make visits to the doctors in remote communities.
I don't think anyone actually leases cars just to be able to drive a new car all the time. The one exception might be Justin Bieber who rents a Lamborghini every now and then to drive around Hollywood like a maniac. From what I heard, one of the players on the Los Angeles Rams saw Bieber racing through his neighborhood and figured he'd chase him down because he was endangering the kids in the area. He chased Bieber down, pulled him out of his car and gave him a few good smacks, but Bieber's "people" said it was someone else Bieber had lent the Lamborghini to that was driving like that. Bieber's people also insist it was someone else that threw eggs at Bieber's neighbor's house, too.
From the NY times In 2013, leasing has accounted for 26 percent of new-vehicle purchases, according to Edmunds.com. In the years before the recession, leasing accounted for 16 percent to 20 percent, with activity focused on high-end cars and trucks. The average monthly lease payment was $408, down from $416 last year, according to Experian Automotive, which analyzes automotive data.
At Sunnyside, leases make up one out of three vehicles sold at the dealership?s Chevrolet, Toyota, Honda and Mitsubishi marquees, Mr. Frye said. That rate is up from one out of five vehicles sold 18 months ago.
The dealership?s luxury Audi brand continues to sell about 60 percent of its vehicles through leases, which is in line with the high-end automaker?s usual business. But the real growth in leasing has come from the $199 monthly payments offered regionally this summer on the Chevrolet Malibu, Honda Accord and Toyota Camry midsize sedans, Mr. Frye said.
Rims are a fashion statement, and they go in and out of fashion, which is why these guys get customers who absolutely have to have the latest dubs, but who will want to trade to a different shape in a month or so.
I think it's silly, but then I've been driving the same car with the same rims for twenty years and clearly I don't keep up with the latest thing. I did at one point have to change rims when they stopped making TRX tires.
BY LAW in Canada if she uses the car for personal use she needs to keep track of all miles driven and claim the vehicle use as a taxable benefit.
The VAST majority of leased vehicles are leased to normal people who get no tax advantage from leasing. It is advertized and pushed as a way to budget because you always know what your vehicle costs are,, as well as a way to keep your capital unincumbered, and to avoid having to "borrow" money.
There is a BIG difference between "renting" a car for a short term and "leasing" a car. A lease is a long term contract with large penalties for breaking the lease. They are generally for periods of 3 years or more - but MANY people "roll over" the lease after 18 months or 2 years to get a new car.
Not to mention the fast tire wear when you drive a "performance" tire close to the edge.
Most of the young guys who buy ultra low profile tires or oversize rims buy them to "make a statement" If it became stylish to run on narrow bicycle tires, or 95 aspect ratio tires on tiny rims, that's what they would pay stupidly high prices for.
When you sign the contract to rent the tires a lien is registered against your vehicle, so if you don't pay the rent you don't wake up to find your car without rims, you wake up to an empty parking space because your whole car has been reclaimed.
Same in the US since about the mid 80's when the IRS started to crack down. I let my leased company car go and took a car allowance instead. It was a nice benefit up to then.
By law, a benefit bestowed by a company on: a) an employee, b) an officer of the company, or c) someone to whom an officer of the company wanted to bestow a benefit on,
has to claim the value of any benefit received from that company as income on their tax return.
So, you are correct. The value of the personal use of a company car by an employee would be a taxable benefit.
However, no where in the Income Tax Act is there a requirement that someone driving a company car for personal use keep a log of miles traveled for personal use and miles traveled on business.
The CRA undoubtedly recommends people keep such a log, but that's to make the CRA's job easier. No where does the Income Tax Act require such a log book be kept.
I expect that without such a log, the onus would be on the taxpayer to refute the CRA's estimate of the value of the benefit received by the employee. Still given the small liklihood that a person will be audited, few people keep such a log.
The probability of being audited varies considerably between businesses and seems to also vary inversely to the amount of documentation a taxpayer can produce - - -
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