The Best Cars for Turo in the UK: What Turo's Own Data Leaves Out

Turo’s own UK data says a Fiat Punto is a better investment than an Audi Q7, and that is only half the story.

If you are choosing a car for Turo in the UK, the first place most people look is Turo’s Carculator. It ranks models by return on investment using real UK earnings, and some results are genuinely surprising.

It is useful data. It is also easy to misread. The headline figures leave out most of the costs that decide whether a car actually makes you money. Here is what the numbers say, what they do not, and how to use them properly.

What Turo’s data says

Turo analysed UK vehicles listed between January 2020 and mid-2023, model years 2016 to 2023, split into three price bands. The top two in each:

Source: Turo UK Carculator. Turo’s ROI compares annual earnings to estimated loan payments on a 60-month loan at 8.5% with 10% down.

Three patterns stand out:

• Cheap, small cars do well because they get booked constantly.
• People carriers and seven-seaters do well because families and groups struggle to find them elsewhere.
• Estates beat flashier cars in the premium band because they are practical and still feel like a treat.

What the data leaves out

Turo is upfront about this in its small print. The figures exclude your deposit, cleaning, parking, maintenance, damage claims and depreciation. For most hosts, those are the difference between profit and loss.

Running costs

Road tax, MOT, servicing, tyres, valeting between trips and parking all come out of earnings. A car doing guest mileage needs tyres and brakes far more often than a private car.

Depreciation

This is the big one. Guest miles add up fast. The car you sell after two years of hosting is worth a lot less than one that did 6,000 miles a year on the school run. Cheap, older cars lose less in pounds, which is a large part of why they top the list.

Downtime

A car off the road for repairs, or waiting on a damage claim, earns nothing. Put a number on it with our rental downtime calculator.

Theft and security

Some models are targeted far more than others. A car that needs a tracker and immobiliser to be insurable or safe carries that cost too. Our theft cost calculator shows what is at stake.

Ageing data

The period covers the pandemic and stops in mid-2023. Demand, pricing and guest expectations have moved since.

A worked example

Take the top car at each end of the table. These running costs are illustrative, not quotes. Plug in your own.

Fiat Punto. Average earnings of £3,882 against £1,274 in loan payments leaves about £2,600. Take off a modest £1,800 for tax, MOT, servicing, tyres, cleaning and parking. You are left with roughly £800 a year before depreciation and any damage you cannot recover.

Audi A6 Avant. Earnings of £8,345 against £6,087 in loan payments leaves about £2,250. Running costs on a premium estate are higher, say £2,500. That puts you below zero before depreciation on a £27,000 car.

The point is not that one car is good and the other bad. Headline ROI tells you which car earns most relative to its finance. It does not tell you which one makes you money.

Car types that work in the UK

The Carculator ranks models. It is just as useful to think in types, because that is how guests search.

Small city cars

Cheap to buy, cheap to run, easy to park and booked constantly by guests who just need to get around. They work almost anywhere, but earn the least per day, so they suit hosts who want volume rather than margin.

People carriers and seven-seaters

Families, groups and visitors heading for the Highlands, the Lakes or the coast struggle to find them from traditional rental firms at a sensible price. Near airports and tourist cities, they are some of the most reliably booked cars on the platform.

Estates

Practical, comfortable on long motorway trips and roomy enough for luggage. A premium estate feels like a treat without the running costs of a large SUV.

Automatics

Worth thinking about more than most hosts do. Many overseas visitors, especially from the US, cannot drive a manual. Turo’s own rules expect guests to be competent with a manual gearbox, and a guest who is not can do expensive damage to a clutch. An automatic widens your market and lowers that risk.

Electric cars

EVs avoid emissions zone charges and appeal to guests who want to try one. But they bring their own admin: charging rules, return charge levels and guests who are nervous about range. Cold weather cuts range noticeably, which matters for winter bookings. If you are weighing one up, our EV range calculator helps you check real-world range, and be clear in your listing about how you expect the car to be returned.

How to actually pick a car

Use the Carculator to shortlist, then run every car through the same checklist:

1. Check demand where you are. Search Turo for your area and see what is listed and how booked up it looks.
2. Buy used, buy sensible. Every experienced UK host says the same thing: never buy new for Turo.
3. Check emissions zones. In or near London, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow or other clean air zones, a non-compliant car puts guests off. Our ULEZ checker takes seconds.
4. Check the car’s history. Run a vehicle check and look at the MOT history for advisories that will cost you later.
5. Price in security. Budget for a tracker on anything likely to be stolen, and an immobiliser on keyless cars.
6. Do your own maths. Earnings minus finance, running costs, depreciation and a buffer for damage. If it does not work on paper, it will not work on the road.

The takeaway

Turo’s data is a good starting point and tells you something real: practical, unglamorous cars are what most guests want. But a high ROI on a chart is not profit in your account.

The hosts who make money pick cars on the full cost, not the headline, then run them as efficiently as possible.

Picked your car? Traknova helps you keep it earning. Tracking, immobilisers and keyless handover on one dashboard, built for UK Turo hosts.

Book a 15-minute demo →