{"id":314135,"date":"2025-11-28T10:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/314135\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T10:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:54:11","slug":"turo-car-hire-perth-truck-salesman-earns-123k-from-side-hustle-hiring-out-luxury-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/314135\/","title":{"rendered":"Turo car hire: Perth truck salesman earns $123k from side hustle hiring out luxury cars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Truck salesman Matt Tarr has found an enjoyable side hustle that pays well, and he reckons Perth<\/a> is the perfect place to do it.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old launched a Turo business in 2023, which is a bit like Airbnb, but for cars \u2014 users can set up an account and hire out their cars for a daily rate.<\/p>\n

Mr Tarr began by hiring out his Ford Mustang on the side while working full-time as a truck salesman.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started the wrong way about it, the seasonal convertible Mustang probably wasn\u2019t the best to start with in the middle of winter but that\u2019s the one that I wanted!\u201d he told PerthNow.<\/p>\n

A lifelong car lover, Mr Tarr has worked in sales since he was a teenager, from car yards to commercial equipment, before moving into truck sales.<\/p>\n

Off the back of his side hustle hiring out cars, he now owns a Ford Mustang 2018 GT convertible, 2019 Mercedes C43 AMG, 2025 Tesla model 3, and a 2023 Kia Seltos.<\/p>\n

\"TheCamera IconThe 2025 Tesla model 3 is one of the newest additions to Mr Tarr\u2019s fleet. Credit: Turo<\/p>\n

Since joining Turo, Mr Tarr has earned more than $123,000, averaging around $5000 a month. However, he does have loans on the cars, and funnels most of the money he earns back into the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Turo came to Australia I sat on it for about six months and then I decided why not, let\u2019s give it a go. If I\u2019ve got a car there that I don\u2019t really have to pay for out of my own pocket and I get to drive it every hour and again I\u2019m happy to share it with everyone else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI use the money from Turo to pay off the loans on the cars so I can upgrade the older cars quicker, or buy an additional high-end vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a business model he learnt from a US TikTokker who built a fleet of more than 25 cars by putting all her earnings back into the business to pay off the loans and expand.<\/p>\n

Mr Tarr said that while he loves having the chance to drive around cars he once only dreamed of owning, you don\u2019t have to have a vast knowledge of cars to set up a business.<\/p>\n

\"MattCamera IconMatt Tarr says his Ford Mustang 2018 GT convertible is the one hired out most for weddings. Credit: Turo<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t necessarily need to be a car enthusiast, it\u2019s easy to start, if you want to pay cash for a car, you can buy a car for $12,000 then put it on Turo for $50 a day and build your fleet from there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Tarr aims to keep the business at a manageable size so he can balance it with his full time job which has seen him scale back the size of his fleet.<\/p>\n

He now focuses on a few luxury vehicles that he often hires out for weddings and special events around Perth, but he also loves driving them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to a point where I either needed to build heavily or scale back into doing more luxury stuff . . . there\u2019s also the bonus that I get to drive them, I love it when I get to drive my Mercedes C43 AMG home from work!\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

Perth has proved to be the perfect stomping ground for Mr Tarr to grow his side hustle as private car hire platforms are still relatively new compared to somewhere like the US where there\u2019s any style of vehicle available in any suburb.<\/p>\n

\"MrCamera IconMr Tarr is keen to expand his business to include another luxury car in the future.\u00a0 Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good thing about Perth is that the market isn\u2019t saturated yet, they\u2019ve got something like less than 400 cars on Turo . . . because there wasn\u2019t a lot of cars on the platform already, I wasn\u2019t competing with a lot of people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, the side hustle does require some hard graft; Mr Tarr has to wash the cars every time they\u2019re returned and he\u2019s also had some nightmare guests to deal with.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201cI had one case of a guest giving the vehicle to an unauthorised driver who were 18, and they were trying to do burnouts in a car park in it. But Turo were really good about it and that guest got banned from the platform,\u201d Mr Tarr said.<\/p>\n

Mr Tarr is keen to expand his business to include another luxury car in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment I\u2019m seeing where it takes me, if I can get these cars paid down a bit I\u2019ll look into getting another luxury car to add to my fleet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Truck salesman Matt Tarr has found an enjoyable side hustle that pays well, and he reckons Perth is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,1625,46,45],"class_list":["post-314135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-lifestyle","tag-perth","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}