Blank Canvas: Ford Ditches Vehicle Subscription Business

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy

Just a short time ago, vehicle subscription services were hailed as the second coming, permitting drivers the freedom to select from a range of vehicles for a single monthly payment. Proponents touted it as a way for manufacturers to display their wares and for buyers to sample a wide array of cars. Opponents said OEMs could potentially lose money by having all these used cars on hand.

It would seem the latter is beginning to prevail with a cadre of companies getting out of the subscription game faster than an aging athlete getting traded to another team. Fair, the $1.2 billion startup company backed by SoftBank, just picked up Canvas from the Ford Motor Company.

Canvas, in case you have forgotten, was a vehicle subscription company based in (where else) San Francisco as a subsidiary of the Blue Oval. It was directed at consumers looking for an alternative to car ownership, offering subscription terms of as little as three months to provide the use of a car bundles with insurance and maintenance. It was founded less than three years ago.

Fair itself is billed as a “forward-thinking alternative to traditional car ownership”, so the purchase makes sense if the company is seeking to expand its footprint or simply quash a competitor. The company’s website currently offers options ranging from a 2015 Ford Fiesta for $150 a month to a 2018 Mercedes-Benz GLE 350 for $800/mo.

Alert readers will note these are not brand-new cars. That Fiesta includes a dose of warranty and routine maintenance with “no long-term contract and the freedom to walk away at any time.” An upfront fee is due at signing and the car is registered to you as Lessee.

Ford says Canvas provided vehicles for about 3800 subscribers in San Fran, L.A., and Dallas. Fair, meanwhile, got its start four months earlier than Canvas in 2017. Despite the small differential in age, Fair has found much more success, rapidly growing its subscriber base to more than 45,000 customers across 30 markets. Existing customers of Canvas will be ported to Fair and the sale apparently includes all the cars.

Count this as yet another nail in the coffin of OEM subscription services, schemes which seem to blow through new cars leaving a trail of depreciation in their wake. An argument can be made that customers who use these services don’t care if they’re driving a new car, explaining the success of Fair versus some manufacturer programs.

Ford CEO and noted sunhat enthusiast Jim Hackett has explained in the past that not all bets made by the company will pay off, including a shuttle service called Chariot that it binned last year after sinking $65 million into buying it in 2016.

[Image: Ford]

Matthew Guy
Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

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  • Lokki Lokki on Sep 13, 2019

    If this is such a great business plan, why aren’t the major car rental companies up to their, ah, trunk lids into it? They already have the fleets, and all the ‘back of the shop’ infrastructure.

  • Sgeffe Sgeffe on Sep 15, 2019

    Regarding the be-tatted whatever in the picture: as I’ve said, I think I went into the wrong field! Dermatologists are gonna be able to write their own tickets removing that within the next decade!

  • Dave Holzman A design award for the Prius?!!! Yes, the Prius is a great looking car, but the visibility is terrible from what I've read, notably Consumer Reports. Bad visibility is a dangerous, and very annoying design flaw.
  • Wjtinfwb I've owned multiple Mustang's, none perfect, all an absolute riot. My '85 GT with a big Holley 4 barrel and factory tube header manifolds was a screaming deal in its day and loved to rev. I replaced it with an '88 5.0 Convertible and added a Supercharger. Speed for days, handling... present. Brakes, ummm. But I couldn't kill it and it embarrassed a lot of much more expensive machinery. A '13 Boss 302 in Gotta Have It Green was a subtle as a sledgehammer, open up the exhaust cut outs and every day was Days of Thunder. I miss them all. They've gotten too expensive and too plush, I think, wish they'd go back to a LX version, ditch all the digital crap, cloth interior and just the Handling package as an add on. Keep it under 40k and give todays kids an alternative to a Civic or WRX.
  • Jpolicke In a communist dictatorship, there isn't much export activity that the government isn't aware of. That being the case, if the PRC wanted to, they could cut the flow of fentanyl down to a trickle. Since that isn't happening, I therefore assume Xi Jinping doesn't want it cut. China needs to feel the consequences for knowingly poisoning other countries' citizens.
  • El scotto Oh, ye nattering nabobs of negativism! Think of countries like restaurants. Our neighbors to the north and south are almost as good and the service is fantastic. They're awfully close to being as good as the US. Oh the Europeans are interesting and quaint but you really only go there a few times a year. Gents, the US is simply the hottest restaurant in town. Have to stand in line to get in? Of course. Can you hand out bribes to get in quicker? Of course. Suppliers and employees? Only the best on a constant basis.Did I mention there is a dress code? We strictly enforce it. Don't like it? Suck it.
  • 1995 SC At least you can still get one. There isn't much for Ford folks to be happy about nowadays, but the existence of the Mustang and the fact that the lessons from back in the 90s when Ford tried to kill it and replace it with the then flavor of the day seem to have been learned (the only lessons they seem to remember) are a win not only for Ford folks but for car people in general. One day my Super Coupe will pop its headgaskets (I know it will...I read it on the Internet). I hope I will still be physically up to dropping the supercharged Terminator Cobra motor into it. in all seriousness, The Mustang is a.win for car guys.
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