Starting a small, independent rental car company may rank somewhere between opening a restaurant and buying a boat on the list of historically terrible financial ideas. But one TikTok creator who had his mind set on buying and deploying a small fleet of cars found out just how quickly things can spiral out of control and create a financial catastrophe.
Creator and hopeful entrepreneur Kevin (@kevvekev1011) shows us up close how much damage a careless and possibly intoxicated renter can do, with a video that opens on a black Buick Envista that looks like it was the loser in a series of demolition derbies. We learn that two of the nine cars he’d purchased have been totaled, but he said in a follow-up video that he’s not giving up.
“Within the first two months … totaled,” he said while showing a badly damaged Buick Envision in the clip that’s been viewed more than 419,000 times.
Rental Apps Promise Financial Windfalls
While Kevin never explicitly names the platform he’s using, the structure of his business strongly suggests he’s operating through the growing peer-to-peer rental market popularized by apps like Turo, where independent owners purchase vehicles and rent them directly to customers. Over the past several years, social media has become filled with videos pitching the idea as a scalable side hustle or small business opportunity, with creators documenting how quickly they can build fleets and generate revenue.
