If you’ve ever rented a car, you’ll know to expect an itemised bill with various fees that you don’t ever remember opting into. These might include charges for insurance policy coverage, toll fees, the use of a GPS, taxes and of course, the price of petrol.

How much time does your car spend idle? Instead of it soaking up registration and depreciation, why if it could earn you some money? That’s the idea behind DriveMyCar - a service that links drivers to cars that would otherwise gather dust.

Having a car sit in the driveway costs you money. By the time you factor in an annual service, registration, insurance and depreciation, you can easily find thousands of dollars leaving your coffers before you've driven a single kilometre. This is where services like CarBar+ come to the fore. Rather than you owning the car, you pay a regular fee, that starts at $169 per week and have full-time access to vehicle for as long as you need it. All you need to pay for, after the fee, is fuel. All the maintenance, registration and insurance is covered in the fee. I tested the service for a month, trying three different vehicles. Here's what I learned.

DriveMyCar is offering a guaranteed $2500 per year for owners who rent their cars out through their platform. While there are some qualifying criteria, that $2500 minimum can be boosted to as much as $1750 per month depending on the value of your vehicle. Here's how it works.

It's the Australian dream; home ownership and a decent set of wheels parked out the front. But just as the equation on home ownership has shifted, with housing affordability being smashed, the same is happening with car ownership. The cost of owning a car, even before you start driving it, is pretty high. But new subscription and rental services, that give you access to a car, with the option of swapping out when you're bored, are emerging. So what's better, owning a car or having access to one whenever you want?