Hence taxi companies charging drivers $80 a day to rent them?

$80/day * 20 days per month = $1600 / month, which is like 10x the cost of a lease for, say, a Prius. Meanwhile, Uber drivers can use their own car for any other purpose. Even factoring in gas and insurance it's hard to believe taxi drivers are getting a better deal.

Lease a mid-size sedan and paint it yellow. Then buy it out because you will be saving tons of cash over the lease period. Depreciate in value for something like this is dumb.

We are not talking about fully loaded S500 MB's here.