Zipcar / urban carshare programs and various alternatives to them: S/D//C/D

Have used Zipcar (NYC) for a couple of years now. Rates seem to have gone up to kind of a ridiculous degree -- cheapest cars are like $12 an hour on Thursday thru Sunday. Day rates are well north of $100. At the same time, includes gas which is about $3.80 right now in the city. Also there's the convenience factor of picking up and dropping the car off near your home and with no paperwork or counter.

Have recently tried renting cars from the airports as an alternative -- last two cars I rented were $16 and $38 per day (of course, not including gas), respectively. At the same time, had to get to the airport -- first time I cabbed to LaGuardia, which adds like $20 each way (although still was worth it for the weekend). Second time did Subway to JFK (you still have to add $5 each way for air train to get to the rental site, plus an hour each way subway, even assuming you have an unlimited metrocard and don't have to pay extra subway).

Nothing is ever easy or a good deal in this city, it seems.

well, the bikeshare system will be here in a year and will be easy and a good deal. as is a monthly subway pass. neither gonna help you w/ IKEA trips tho.

How did you know?

Goddamn man, I am trying to buy this Ikea bed right now. Shipping it is $100 (which is like an extra 30% of the price of the bed) and takes 12 days. Delivery services want $60-90 just to drive the thing to my house if I go buy it, and like $120 to actually go get it for me. Renting a Uhaul would probably run $50 with mileage and gas, and I need to find someone other than my pregnant wife who can help me carry a heavy-ass flatpacked bed. A taxi van will probably run like $30-35, and again I'd have to have someone help me carry the thing. Maybe I just need better friends.

I would prob go w/ the taxi van and better friends

zipcars are a bit nicer than regular rentals. also, they are insured and have parking spaces -- so that adds to the price. in fact, often the total price works out about the same as it would for regular rentals when you add insurance and parking fees to the lower quoted price.

But I think you can only park a zipcar free in the place you got it from, no? Or can you actually park one in another zipcar garage, do your errand, run back to the garage and then take the car back to the original rental site?

Also a lot of credit cards insure rentals, and I've heard the coverage on zipcars is pretty week anyway.

yes, only the place where you got it. but that's all i've ever needed whenever i've used for zipcar.

as for insurance, Amex is best for that ... but even they don't insure for 3rd party damages. i've never had to rely on zipcar insurance (or rental car insurance), so knock on wood.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2011/09/car-sharing/216/

I only signed up to Zipcar because there was a Groupon for free membership + $30 driving credit. I don't own a car and really don't need one, but if I want to do a day trip, regular car rentals are fairly priced (I use hotwire.com usually) even with insurance and gas. The only downside is you can't always just get one for 24 hours on the weekend as it depends when the rental place is open, so you have to pay for an extra day.

Zipcar was great for an afternoon but I was sweating it getting back on time. I really want to know how they judge if you're late - I got back on time on the dot but as there was no-one waiting to use it I opened the car for an extra 5-10 mins to look for something inside and to try and work out what one of the lights on the dash was indicating.

It's nice and flexible and convenient - no messing around with car rental idiots - but you don't pay any less for it. Cheapest in SF is technically $7.75 an hour but most are $10 - $12. Would be great if they had GPS too but I guess I could get my own if I wasn't moving away in the next 6 months.

Oh and there's a thing called Re1ay Rides starting up in SF right now, where you rent your neighbour's car, so they're not even putting extra cars on the road. No idea how efficient that is though.

zipcar is pretty great, you can pay $75 a year for the no-liability insurance, worth it imo.

prices are that high because it's in the city - I bet zipcar is paying through the nose for those parking spaces. if you ever compare the cost of a zipcar to the cost of buying and maintaining your own car, zipcar wins. not paying for gas is huge!

the best is having a friend with a car whom you ply with beer and video games.

I use Zipcar plus Car Rental. Even in Pittsburgh I can't Justify owning a car, it's so much cheaper and so much easier not to. Most often we use the overnight deal (18:30 - 8:30 for $34+tax ~ $42) works out great for running errands then doing dinner and a movie.

Have you tried City centre rental locations? Always worked out pretty well in London and continues to do so in Pittsburgh. Sometimes there is a rate differential with renting from the airport but generally the cost of getting to the airport and the convenience outweigh this (sometimes the rate is cheaper than the airport).

It is harder to use hotwire, orbitz etc. to shop around for in town rentals and you don't get the really cheap operators, normally just Hertz, Avis and National. National, in pittsburgh at least, will send a car to pick you up and take you to the rental location. ALso you almost certainly have a membership of something that gives you a discount with Hertz or Avis; Frequent Flyer, AAA, professional association etc.

do taxis and taxi vans still hang out at the loading dock of ikeas? or did they ban that

Whatever happened to rent-a-wreck? You could rent a junker van for a day or two so you could pick up furniture or whatever. The problem with rentals is that they are often really clean and nice and if you are doing unformal things like picking up junk and dropping it off you might get it dirty. It just seems like society has a problem with affordability of anything.

I wound up hiring some man-with-van guy off craigslist for $45.

The last couple of months I've actually gotten to the point where it might actually be cost-effective to own and insure a cheap used car, especially since we could also save money on groceries by making costco runs. Some of that might just be because I moved recently and have been making a lot of car runs. Also if we finally get our crap out of our old storage and into the storage place on our block we won't need a car to get back and forth to there anymore. Meh.

there are a lot of hidden expenses in owning a car. you never know when the transmission is gonna give and you're $1500 in the hole.

i used to work for one of these organizations

but now you bike

no, i biked ~for~ them

also now i just steal dns

don't do it hurting, people with cars in brooklyn are literally the worst people on the planet

there will be a point at which you wont need to go to ikea every weekend

and you wont save enough on costco groceries to pay for gas/insurance/inevitable parking tickets

I am very imminently to be a carless Angeleno. Stoked, tbh.

carless angelenos are really the coolest people

Thanks iatee I think u r cool too

I've used iGo for years. There is zip car here but it was always more expensive.

The last couple of months I've actually gotten to the point where it might actually be cost-effective to own and insure a cheap used car, especially since we could also save money on groceries by making costco runs. Some of that might just be because I moved recently and have been making a lot of car runs. Also if we finally get our crap out of our old storage and into the storage place on our block we won't need a car to get back and forth to there anymore. Meh.

― Disraeli Geirs (Hurting 2), Monday, October 3, 2011 9:13 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

thinking about this, the effect might be psychological. $200 insurance + $100 gas + $50 parking per month vs. zipcar trips that cost $30-50 a trip = 7-10 trips a month. the zipcar route feels more expensive because it's granular, you're aware of handing money over each time you rent. not to mention the initial $1-3k outlay to get a cheap beater car, not to mention any mechanical problems that will pop up with a beater car (unless it's a civic)

carless angelenos are really the coolest people

― iatee, Tuesday, 4 October 2011 03:46 (10 hours ago) Bookmark

sounds like a guy from california

so you're allowed to check in up to 14 minutes before your actual appointment; I checked in 15 minutes prior and they charged me an extra half hour

contested it and won but, jeez, cut yer customers a break!

carless angelenos is the gonna be the name of the protagonist of my great american novel