Cars by the hour?

Cars just too expensive for you?

Cabs and public transit beyond the pale?

I ran into a little scenario at the Yonge Street City Limits the other day which might be just the ticket.

First, I better explain what I mean by Yonge City Limits. It's where the northern end of Toronto used to be, at Yonge Boulevard, where Yonge Street plunges down into Hogg's Hollow, near the Miller Tavem (formerly the "Jolly Miller").

It's where the old Yonge Street street cars used to turn and loop back downtown. I grew up not far from there, and still remember the old trams...

Anyway, in the Loblaws Whole Food Store parking lot I spotted two cars, a Honda CIvic (shown) and a Mazda3 with "Zipcars" labels on them. Checking the web site (www.zipcar.com, yes, zipcar singular) it appears to be a system whereby you can rent cars as you need them, by the hour, the day or longer. It costs around $10 an hour or $65 a day, slightly more on weekends, with a $50 monthly commitment and an application fee. Gas and insurance is even covered.

When you apply you get a ZipCard which activates a digital unlocking device on the car. Drive it, return it where you got it, and Bob's your uncle.

There appear to be Zip Cars available in several North Ameican cities, and in the United Kingdom as well.

A similar system, AutoShare, is described at www.autoshare.com.

I haven't tried either yet, mainly because I live out of town.

Has anyone out there done so? If so, please let us all know.

Comments

[J. G.]

I am actually a member of Zipcar and for me personally, it is the greatest thing.

First off, regarding membership and what you described above is slightly off. There is an aggressive driver plan, where you can pay $50/mth. However, I have a less demanding membership in which I pay only $50 per year as my fee. And yes, the cars are still at the same cost. Roughly $10/hr.

For someone who does not have collision insurance coverage on their VISA (such as I do not) then renting/borrowing a car from Zipcar is a far better deal than renting traditionally. Even on weekends, when the numbers are crunched, its still a better bargain because Zipcar covers gas! Its a nice feeling never worrying about what the gas prices are when I am driving around a Zipcar.

Not to mention the simplicity of it. I go online, I reserve the car for when I need it, and voila, I pick it up. I have never had any issues with the cars. They are always there. And relatively clean, as the members do clean them when they are finished. They have every sort of vehicle for any situation. The BMW to impress (without signage on car), the Honda Element and pickups to move big items, the BMW Mini for fun.

Considering a very busy month for me of using Zipcar may amount to say $400.00 (and this is a lot of usage for me). It still beats monthly car payments ($400), insurance ($150), gas ($600), and maintenance, etc.

I highly recommend Zipcar. And no I am not an employee of Zipcar nor do I have a direct relation with someone who works for Zipcar.

Its cost are more reasonable than Autoshare. Autoshare tends to want to 'nickel and dime' you, as anyone can tell when you read through the fine print.

So if you live in the city, need a car for the odd weekend, the odd grocery run, or even driving to the other end of the city to see Mom, you cannot go wrong with the efficiency of Zipcar.

[jaspreet]

what I think is that Zipcar idea is good, not because its cheap but also because it's easy and fast.

[Jaspreet]

I really like this idea of Zip cars for many reasons. What I found very interesting is that it’s easy. We don’t have to wait in the office to get paper work done and if there are customers already then wait which can be for a minute or for hour that’s our luck. But with Zip Car we can get our car right away by using the number lock to open the doors. What else I like about this service is it's convenient. We get new model cars and at $10/hour we are covered for insurance which really surprised me because as far as I know we have to pay additional for insurance and for other coverage [on regular rentals]. However since this option is only in The United States I believe it should also be in Canada so people can save money and take advantage of the fast Zip car Service.