People's Car Co-op

[c9]

Despite sounding vaguely Socialist (the great Red Menace awakens!!), the idea of Car Co-ops seems to be catching on in many areas (thanks for the reminder, skaughty!). KW has one, and it sounds like a really good deal. The only down side is the lack of guaranteed access (i.e. if I suddenly need a car, they might already be booked). But otherwise, it seems really cool: no paying for gas, no paying for insurance, no paying for maintenance, repairs, or even freakin' carwashes.

Does anybody have any car-share experiences, good or bad, they can share?

http://www.peoplescar.org/pages/howworks.html

Comments

[jdhorner.livejournal.com]

if i remember to do so, i will tell you about Zipcar (www.zipcar.com) and how amazing it was in boston.

[c9.livejournal.com]

Hey Josh! Don't forget to tell me about zipcar! According to
www.carsharing.net
Boston and Montréal are the two most successful North American cities for car sharing! Over 4000 members and 3500 members, respectively.

[jdhorner.livejournal.com]

ok. at home now, time for elaboration.

toby was able to procure a membership with zipcar for FREE through his law firm that he worked for. e.g. they paid for the membership and deposit fees. we paid only for the actual usage. it worked like this:

you go online, tell it where you are, and it shows the closest 5 cars and their hourly rates, which range anywhere from 6.50 to 12.00/hour, depending on where the car is parked (downtown highrise? higher cost. south-end alley, lower cost).

the grid also shows what times those cars are open for. find one that's open for when you want it, click the reserve button, and that's it!

you walk up to the car at the alotted time and wave your magnetic-encoded membership card at the windshield. the doors unlock, and you're good to go.

when you're done, you bring the car back, park it, and when you get out, you wave your card again, and the doors lock and you walk away.

less than 1/4 tank? you have to fill it, for free, using the gas card in the glove box.

you can reserve a car from WAY in advance (which most people do NOT do, but you can, if you want) all the way up to just 30 minutes before you need it. (i think. they may have changed it so you can reserve up to minutes before... i dunno).

if you're going to cancel a reservation, you have to do it 2 hours before. if not, there's a small fee (like $5 or something).

but yeah, it rocks.

there were two plans if i remember correctly: one that was like $75 for the year, but you pay also for the usage. the other was like $32/month, but that PAYS for the first $32 of usage, "free". it's basically a not-frequent vs. frequent user plan.

both plans require a $300 deposit on the membership, which you get back when you cancel. (that, and the membership fee, are what were waived via the firm).

any more questions? zipcar.com has a great site. start clicking!! :-)