BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

the no one way trip thing is all that's holding me back from zip car. I don't want to drive somewhere, spend the day, drive back, and end up paying for a whole day.

They structure the pricing for exactly what you want to do bikelove2010. If you use the car for more than 6 or 7 hours, you are better off paying for 24 hours (a day). It is still way cheaper than renting from a rent-a-car place considering insurance and gas is included. You only get 180 miles per day of driving for any zipcar reservation, so it isn't as if you can drive for 24 hours straight anyway (well, you could, but you'd have to go real slow).

So, theoretically, I could reserve the car for two full days, drive to Erie (roughly 100 mi) on a Saturday, spend the night, and drive back on the Sunday? And still have ~100+ miles to chase around Erie during the day up there? That sounds like a sweet deal to me. Is that do-able?

Yeah, for ~$150.

Yes. That is perfectly do-able. Weekends cost a small percent more than than weekdays, but you could pick the car up Friday night, drop it off Sunday night and drive 360 miles in between. I checked for next weekend, and there are at least 3 cars walking distance from Oakland available to do just that. If you want it for more than a few days in a row, you have to ask the Zipcar guys permission, but I am guessing they wouldn't have a problem with it in our region.

For the Oakland area cars, the site tells me it would cost $164.96 for 48 hours over a weekend. A bit over $20 of that is taxes.

It stinks that zipcar is taxed the same as any other rent-a-car. I imagine that tax is mostly to screw the out-of-towners, but zipcar is primarily used by people who can vote in the region.

Avis at the airport wants somewhere between $45 and $200 for the same time period (depending on whether you're getting an Aveo vs. a huge SUV), plus the usual slew of taxes and other add-ons. It's been years since I rented a car, but I remember those add-ons being non-trivial. Plus you're paying for your own gasoline. So, I'd guess the numbers are screaming distance comparable.

Some of that tax is paying for your transit system, btw.

Dwillen For the Oakland area cars, the site tells me it would cost $164.96 for 48 hours over a weekend. A bit over $20 of that is taxes.

It stinks that zipcar is taxed the same as any other rent-a-car.

Why?

This last weekend, I got a conventional rental car for 2 1/2 days and 700 miles for $132 plus gas.

Being able to do that lets me more easily live without owning a car.

Why should that be taxed if you let the green-imaged Zipcars go without the tax?

I just got a membership to Zipcar. Not sure if it will work well for me. Years ago, Flexcar did not help me economically live car-free, so I dropped it.

Taking a weeekend trip to Erie? There's a chance Zipcar might be more convenient or less expensive than other rentals. I'm guessing Zip is pricier.

The Avis franchise owner's mom lives on my block. Where does the Zip owner live?

Zipcar's marketing targets you. Don't let influence you too much. As lesson to the perplexed: Unsafe SUVs market to the security concerns of unaware people.

Caveat: advertised rental car rates do not include fuel, city, regional, state, federal taxes, surcharges or anything else. And of course, nobody advertises what those taxes and surcharges are.

I didn't say zipcar users should not pay ANY tax, I am upset it is taxed the same way as any other traditional rent-a-car. I'm not necessarily upset that they have a rental car tax on zipcar, but that the tax is some daily rate for any rental period. So you rent the car for one hour, its no longer $8 an hour, it is $8 plus a $4 tax (the same $4 tax that you would pay for a whole day at Avis). It was a tax that was not designed around the car sharing model, unfortunately. If I rent the car an hour in the morning, and again for an hour in the evening, I pay the $4 tax twice.

While I don't doubt they exist, I can't think of any other tax you pay the same for whether you get 1 or 24. Or pay double if you get 1+1, rather than 2.

@almklm Caveat: advertised rental car rates do not include fuel, city, regional, state, federal taxes, surcharges or anything else.

My $132 this last weekend for 2 1/2 days included all taxes and surcharges. It did not include fuel.

I do this. This is not a hypothetical for me.

If a Zipcar trip to Erie actually gets billed for $148? Then is roughly equivalent to other car rental.

Cheaper - IF there are no other charges (membership fees, exorbenant late fees, etc).

Given that you drove 700 miles, I would recommend against zipcar. I'd say that is outside the target usage pattern. I'm guessing it would cost around $280 with zipcar, including fuel.

So, my trip to Erie might work, but a trip to Buffalo in the same timeframe would not, even though it's only four more road hours. Why? Because I'm now up to about 400 to 450 miles, round trip, call it 500, which is way beyond the 180x2(days) Zipcar limit.

A two-day rental within a two-hour radius makes sense, as would a 24-hour rental within about a 75-mile radius. And sub-24hr trips within the metro area. That pretty much describes 99.5% of my car usage, if I lived closer to town. Once or twice a year I might go beyond Erie. For that, I look up the regular rental companies.

Additional miles are charged at a rate around $0.45 a mile, it is not a hard limit, just the "free" limit.

You get 180 miles even if you rent for 2 hours.. Drive fast, Stu.

@Mick - I'm still a little burnt by a recent rental experience - and I don't do it very often, so I mistook the "advertised" rate as representative of the real cost. I guess I figured there would be some taxes, etc., but the taxes and surcharges practically doubled the cost.

Then they don't have whatever car you reserved, 5 weeks prior, and you end up with a 15 mpg SUV behemoth and you're stuck with the gas bill at the end. Oh, and make sure you show up during business hours to pick up and drop off that car.

Yea, I'm totally brainwashed by zipcar marketing, that or the traditional rental companies make for a particularly horrible consumer experience.

yeah, dwillen my car rental experiences have been similar. It's like the reservation is optional in their opinion.

Moving trucks are even worse. If you only need a 10 foot truck and they "upgrade" you to a 18 foot truck it does not make moving day more pleasant.

Dwillen, I don't know whether you are "brainwashed" or not.

Answering that question is easy though.

Are you speaking from your personal experience with Zip car? That is not brainwashed.

I do want to hear the details of the ways Zipcar has been helful to you. I think if learn to use it the exact right way, they could be sueful for me, too.

Or are you speaking theoretically? In your posts, you say "their site says." Not "my experience has been". I'm really not interested in how helpful, economical, and convenient their site says they are.

I doubt that Zipcar are either more, or less, honest than the most impersonal conventional renting.

I go to a mom-and-pop (Johnna and Angelo) franchise at Baum and Melwood. It makes a difference to how I feel. I'm pretty sure that if I shopped around each time I rented, I get better deals sometimes. I'd get get hosed other times.

If somehow I really got a bad deal from Angelo and Johnna, I'd get in their faces. I believe they would try to make it good. I suppose I could be just deluding myself with that.

It makes sense for traditional renting most of the time I rent - two week vacatrions and such. Not what Zipcar is for.

It has surpised me how well traditional renting works for times when the flex car arrangement SHOULD work better, though.

I really need to give Zipcar a try. I'd love to be able to sell my car and just use that, but I suppose trying it out is a good first step. I'm just worried that (a) I don't like being on a schedule and (b) it will bug me to go somewhere and still be paying by the hour for the car to sit there.

I know (b) really shouldn't be an issue, if I add up the full cost of owning a car over a year vs the amount I'd spend on a Zipcar, I'd probably come out ahead. It's just hard to get past that mental block.

That tax thing is BS, I wasn't aware of that. I'm not sure they should be exempt but at least it should be proportional to the rate. 50% tax on a 1 hour rental is ludicrous!

It was a tax that was not designed around the car sharing model...

The tax is certainly unfair to companies like Zipcar. Getting it changed? Rotsa ruck.

I really need to give Zipcar a try. I'd love to be able to sell my car and just use that, but I suppose trying it out is a good first step. I'm just worried that (a) I don't like being on a schedule and (b) it will bug me to go somewhere and still be paying by the hour for the car to sit there.

I know (b) really shouldn't be an issue, if I add up the full cost of owning a car over a year vs the amount I'd spend on a Zipcar, I'd probably come out ahead. It's just hard to get past that mental block.

about two years ago, i was thinking of selling my car and just going with the bike and rentals for road trips. i just couldn't pull the trigger for a number of reasons, some of which you allude to. but then my car got stolen, and all i've had was the bike. since then, all i've needed was the bike. i don't know jack about your lifestyle, but if you think there's a chance you could go car-free, i just want to say that it'll almost certainly be easier than you think.

I say "their site says" because sometimes prices change, and I just logged in and clicked reserve, to get an accurate total with taxes and such included.

My better half and I signed up for zipcar about a year ago when we were having significant car troubles with our shared 13-year-old car (I'd say its shared about 5% me, 95% her). She commutes between our house in Greenfield and Greensburg, the Waterfront, and Highland Park, sometimes all in the same day. Car free is a bit difficult, at least until the end of this year.

I used my UPMC employee discount to sign up. They gave me my membership costs back in the form of driving credit. We're both members and they linked our accounts. This means either one of us can reserve and pickup a car, and either one of us can drive the car (since we are both covered under the zipcar insurance, as members) and we get billed once, at the end of the month.

If our car isn't working and she needs to get out to Greensburg the next day, she calls me, and I pick up a car on my way home from work. To do this, I login to the site, find a car, click reserve, walk out the building, swipe my card and drive away. That works 24/7 and the reservation can begin immediately, instant. The car sits at our house overnight and she can take it in the morning and get to school, drop it off in the afternoon. If she drops her car off at a shop, there is a zipcar there (Shadyside). They recently added zipcars to Sq. Hill, about a mile from our house. Our membership works to rent zipcars wherever they are. Minneapolis, San Francisco, Davis. If I fly anywhere else, I can borrow a car in that city (I haven't personally done this - but know people who have).

It costs us ~$70 or so for one of these one weekday 24-hour rentals, which is completely worth it. Maybe they would only charge us $40-50 for the same thing at a rental car place, but you tack on insurance (for two people) and gas, and you're even. We rented from Hertz and Avis before getting zipcar, and we spent around $90/day to rent the cheapest thing they had, not including gas - and only one of us was allowed to drive that. Tack on another $40 or something for another driver. If you're getting some special neighbor discount with your place, maybe you should just stick with that. Support the local guy. I don't know anyone who works at a rental place. My experiences with them have left my anywhere from disappointed to raging mad - never happy.

My experience with zipcar has been just the opposite. One time I reserved a car, walked up to it and swiped my card (an RF thing). Car didn't unlock, nothing happened. I called the 800 number, talked to the lady. She told me someone must have left the lights on and the battery was dead, and she directed me to the next closest car, a couple blocks away. As I walked over, she fixed things on her end and transferred my reservation, which she gave me for free. Ten minute inconvenience.

Unfortunately, I'm at work a lot, so most of my use has been from there, where biking home to get my own car would be impractical (if it is even available). I've used it to carpool out for a work lunch, I picked up my elderly neighbor from the hospital, picked up someone from the airport who I didn't really want to tell to take the bus. All these were easy, and I didn't have to look for a parking space when I got back to work. Just park the car back in its home and I'm done. They also have small pickup trucks. I haven't rented these myself, but in the past, I've spent a significant amount of time begging to borrow a friend's truck for one thing or another. Now I can just use zipcar[ziptruck?]. It is also reassuring to know that if our car broke down somewhere between Pittsburgh and Greensburg, I would be able to immediately grab a zipcar and go pick her up.

Once the Greensburg thing is over with, and our car stops working, I'm pretty sure we will not buy another, but just use busses, bikes and zipcar.

Zipcar has a local office downtown. You can go down there and have a chat with the guys that work there. They seem pretty cool. I went there to pick up our membership cards, rather than get them in the mail.

Man, if I lived anywhere near a zip car place, I'd try it. But if I lived anywhere near a zip car place, I'd probably almost never need it. Suburbia is suboptimal much of the time, this is one of those times. Just makes me pedal harder.

I did point out this promotion to my mom. She and my step dad both walk/bus to work, and she walks on weekends (he's got a bum knee and really does need a car/bus to get around). They have two cars because they go in different suburban directions on weekends that mandate car use, and they go on various other trips that would be impossible for them without a car. I think with the amount they plan out their trips _anyway_ they could manage with one car and a zip car.

Thank you guys for all the info

fyi . . .

Here's a

special offer from Zipcar as part of Car Free Fridays.

@dwillen My better half and I signed up for zipcar about a year ago

Thanks. It makes me feel a little more optimistic about my zipcar membership.

AND I'm single. Even though I'm old, fat, and slow, sometime the phone will ring in the middle of the night and I'll be highly motivated to drive soemwhere immeediately. Avis can't help with that.

They've got a booty call special [though they don't actually call it that - missed marketing opportunity, if you ask me], or at least they used to. You could get a car from anytime after 6pm and keep it until 8am the next day for around $40.

One other thing that I don't believe has been mentioned is that a lot of the Zipcar demographic is the college-age and early-20's set, for whom renting a car through Avis, Budget etc. is subject to obscenely high added fees.

I've been relatively happy with my membership after about a year of using it, although it's not great for every situation. Honestly, the feature I use most often (maybe every other month) is renting a Zipcar pickup truck for two hours to move a piece of furniture.

my low car diet is so low i don;t even have one!

they dont let you participate unless you already have a car.

You could get a car from anytime after 6pm and keep it until 8am the next day for around $40.

Oh, that's awesome! That suits my needs almost perfectly. Why didn't I know about this, I wonder?

@HoffmanJ: what, do you have joint custody of a sofa? Two months with mom, two months with dad? You couldn't split it into a couple of loveseats?

You couldn't split it into a couple of loveseats?

@Lyle: a solution almost Solomonic in its wisdom.

Touché. Actually, my girlfriend and I have a bad habit of slowly replacing all of our furniture with other craigslist/vintage pieces as our moods and tastes change. But, I like the joint custody story as a better explanation.

Anything to avoid having to schlep it back and forth each fortnight. With all that moving, he's going to wear it out. And, oy gevalt, probably herniate a disk!

they dont let you participate unless you already have a car.

I did it last year without owning a car...

really? how? the guy i talked to was confusing when i was like, well i dont have a car, but i can still do low car diet right?

maybe i can give him the keys to my boyfriend's broken car.

@ maybe i can give him the keys to my byfriends car..

As far as I can tell you don't have to give nobody no keys... I just clicked on the 'special offer' link above and filled out the form. You just need a drivers license and credit card. They sent me an email a day or two later and said I was approved and that my zip card was in the mail. Once you get the zip card you use that to unlock the zip car and the keys to the zip car are in the car. I don't have a car either, at least that's the way it seems to me, I haven't tried it yet.

edit, I see where the confusion comes from -- the promotion in the threads title is the one where you need a car -- use the Lou F. link that's up about 10 or so responses from here for one where you don't need a car at all...

ok, i had to drive my car twice this week. on tuesday it was 90+ degrees and i found out my a/c no longer works. today it developed a coolant leak.

so, i signed up for zipcar, we'll see how it goes but i'm seriously thinking of getting rid of my car. i drive maybe once a week, but my thinking was, "well, it doesn't cost too much just to keep this car around", but something tells me after a trip to the garage i'm going to have some different thoughts about that...

My husband had no car when i met him. He got one for mt bike trips just this past December. It didn't seem to hard for him to get by without a car though. I would love to get rid of mine but i need it for work in case i have to get to surgery asap. It is so expensive having a car.

Ps- no one should ever have to drive to Erie. I hate that town.

@stefb: it's a shame that the taxis aren't reliable here. Even twenty bucks once in a while for a random event like that is cheaper than keeping a car maintained and available.

i used to rent a car when i wanted to go out of town. or just fly, depending on where i was going. one person can easily do all the grocery shopping they require with a large messenger bag. when i needed to get clothes or pet stuff or other such things i would just ride over to the waterfront.

i need to do all this more. owning a car makes me lazy and fat.

@cburch owning a car makes me lazy and fat.

So how come *I'm* lazy and fat? Huh?

ok, owning a car makes me laziER and fattER.

I love shopping on my bike. Even when I didn't have a rack, I would grap some rode, and strap my portable shopping cart to my back, and weigh it down with my bookbag. It made for an awkward, but fun (And still safe!) ride down the hills to GE. Go shopping, walk both the bike and cart to a bus stop when I'm done.