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Any Zipcar members here?

V

vniow

macrumors G4
Original poster
Jul 18, 2002
10,266
1
I accidentally my whole location.
So...I can't sleep and I'm trying to reassess my finances and I'm actually seriously considering this whole Zipcar thing. I posted a thread awhile back asking for car advice and someone mentioned it there but I shrugged it off saying I needed a car for more than what they could offer me. Now that I'm moving to a place where there are more transit options for one, I'm starting to reconsider. I didn't know that they offered free gas and 125 miles per day which is a nice bonus, I wouldn't have to make car payments, insurance or gas which easily costs ~$100 a month for me (lousy gas sucking wagon).

Given the majority of my driving since moving here is moving from one side of the street to the other for street cleaning, occasional trips to the Santa Cruz area (which nicely fits in with the 125 free miles :D) and I'm moving within walking distance of a Zipcar lot, I think I can get away with this and save money to boot.

I'd like to hear from other users (if any) before I invest into this but I'll still do my research on it.

Thanx,

-Ani
 
The concept sounds great but I would be concerned about availability. I'd imagine there are a ton of available cars Monday-Tursday but getting them for Friday-Sunday would be more difficult. Isn't that when most members would want them? Might be best to go there on a Friday night or Saturday morning and ask members how hard or easy it was to reserve a car for the weekend.

If you're current car costs are about $100 a month, will this really save you much? Then again, I used to pay $135 a month for a garage to avoid the alternate side of the street parking nightmares in NY.
 
Friends of mine who used to live in downtown Boston didn't have a car and swore by Zipcar. They never had a problem getting one and said the cars were always clean and in good shape.

Of course, that was in Boston, and that was several years ago, but they loved Zipcar.
 
I live in Boston and just got Zipcar last month, and I don't know why I waited so long. There are 5 zipcars on my street (2 in my apartment complex) and many more in my immediate neighborhood, so availability isn't an issue. I pretty much only use them for grocery shopping or going somewhere that is very inconvenient on the T.

They have a number of good payment plans. Right now, I pay $50/year and $9 an hour, but, you can pay a monthly fee, and then pay less per hour (and that first comes out of your $50). I'd suggest reading over the pricing schemes and see what's best, but they all seem fairly reasonable based on how much you might use it.
 
What a difference two months can make! Let's recall your reaction to Zipcar then:

vniow said:
I've thought about it but not sure if it fits my needs, most of my driving is trips down south but I do like having it avaliable whenever I need and not have to travel somewhere and then get it like for unexpected trips or when I'm going shopping etc. Its a nice concept but I really need one of my own.
Click to expand...

I have nothing particularly useful to say here except that I wish Zipcar had been as established as it is now when I was living in/around Boston. Probably could have save us lots of $ on insurance, mainentance, and aggravation finding a place to park and digging the car out of a snow bank. (As I recall they were just starting up and had a few Cambridge locations near the T).

B
 
rdowns said:
If you're current car costs are about $100 a month, will this really save you much?
Click to expand...

Its not just the existing $100 (which is gas money) I spend a month, its the additional $220 I would be spending in insurance and monthly payments if I were to get another car. I need something more reliable than what i have now and I'm not sure if I can afford anything else than another clunker. This looks to be like another option.
 
Wouldn't you still have to maintain insurance if you joined Zipcar?
 
late reply...

balamw said:
What a difference two months can make! Let's recall your reaction to Zipcar then:
Click to expand...

Shush you. ;)

I'm probably going to go for the $75 a month plan with the one month rollover. That way at minimum I won't spend anymore than what I already am and at maximum I would be spending less than I would for a car of my own. I'll probably get it at the beginning of next month and then this sexy bitch is up for sale.
 
Congrats, vniow...just out of curiosity, why did you choose Zipcar over CityCarShare and Flexcar?
 
CityCarShare would be cheaper if all I did was drive short trips in SF but wanted a $300 deposit for one and since they charge per hour and per mile it made for a more expensive trip if I were to travel further. Flexcar was simply too expensive for what I would use it for and I wouldn't be saving any money going with them. Plus neither of them had the range of vehicles I could select with Zipcar.

I'm on the $125/month plan with them which is just a bit more than what I was paying for gas in my car. I likely won't use all of that credit per month so I've got a two month rollover. The less I use it for short trips the more I can save up for a longer one. :D
 
Cool...I don't know much about them since they're not an option for me (not too many car-sharing places in Daly City), but they're a very cool idea. We've got some cars at several of our UCSF campuses...I think CityCarShare just put in a couple here at Mission Bay, but Parnassus has both CityCarShare and Zipcar, I think.

Keep us updated on how things work out.
 
Well, keep us updated on how it works out for you. There are tons of Zipcar cars in my neighborhood, including a little lot of them right down the alley behind my building. Apparently it's a popular program here in Chicago.
 
This is such an interesting concept.
It seems like it would help cutback on overall car usage since the car isn't available for things like cruising around et-cetera.
Props for using the service! Too bad they currently have limited locations.
The biggest problem I see is relying on others to be as prompt and responsible as yourself.
 
Yeah, it's a three year old thread but I just joined zipcar and really love it. I was wondering if any of the original posters are still members and if anybody who lives in smaller University towns like I do, has joined up.

It's great, no insurance payments, no gas bill, no parking fees and i don't even have to wash it!
 
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