ZipCar - Hourly rental

CheekyMonkey22

Any positive or negative experience of hiring a car/van through Zipcar or the like?

CM22

richardw

Can you upload your end of rental no damage photos to their website? or e-mail them to ZipCar?

CheekyMonkey22

Not sure. I'll ask them tomorrow when I call to see if they have any introductory offers [STRIKE]try and get some free stuff [/STRIKE].

benjus

I've been a member of ZipCar, StreetCar (before it merged with ZipCar) and Hertz on Demand (which is free to join, so I'm still a member).

Some points from my experience:

1. Car clubs are good for pottering around the city, going to the supermarket/Ikea/whatever, that sort of thing. For a longer journey or a day out, they tend to get substantially more expensive than traditional car hire.
2. Booking the right length of time is a pain. If you book for too long, you waste money as you can't claim a refund for returning the car early. If you book too short you risk not being able to extend the booking as someone else has booked it. I once had to cut a visit short because it had run on for longer than expected, then had a very stressful journey back through heavy traffic, then arrived a bit late and had to pay £25 extra.
3. Availability of the cars depends a lot on where you live - unfortunately you can't really see this before you sign up. I don't like having to plan my life a week in advance, and where I live it was almost impossible to get a car at short notice at weekends.

In the end I just got a car of my own, as it wasn't working well for me...

richardw's question about photos is a good one, although proving that they were taken at the end (rather than the start) of the rental could be interesting. One technique I have tried a couple of times with traditional car hire is shooting a single non-stop video starting with a shot of the dashboard and the mileage, then moving around the car. I've never had to actually use the footage though, so no idea if it would be accepted.

With car clubs I've never had a problem with damage being reported. Given that (in most cases) the car is just sat there on a public road, sometimes for days on end, between different people using it, pretty much anything could happen to it.

There are some 3rd party excess insurance policies designed for car clubs, if that would help.

richardw

benjus wrote: »

.......the car is just sat there on a public road, sometimes for days on end, between different people using it, pretty much anything could happen to it...

Exactly, this is what needs to be highlighted with car clubs and where the risk to the member lies.

CheekyMonkey22

ZipCar customer services were pleasant enough. Forgot to ask about the damage issue, but they were able to give me an indication of use for my specific area i.e. bookings for last couple of days.

Asked about free stuff and the adviser couldn't offer anything specific. But did suggest there were regular ads in the Radio Times.

Found a code elsewhere - UKJOIN40B for £40 driving credit to be used in 30 days! (Expiry date on offer was not clear)

pseeker_2

Weekends get real busy for Zipcars, but it's the same for any car rental. If you book on Thursday you'll be mostly fine.

On weekdays it's not a problem to get a Zipcar on a short notice.

There's a damage log in the car, you simply check it before you set off, and if you find anything's wrong with the car that's not already in the log book - call Zipcar, simple as that.

You probably could for peace of mind take pictures of the car at the end of the journey, but not sure how much of a proof can that be - i mean how can you prove the time?

PS: Zipcar's FREE 24/7 help line is, aehm, the about the best thing that's left from Streetcar....