Car Sharing. Yay or Nay?

[nissangirl74]

Would you pay to "share" a car? How about if you didn't have to pay extra for fuel or insurance? Check this out.

Excerpt:
How would you like to go online and reserve a nearby car so you can leave to do errands later that morning? When you’re ready, you'd simply walk or take public transportation to where the car is parked, use your electronic key to gain access, start the vehicle, and drive away. An hour later, you would return the car to the same parking spot.
The best news of all is you could pay a reasonable monthly fee for this service, and about $7 for the hour-long use of the car. Fuel costs and insurance: included. Easy as pie.



http://www.thecarconnection.com/marty-b ... d+Blogs%29

[dre1507]

kinda kool. but i say, if you already have a car, you might as well go ahead and keep on pushing it. sure you don't have to worry about insurance or gas, but the freedom of having your own car would be massively compromised. plus there's probably gonna be public transportation coming out of your pocket. i say nay.

[mechanicalmoron]

I don't think it's a BAD idea. It's not owning a car, and it's not passed off as owning a car.

No upkeep, no freaking anything? great deal for a lot of people.

You can already pretty much do this, in a lot of big cities you can rent little smart cars or what have you, just swipe your credit card, ten bucks an hour or whatever. I've heard tell of people having a grand old time at the expense of the poor rental companies tires....

[nissangirl74]

I've heard tell of people having a grand old time at the expense of the poor rental companies tires....

And this is why the company is still in the red

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

We have Zipcar here in Portland...usually Pzev subarus and Priuses. I seem them all over the place so it must be pretty popular.

[nissangirl74]

I wonder what the liability is if you have an accident and are injured or you total the car?

[themadscientist]

I made some love stains in the back seat. You'll see.

[ADDirishboy]

I don't understand how insurance would work for a company like that. Does MVR have to be up to a certain caliber to be able to rent one of these?

[IBCoupe]

Our zipcars over here always seem to be Mazda3 Hatchbacks. Not for me, but might work well for many.

[THawks]

A monthly fee PLUS $7 an hour? I will pass and continue to use my own car...

[Dattebayo]

Bus and rail works better, costs less without having to return anything to a spot.

[dre1507]

yea, if i have to take a bus or other form of transportation to get to it, i might as well just get on a bus that goes near to where i need to go.

[LEMHEAD16]

In a large city with decent mass transit I say NAY.

In a medium to large city with poor mass transit, I say Yay Tulsa, OK for example. (750K MSA) I think it might be worth it. The Tulsa bus system is worthless and many places you would want to go are separated by 20 miles or more.