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Pinch of salt required: "Companies like our client ZipCar, for example". Blink and you'll miss it: this article is not exactly flagged as sponsored content. A

Pinch of salt required: "Companies like our client ZipCar, for example". Blink and you'll miss it: this article is not exactly flagged as sponsored content. Author bio, tucked away off-page: "Darren Ross is executive vice president of insights and solutions at college marketing agency Fluent." Insights and solutions, eh? https://www.fastcoexist.com/user/darren-ross https://www.fastcoexist.com/user/darren-ross

robbyt 10y ago
Good find. Ironically, I Hated ZipCar (in NYC). It was really awful, for many reasons I don't care to articulate here. I would much rather own a car, then have to deal with ZipCar.
- _of 10y ago
  Why awful? I used it once in NYC. It was really not cheaper than a regular car rental, but other than that it was not bad. It was convenient not having to deal with lining up at a front desk when getting the car and returning it. Also the app makes extending your time easy.
  - osi 10y ago
    I found traffic to be a huge impediment to Zipcar in NYC. I needed to really pad out reservations to ensure I did not return the car late (which was then wasteful because I was overpaying). Zipcar in SF and Chicago have been way more pleasant.
  - robbyt 10y ago
    There are so many things that can go wrong with ZipCar in NYC. I never had a good experience, and it ended up being considerably more expensive than just renting a car for 24 hours. It's probably fine in other cities- but it just doesn't work in NYC. Here's a horror story ZipCar experience for me: - I need a car for X... - Open ZipCar app- oh all of the cars in the area are booked for the next 4 days, except for one (inconveniently located). - Book the car for 3-4 hours. - Arrive 10mns early- find/talk to an angry parking attendant - Find out that the car isn't there yet, the previous person still has it. - Wait for 20mns for the car to arrive. - Car arrives, it smells like wet dog and has sand all over. - Hold breath, get in car. Find out it's almost out of gas. - Spend 30mns finding a gas station, and buying gas. - Find out the gas pump's credit card reader is broken, wait for another available gas pump. - Finally fill tank with gas. Only 1.5 hours wasted and we're on our way! - Preform task X - Drive car back to ZipCar garage, get stuck in traffic. - Try to extend reservation, but I can't because someone already booked the car for the next slot. - Return car to garage, can't find a parking attendant. - Pass the car along to the next annoyed ZipCar member, sorry for being late- stay away from the Brooklyn Bridge... - Consider for a moment this other person wasn't actually the member who reserved the car, but possibly a car thief? Nah... - Contact ZipCar to ask for a discount because of the bad experience. Get $10 next reservation- great, thanks.
icebraining 10y ago
The funny thing is, if much fewer people are getting driver's licenses as the article claims, then ZipCar is also screwed. I'm an example of that; since I never planned to own a car, I never got a license, and it's very hard to justify that time and expense when you can just take an Uber for a couple of bucks more.
- Tharkun 10y ago
  I don't drive and don't have a license, but Uber is banned in my neck of the woods and taxis are ridiculously expensive. Driving would probably make my life a lot easier.
  - t4nkd 10y ago
    As long as all you are concerned about is the difficulty of moving from one point to another (presumably of a minimum distance) you are correct. You probably are not accounting for the overhead of actually owning a properly maintained and insured vehicle. The former has little cumulative effect on your life, the latter is an really complicated situation fraught with personal choices and teeming with people trying to take advantage of your naivety. Cars are a huge responsibility, 100% luxury, and generally a burden, make no mistake about it.
    - white-flame 10y ago
      My car costs me a bit over $100/mo including insurance and gas, and I'm in one of the highest priced car insurance areas of the country. Amortize oil changes (a couple times a year) & tires (even less frequently), and it adds a bit more. That's not a lot of money compared to taking a couple dozen Uber rides a month, though it is more than a monthly bus pass and a bicycle which is far less practical than a car for most American cities. Especially if you have a 24-hour lifestyle and the buses only run during the day, and take 2 hours to cross your large city vs 20 minutes on the freeway in a car. I'm not a grease monkey by any stretch of the imagination, but as a technical person I have the curiosity to learn the basics of how things work, and when something goes wrong to try to generally understand the core failure. It doesn't take much to find a decent used car of a decently trusted brand that you can buy for cash, and drive it for years without a huge bill and without constant worries and nuisances. It's exactly the same as dealing with the maintenance issues of anything you own, whether it's a computer or an appliance or a business or a house. You learn enough of the ins & outs of it so you can watch out for & eliminate the nuisances and focus on getting the benefits. I will certainly agree that the cost of new cars are far outpacing average salaries, and used car prices are being pulled in the same direction. But as for right now, used cars are still quite manageable and affordable TCO-wise, and the vast majority of places in the USA still effectively require an individual means of transportation to work, shop affordably, and engage in activities.

robbyt 10y ago

Good find. Ironically, I Hated ZipCar (in NYC). It was really awful, for many reasons I don't care to articulate here. I would much rather own a car, then have to deal with ZipCar.

_of 10y ago
Why awful? I used it once in NYC. It was really not cheaper than a regular car rental, but other than that it was not bad. It was convenient not having to deal with lining up at a front desk when getting the car and returning it. Also the app makes extending your time easy.
- osi 10y ago
  I found traffic to be a huge impediment to Zipcar in NYC. I needed to really pad out reservations to ensure I did not return the car late (which was then wasteful because I was overpaying). Zipcar in SF and Chicago have been way more pleasant.
- robbyt 10y ago
  There are so many things that can go wrong with ZipCar in NYC. I never had a good experience, and it ended up being considerably more expensive than just renting a car for 24 hours. It's probably fine in other cities- but it just doesn't work in NYC. Here's a horror story ZipCar experience for me: - I need a car for X... - Open ZipCar app- oh all of the cars in the area are booked for the next 4 days, except for one (inconveniently located). - Book the car for 3-4 hours. - Arrive 10mns early- find/talk to an angry parking attendant - Find out that the car isn't there yet, the previous person still has it. - Wait for 20mns for the car to arrive. - Car arrives, it smells like wet dog and has sand all over. - Hold breath, get in car. Find out it's almost out of gas. - Spend 30mns finding a gas station, and buying gas. - Find out the gas pump's credit card reader is broken, wait for another available gas pump. - Finally fill tank with gas. Only 1.5 hours wasted and we're on our way! - Preform task X - Drive car back to ZipCar garage, get stuck in traffic. - Try to extend reservation, but I can't because someone already booked the car for the next slot. - Return car to garage, can't find a parking attendant. - Pass the car along to the next annoyed ZipCar member, sorry for being late- stay away from the Brooklyn Bridge... - Consider for a moment this other person wasn't actually the member who reserved the car, but possibly a car thief? Nah... - Contact ZipCar to ask for a discount because of the bad experience. Get $10 next reservation- great, thanks.

icebraining 10y ago

The funny thing is, if much fewer people are getting driver's licenses as the article claims, then ZipCar is also screwed. I'm an example of that; since I never planned to own a car, I never got a license, and it's very hard to justify that time and expense when you can just take an Uber for a couple of bucks more.

Tharkun 10y ago
I don't drive and don't have a license, but Uber is banned in my neck of the woods and taxis are ridiculously expensive. Driving would probably make my life a lot easier.
- t4nkd 10y ago
  As long as all you are concerned about is the difficulty of moving from one point to another (presumably of a minimum distance) you are correct. You probably are not accounting for the overhead of actually owning a properly maintained and insured vehicle. The former has little cumulative effect on your life, the latter is an really complicated situation fraught with personal choices and teeming with people trying to take advantage of your naivety. Cars are a huge responsibility, 100% luxury, and generally a burden, make no mistake about it.
  - white-flame 10y ago
    My car costs me a bit over $100/mo including insurance and gas, and I'm in one of the highest priced car insurance areas of the country. Amortize oil changes (a couple times a year) & tires (even less frequently), and it adds a bit more. That's not a lot of money compared to taking a couple dozen Uber rides a month, though it is more than a monthly bus pass and a bicycle which is far less practical than a car for most American cities. Especially if you have a 24-hour lifestyle and the buses only run during the day, and take 2 hours to cross your large city vs 20 minutes on the freeway in a car. I'm not a grease monkey by any stretch of the imagination, but as a technical person I have the curiosity to learn the basics of how things work, and when something goes wrong to try to generally understand the core failure. It doesn't take much to find a decent used car of a decently trusted brand that you can buy for cash, and drive it for years without a huge bill and without constant worries and nuisances. It's exactly the same as dealing with the maintenance issues of anything you own, whether it's a computer or an appliance or a business or a house. You learn enough of the ins & outs of it so you can watch out for & eliminate the nuisances and focus on getting the benefits. I will certainly agree that the cost of new cars are far outpacing average salaries, and used car prices are being pulled in the same direction. But as for right now, used cars are still quite manageable and affordable TCO-wise, and the vast majority of places in the USA still effectively require an individual means of transportation to work, shop affordably, and engage in activities.