5 ms·

I don't know how popular car sharing is in the US, but it's common in a lot of European cities, and there's literally nothing to renting a car (either short ter

by wheels 5y ago

I don't know how popular car sharing is in the US, but it's common in a lot of European cities, and there's literally nothing to renting a car (either short term or multiple days, admittedly, not at great prices for multiple days) than choosing one in an app and driving off. They validate your driver's license when you sign up. I suspect the reason the counter is there is to upsell people, and that car rental companies make significantly more money because of that bad experience. But god, I would and do pay a premium to not have to deal with that crap.

ajmurmann 5y ago
How does the pickup work with car sharing? Do I have to the owners house? I also have to admit that probably 90% of my annoyances comes from a mental issue I have where it really, really bothers me when I think something could be more efficient than it is, when I'm not impacted.
- wheels 5y ago
  No, "car sharing" in this context is by large companies -- the main one here is a joint venture between Daimler and BMW. Inside of the city, they can be parked in any public parking (mostly on street), and you can find them in the app. Just checked, to give a point of reference, and there are two cars available within 200 meters of my apartment, and 7 available within 500 meters. There are also special parking lots at the airport where car sharing cars park. You can also have one delivered to you at a particular time, but that costs €30, and makes it where a taxi would be cheaper.
  - ajmurmann 5y ago
    Oh, we had that for a while with Smart Cars in Portland and I think Zip cars were similar. However, I've never seen them at the airport and had never considered renting them for multiple days. I think with how car centric the US is you frequently don't just need a car for a specific ride, but multiple days to not get stuck.
- turbinerneiter 5y ago
  I think that's not the kind of car sharing they mean. The car belongs to a car sharing company. In Munich for example there is Share Now, Miles, Sixt Share, and some specialized ones. The cars are parked all over the city in normal parking spots on the side of the road. Using the app, you find the closest one, usually you'll find 2 or 3 within 500 meters (strongly depending where you are). You select it in the app, walk up to the car, use the app to unlock and are ready to go. They are usually paid by the minute, but there is also packages for multiple hours or days. But I think for renting over multiply days, normal car renting is better. Sixt is pretty good. Takes no more than 5 minutes to pick up the car. You don't reserve a specific type, but a class of car. And when I reserve the cheapest class, until now I was upgraded to the higher class every single time. They even have a "Lucky Class" which will explicitly get you whatever they have available, up to the really nice ones.
  - wheels 5y ago
    Sixt has the most streamlined rental of the major German rental companies (if you have their member card), but their prices aren't really lower than DriveNow or Miles, with still significantly more friction.
  - ajmurmann 5y ago
    Ah, thanks! I assumed they were talking about something like Turo which is like Airbnb for cars. We used to have something like you described with Smart cars in Portland. Zip car also used to be like this.
alibarber 5y ago
These services tend to cater for the people who reside permanently in a particular city / country though. So not really useful for a traveler. I used to use Drive Now as they were in ‘Europe’ (I.e. geographically spread across the continent) and they were even at the airport in Helsinki. Then they pulled out of London and Helsinki (and others) where they had been ubiquitous claiming that it was un-profitable. Before that it was ideal though as you could unlock a car at any airport or city with the same app, credit card, agreement etc. And the cars were basically identical too! Now I have no desire to sign up for a different app/service etc in each city in a language I probably won’t understand and have to get familiar with how they operate (where can you park it, for how long, etc) so it’s back to the familiar rental car desks.
- wheels 5y ago
  I hadn't tracked which cities they'd pulled out of, and have used them in a few places. But my point was more that there's no structural reason for the rental friction, other than to upsell people. The risk profile, and things that need to be handled are basically identical for car sharing and car rental, and car sharing makes the process seamless, while car rental makes it intentionally annoying.
  - alibarber 5y ago
    Absolutely - that is indeed a valid point. It would seem though that these sharing operations seem to be going after a different - perhaps newer and bigger, market slice than the traditional agencies. It would indeed be great if they could bring this new way of operation to those too.
  - garaetjjte 5y ago
    Isn't car sharing significantly more expensive?
    - alibarber 5y ago
      It usually is, but there is a reasonable ‘convenience factor’ that sometimes tipped it. Of course, multi-day long road trip in another country that I plan in advance, hit up Kayak and the major agencies, no question.

by wheels 5y ago

ajmurmann 5y ago

How does the pickup work with car sharing? Do I have to the owners house? I also have to admit that probably 90% of my annoyances comes from a mental issue I have where it really, really bothers me when I think something could be more efficient than it is, when I'm not impacted.

wheels 5y ago
No, "car sharing" in this context is by large companies -- the main one here is a joint venture between Daimler and BMW. Inside of the city, they can be parked in any public parking (mostly on street), and you can find them in the app. Just checked, to give a point of reference, and there are two cars available within 200 meters of my apartment, and 7 available within 500 meters. There are also special parking lots at the airport where car sharing cars park. You can also have one delivered to you at a particular time, but that costs €30, and makes it where a taxi would be cheaper.
- ajmurmann 5y ago
  Oh, we had that for a while with Smart Cars in Portland and I think Zip cars were similar. However, I've never seen them at the airport and had never considered renting them for multiple days. I think with how car centric the US is you frequently don't just need a car for a specific ride, but multiple days to not get stuck.
turbinerneiter 5y ago
I think that's not the kind of car sharing they mean. The car belongs to a car sharing company. In Munich for example there is Share Now, Miles, Sixt Share, and some specialized ones. The cars are parked all over the city in normal parking spots on the side of the road. Using the app, you find the closest one, usually you'll find 2 or 3 within 500 meters (strongly depending where you are). You select it in the app, walk up to the car, use the app to unlock and are ready to go. They are usually paid by the minute, but there is also packages for multiple hours or days. But I think for renting over multiply days, normal car renting is better. Sixt is pretty good. Takes no more than 5 minutes to pick up the car. You don't reserve a specific type, but a class of car. And when I reserve the cheapest class, until now I was upgraded to the higher class every single time. They even have a "Lucky Class" which will explicitly get you whatever they have available, up to the really nice ones.
- wheels 5y ago
  Sixt has the most streamlined rental of the major German rental companies (if you have their member card), but their prices aren't really lower than DriveNow or Miles, with still significantly more friction.
- ajmurmann 5y ago
  Ah, thanks! I assumed they were talking about something like Turo which is like Airbnb for cars. We used to have something like you described with Smart cars in Portland. Zip car also used to be like this.

alibarber 5y ago

These services tend to cater for the people who reside permanently in a particular city / country though. So not really useful for a traveler. I used to use Drive Now as they were in ‘Europe’ (I.e. geographically spread across the continent) and they were even at the airport in Helsinki. Then they pulled out of London and Helsinki (and others) where they had been ubiquitous claiming that it was un-profitable. Before that it was ideal though as you could unlock a car at any airport or city with the same app, credit card, agreement etc. And the cars were basically identical too! Now I have no desire to sign up for a different app/service etc in each city in a language I probably won’t understand and have to get familiar with how they operate (where can you park it, for how long, etc) so it’s back to the familiar rental car desks.

wheels 5y ago
I hadn't tracked which cities they'd pulled out of, and have used them in a few places. But my point was more that there's no structural reason for the rental friction, other than to upsell people. The risk profile, and things that need to be handled are basically identical for car sharing and car rental, and car sharing makes the process seamless, while car rental makes it intentionally annoying.
- alibarber 5y ago
  Absolutely - that is indeed a valid point. It would seem though that these sharing operations seem to be going after a different - perhaps newer and bigger, market slice than the traditional agencies. It would indeed be great if they could bring this new way of operation to those too.
- garaetjjte 5y ago
  Isn't car sharing significantly more expensive?
  - alibarber 5y ago
    It usually is, but there is a reasonable ‘convenience factor’ that sometimes tipped it. Of course, multi-day long road trip in another country that I plan in advance, hit up Kayak and the major agencies, no question.