Car Sharing With Zipcar

Zipcar is one of the more popular car sharing companies now gaining a large share of consumer interest in major cities all across the country, including at over 100 college and university campuses. You can also find Zipcar in some not so major cities like Frederick, Maryland and Carlisle, Pennsylvania. There are also Zipcars in Canada and London.

How it works

To reserve a Zipcar, you just go online and choose the time and location where you’d like to pick up a car. The cars come in various sizes and colors and can fit many driving needs. If a car with your selected criteria is available, you can put in a reservation. If a car isn’t available, you can choose from other nearby locations or different times. When your reservation is over, you return the car on time to avoid any penalties. That’s it.

Membership benefits

For an annual fee, you can become a Zipcar member. The membership allows you access to rent cars in any location around the world. This means that if you are a Zipcar member in Florida and take a trip to DC in July, you can get a Zipcar to use while you are on vacation. It would be good for a weekend trip from DC to Fredericksburg, Maryland, for example, since commuter buses and trains to that area do not run on the weekend.

Being a member of Zipcar also affords you additional benefits. People who use Zipcar a lot can save money by registering for one their frequent user programs. If you know for example, that you will use a car often enough to spend $125 each month, you can enroll in one of the programs for that rate and receive discounts every time you rent a Zipcar. Members are also privy to special discounts at area businesses. In San Francisco, you can get discounts from the Bend Yoga studio, Fog City News, Lombardi Sports, SixFlags Discovery Kingdom and more. Each city has different offers.

Despite all those benefits, the best perk about renting with Zipcar is that there are no hidden fees. Let me say that again: There are no hidden fees. Included with your rental is insurance, roadside assistance, and gasoline. That’s everything you need. You don’t have to worry about maintenance fees, oil changes, or keeping air in your tires. The vehicles are kept clean and they run well.

Is there a downside?

While Zipcar is terrific, I will admit that it would be nice to have the vehicles vacuumed a little more often (I always seem to get the cars with pet hair left in them), but really I can’t complain. Besides, buying a hand vacuum cleaner to carry with you is a lot cheaper than buying a whole car. I can live with that.