Zipcar Comes to Vancouver
I’ve been meaning to write a post about Zipcar, and how they’re an American car-sharing company that’s come to Vancouver. They’re in the midst of a marketing blitz, and are obviously in direct competition with the much loved Vancouver Cooperative Auto Network.
Happily, Jen wrote that post for me. Go read it on her site. She’s a co-op member and has a very thorough price comparison:
The Zip car would cost nearly double. Actually more than that, because the only cars available in my neighbourhood are “cool” cars - so I would mostly be paying the $11.75 rate, rather than the $9.75. Though Zipcar does offer discounts (around 10%) for pre-paying at least $50 every month, the $50 doesn’t roll-over if you don’t use it. Also, my average trip length is about 25kms. To use the included 150kms/day, you’d have to be driving to Abbotsford and back on each trip.
I figure if you’re going 150km a day, you should just rent a car, or buy your own.
Of course, as Jen points out, the co-op requires a $500 deposit, which you get back when you leave the organization. So, there’s a lower barrier to entry for Zipcar. On the other hand, it sure ain’t cheap.
In related news, Tara Hunt is a big fan of Zipcar.
April 11th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
We belong to VrtuCar, which is an auto-share organization. My only regret is that I didn’t scrape together the $500 deposit three years earlier.
VrtuCar has been FANTASTIC for our family, which has just grown to six members.
When we were a family of five, the Echos they use for most of their fleet were just perfect to get us from A to Z. Now we have to think a bit harder about our trips. It’s still worth grabbing a babysitter and running away to Ikea for a few hours though!