Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Do you use Zipcar or Enterprise, or any other car share scheme?
If so, what do you think of them in terms of cost, availability, insurance etc?
Tags for Forum Posts: car sharing
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Emma on
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I zip. Very cheap if you go for a small car that's 6ph includes everything. I only have access in the week no weekends and don't pay and annual free so it works for me. Had very bad experience with enterprise! So not sure I would vouch for them!!!
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Permalink Reply by Michelle on
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I use Zipcar and have done since they were called Streetcar. I cant complain. As Emma said, its all included. We have taken out a combined car hire and car club insurance with icarhireinsurance for about £30 which covers the high excesses car clubs and car hire companies put on their cars. Getting availability on a weekend is sometimes difficult if you need a car at the last minute but in Haringey you normally wont have too far to go if you are absolutely desperate. The combination of great public transport, Zipcar and Uber means you can get places fairly easily without buying a car.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on
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Not sure if this is what you want included but I rent out my car using what I think of as a car-sharing service.
I used Whipcar. They went bust and were eventually replaced in the market by EasyCar who I currently use. It lets me rent out my car from my driveway - they get 10% of the rental.
Done it lots of times - makes me feel better about having a car in the first place.
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Permalink Reply by Antoinette on
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Here is a comment I posted on another thread:
In my year off I got car club membership...uber wasn't really established at that point...diligently I totted up all my expenditure for a year on my car; insurance, tax, residents parking, petrol, breakdown cover, repairs, even included car washes and parking whilst out and a PCN. Cost wise my annual expenditure was almost identical to the year in which I used car club/minicabs. Had I also factored in the cost of public transport costs for the journeys I might previously done by car then car ownership was marginally less expensive. There's nothing in it to speak of.
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Like yours, that car was old (Merc estate barge on wheels) so depreciation is less of a factor than the annually increasing maintenance costs. I find 12 years is the point at which things start to fall apart one after another! My current car (13 year old Polo) cost well over £600 to get through this year's MOT. It's always a tricky decision at what point you give up a car as it gets older. This one still has less than 50,000 miles on the clock so I think it's still worth it.
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For me the main issue around using car club membership is that you have to plan in advance and be able to know exactly how long you need the car for. If you book for longer than you need then you're paying for time you don't strictly need, but if you cut it too fine, that's a) very stressful and b) you can get hammered for late charges which I think are around £25. And if you've someone standing by the space tapping their foot angrily when you arrive back late it's a bit embarrassing. One tip - if you take the car through the car wash (which is charged to Zipcar so you don't pay for it) they will give you a credit for an hour. Given that a car wash only takes ten minutes, you effectively get 50 minutes for free. My young son also loves going through car washes so for me that was a win-win! Mind you that was when it was Streetcar so check that still applies.
As for the insurance, I was happy enough with Streetcar's all included one. Yes, the excesses are high, but it makes you drive much more carefully.
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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Shalom on
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I use it! I paid the extra £100pa so that I have no excess, if you crash, or some one drives into you, the excess is £750 so the £100 extra on top of the £60 pa that is the standard fee is worth it! All fuel is included!
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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But Jonathan, haven't you had to put some petrol in the tank at some point, then claim the cost back? Below a certain level on the fuel gauge the tank has to be topped up by that driver, is what I read. Return the car below the set level and if the next person reports you, you get charged a penalty fee.
There seem quite a number of penalty charges mentioned in the conditions of use.
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The car comes with a petrol charge card in the glove box so all you do is use it like a credit card. You never have to stump up your own money. The reason they have the penalty charge is because some drivers don't want to waste their precious hire time on spending a few minutes going to fill up at the petrol station.
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The same applies to taking it to the car wash. You pay for it on the card but get a credit of one hour as a thank you.
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There is a fuel card that is in the car and you use this to fill up when the fuel drops below 1/4 tank. Only ever filled it up once.
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