Dear Lifehacker,
I'm thinking about going carless! I don't love the idea, but where I am right now it'll save me some money. However, I still occasional driving needs, like groceries or visiting family. I hear there are a bunch of new short-term rental services that may fit the bill. How do I choose one?
Sincerely,
Sunday Driver
Dear Sunday Driver,
You're right, there are a bunch of new services that run the gamut between being quick, easy taxi replacements that can give you some wheels to get across town one way, to hourly rental services that are perfect for picking up the groceries or a quick trip to IKEA. Both options are still more cost effective than a traditional car rental, assuming you only need them for a short while.
We ran down a bunch of the options by name in this roundup not too long ago, so many of the options haven't changed much. How you choose the right one for you though, is trickier than just looking at the rates and picking the company with the prettiest cars. Here's how you can make a smart decision.
Step One: Find Out Which Services Are Available Near You
This is probably the biggest factor for most people. If you're thinking of going carless, you have to live somewhere you can survive without a car—meaning people in rural communities, many suburbs, and even some cities just can't do it. If you live in a major city, or an area with well developed transit options, it's possible, but even then no one likes lugging home the week's groceries on the train, or loading it into the back of a cab or an Uber.
To that end, we're going to focus on services that give you short-term rentals that you can drive like your own. Zipcar, Car2Go, Hertz 24/7, and Enterprise Car Share are some of the biggest options in this category. All of them let you do the driving, pay for the fuel, and either charge you based on the time you have the car or the miles you drive, depending on the membership plan you choose. Before you pick one though, check the website for each service and see if they operate in your area. Some may have regional programs for your "city," but dig deeper—almost all of them require you find your own way to a vehicle pick-up point, and it's up to you to make sure there's one convenient enough for you to grab a car when you need one without having to arrange a ride...just to get to your ride.
For example, in my neighborhood, there's a ZipCar pick up point and an Enterprise Car Share point within a couple minutes' walk, but Hertz is nowhere to be found. I'm still lucky though. Depending on your city, or even your neighborhood, if you don't have pick up points near you for a given service, it's a non-starter.
Step Two: Weigh Your Driving Needs Against the Available Plans
The next thing you have to do is consider how much driving you actually need to do, and how far you usually go. If the only driving you ever do is out and about town—out to dinner, or visiting friends, or cross-town, (and you don't like the idea of taxi-like services like Lyft or Uber), you may to consider a one-way service like Car2Go. They're not the only player in that space, but one of their notable features is that you can pick up a car (if one is near you, and that's a bit of roulette depending on your city) drive it where you need to go, and then park it in any parking space or meter. It's ideal for one-way trips or quick jaunts where you need to go somewhere, but not necessarily back (at least not for a while.) Plus, the cars are generally small and easy to park (although not necessarily great for cargo or lots of passengers.)
If your driving habits involve round-trips, more than a few miles or a few hours at a time, or you want some choice in the type of car you drive, you'll probably want a car sharing service that gives you more flexibility. Zipcar, Enteprrise Car Share, Hertz 24/7, and services like them all let you choose your type of vehicle (so you can grab a ride big enough for the IKEA haul you're planning) and have membership tiers usually charge by the hour, pay for fuel, and give you a few hundred miles to play with. Of course, most of those services insist that you return the car to its original location when you're done with it (or at least park it in another designated space), so they're great for errands that may take you around town.
Finally, if your driving needs involve periodic long distance trips, or trips that take more than one day, you're probably better off going with a traditional car rental (for those trips anyway), or an owner-to-owner car sharing service like RelayRides. While almost every car sharing service will deluge you with weekend deals and "get away" promotions at the end of a week (and some, like Enterprise Car Share, gives you discounts on full Enterprise rental rates) few of them really make it worth your financial while compared to what a traditional rental offers. By comparison, you pay for fuel, but you usually don't have to pay for mileage, and you're not paying by the hour just to drive.
Step Three: Do the Math and Make the Call
You may get through the last two steps and find there's only one option for you, or that none of the options really fit your needs. In those cases, you may be better off just keeping your car, or going carless but using other transit services to get around, like mass transit, bikeshare, or taxi and driver services like Uber or Lyft. If you're lucky, you have more than one option, and each of those options has different plans and membership tiers that you can sign up for.
All that's left is for you to do the math and figure out which membership plan—not necessarily company—is best for the driving you do and how often you'd like to drive. In some cases, it may be a wash (in general, every company's plans are designed to be competitive) and it might come down to which company has the better selection of vehicles to choose from, which one has better rates on the class of vehicle you need to drive (for example, make sure you look at costs for driving SUVs, vans, and other high-capacity vehicles closely. They're usually more expensive than sedans or compacts.) It may also come down to how many miles you get for free before you have to pay by the mile, or what those per mile charges are. Don't miss the fine print—it's that fine print that can determine whether you feel like you're part of a club that appreciates your business and caters to your driving needs, or you have a ridiculous bill to pay every time you go to the grocery store.
Optional: Don't Be Afraid to Sign Up for More than One Service
Finally, don't stress out about the decision, or feel like you have to be pigeonholed into one service. Some car sharing companies don't have monthly charges (although most have a nominal annual membership fee), so you can sign up for more than one and use whichever one is best—or available—when you need to drive. For example, if you're stuck choosing between Zipcar and Enterprise Car Share, see if you can snag a membership discount or a waived annual fee and sign up for both. You only pay when you drive anyway, and having two accounts gives you double the flexibility.
As with most big decisions, it's important to do your homework and make sure that you're signing up for a service that meets your needs, but won't hurt your wallet. Before you do anything though, take a good hard look at why you're giving up your car, what options you'll use and when, and what your driving habits really look like. There's no guarantee that any of these services are ideal for you, or even available near you, but if you find one that works, go for it. You only have money to save.
Sincerely,
Lifehacker
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