Car sharing car clubs

[AnnO'Neemus]

Who has experience of these?

Did you have a car that you got rid of/didn't replace?

Or did you go from not having a vehicle to joining a car club?

What's the tipping point in favour of car clubs in terms of cost and usage?

I mean, I can imagine that for occasional usage to run local errands once or twice a week, using a car club vehicle would make sense, as you don't have to pay for the vehicle, tax, insurance, MOT and repairs. But if you use a car regularly at what point does it become essential to have your own vehicle and justify spending all that money on running costs?

Has anyone done the rough calculations on the financial costs and decided one way or the other?

What are the other pros and cons you considered in whether to join a car club or get your own car?

 

[rubbershoes]

My brother hasn't had a car since he moved back to the UK. He uses zipcar and finds it much better and cheaper than buying a car. There's a zipcar space just round the corner from his house and so parking is never a problem

He's an accountant so I'm guessing he weighed up the financial side

 

[T & P]

Zipcar is fucking great and actually cheaper than running your own car for casual use. And their Flex service (one way trips, park anywhere on resident bays across many London boroughs) is ludicrously convenient and often cheaper than Uber and even public transport. Can’t recommend it enough.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I did give it a bit of thought a couple of years back when the puddymobile got stolen and written off, but at that point, there was one car in my local borough (one car that is as well as one car club)

 

[Winot]

We are up in Glasgow on holiday, based in the city centre, doing some cultural stuff and then day trips to the Trossachs when dry to go walking.

Have joined the Co-wheels car club. There are 5 cars within a 15 min walk of our flat, two of which are electric (Renault Zoe and BMW i3). Costs are £28.50 for 24 hours.

We’ve hired the electric cars twice and have booked them three times next week. The range is enough to get us out and back on a single charge.

The website booking is straightforward although the app is a bit clunky. We extended our hire period for a couple of hours last night with a few clicks as we were swimming in Loch Lomond so back later than expected.

Car Share: Co Wheels Car Club | Co Wheels

With hourly car rental, you can hire a car with ease. The Co Wheels Car Club is a great alternative to owning your own car. Join up, find a car share, and go.

www.co-wheels.org.uk

 

[teuchter]

I've been a member of Zipcar for at least ten years - and it generally works very well.

There was a period where I'd need to use it quite often, but now it's probably 2 or 3 times a year at most.

In fact I am more often finding that a short term car hire would be useful when I'm not in London, and Zipcar's weakness is that coverage outside London is virtually non existent.

Therefore - I've just been looking at Enterprise Car Club which covers most of the UK. In London it offers nowhere near the density of cars that Zipcar does - but it does have cars in most UK cities and even in some quite small places. And there are maybe enough in London that it would just about do. There are still several within 10-15 mins walk of my front door. So I'm considering switching membership from Zipcar.

Has anyone used it?

Another reason to dump Zipcar is that they are annoying me with their email circulars that suggest people use Zipcars to do journeys and days out in and around London that are perfectly feasible by public transport. That's not what they are supposed to be for.

 

[teuchter]

We are up in Glasgow on holiday, based in the city centre, doing some cultural stuff and then day trips to the Trossachs when dry to go walking.

Have joined the Co-wheels car club. There are 5 cars within a 15 min walk of our flat, two of which are electric (Renault Zoe and BMW i3). Costs are £28.50 for 24 hours.

We’ve hired the electric cars twice and have booked them three times next week. The range is enough to get us out and back on a single charge.

The website booking is straightforward although the app is a bit clunky. We extended our hire period for a couple of hours last night with a few clicks as we were swimming in Loch Lomond so back later than expected.

Car Share: Co Wheels Car Club | Co Wheels

With hourly car rental, you can hire a car with ease. The Co Wheels Car Club is a great alternative to owning your own car. Join up, find a car share, and go.

www.co-wheels.org.uk

looks like this has UK wide coverage, but a lot more patchy than Enterprise, unfortunately.