Comments on: Car-less in Seattle: Flexcar 101

By: Michael GR

Michael GR — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 00:31:06 +0000

Thanks for taking the time to write this. It is very interesting to have a first hand account of car-sharing.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 05:15:34 +0000

You can also keep the car from midnight to 7 am for no charge,
Alas, they got rid of this last winter. :( It used to be the bestest thing, too… I’d do all my shopping late at night, with a free car. :)

By: Bruce

Bruce — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 20:43:35 +0000

It still has a prepaid hours program; but they’ve dropped the miles section. You can buy one of several packages. I’ve found that their various discounted packages make it worthwhile. I’m a UDub employee and for the small price of $7.20 an hour, you can take advantage of pretty cheap rentals. You can also keep the car from midnight to 7 am for no charge, especially if you have kept one of their Freedom 7 cars all day. I’d check with flexcar.com on that last statement, just to be sure. However, a pretty good idea.

Looking forward to seeing how zipcar will do things here, though.

By: josh

josh — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 18:29:16 +0000

Regarding Christina’s point: I think that Flexcar used to have a similar hours + miles program in the olden days. They also used to not charge for any use between midnight and 7 am, which made using the cars for shows or social events a lot more economical.

It’s kind of too bad that there isn’t a way to make use of the time that the car’s just sitting there, but I guess coordinating multiple users and multiple drop off points would be a nightmare.

By: Christina

Christina — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 15:18:44 +0000

Flexcar charges by the hour (mileage is included) but some of the other car sharing companies (in other cities) charge by the hour ($2 or so) and THEN by the mile (19 cents or so). Technically this is more environmentally friendly, which I appreciate, but I have to admit my Type-A personality would be so riled up counting my miles all the time.

It will be interesting to see what ZipCar does. A lower by the hour + mileage plan would make me more able to justify the car for social events. I struggle with that too, Cat; hard to justify getting the Flexcar to go to a show in Ballard even though I really want to drive, not take two buses. If I weren’t paying so much while the car sat there, I’d be more inclined, I think.

By: Cat Nilan

Cat Nilan — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 11:45:31 +0000

I was just trying to figure out what the late return penalty is. Looks like you get charged at least $20 extra (plus the extra hourly charges for whatever time you use), with up to an additional $100 for “incurred costs” — which I guess might include comping another person’s hours, paying their cabfare, etc. If you call in in advance to let them know that you’ve been delayed they don’t charge you the penalty — but you’re still liable for the incurred costs. So that’s gotta hurt at least a little.

The hardest thing for us is using a Flexcar or a cab for social events. If it’s shopping it feels like a justified expense, but if it’s just dropping in on a party for an hour or two it seems somehow frivolous. But we’re trying hard to not let being car-less cramp our style, which includes getting out and having fun.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 00:09:06 +0000

Yeah, I’ve had my Flexcar going on two years as well, and I really like it. So far there’s always been one basically across the street, to use as my primary car, with several nearby as backup. I’ve not been so lucky with the members returning things on time; in fact, just today someone returned one 25 minutes late, and it took them nearly 45 minutes to call me back to work things out with me.

BUT – when someone does screw up and take the keys, or returns the car late, you benefit. Today, I got comped three hours, which was exactly how long I needed the car. Of course, if you’re the late person, you get to pay for at least a portion of that, but it’s incentive to not be late.

I think the hardest thing is the luxury thing. I really have to stop and think about whether or not the trip is “worth it”, or can be done via bus, if I’m just being lazy, etc. The other downside is that I do tend to hold off on my larger errands until I end up having to spend a lot of money, so it does physically feel like it hurts more up front (not to mention when you get the bill 3 weeks later).

Still, it’s infinitely cheaper than a car, insurance, and parking on the Hill would be. :)