We take a look at pay-as-you-go rental schemes. Could they save you money? Could you live without your car?
What's the big idea?
In recent years we've seen the rise of commercial car clubs: companies offering cars for hire on an hourly basis, booked as and when you need to use them. These companies have thousands of cars throughout the country ready to drive away from convenient city-centre and suburban locations.
There are several operators (the big four are City Car Club, Streetcar, WhizzGo and Zipcar), but the basic idea is much the same: you pay a yearly membership charge and then go online (or make a phone call) to book a car when you need it. You then walk to the car, swipe your membership card over the windscreen to unlock it, and drive away.
The price varies from provider to provider but is typically in the region of £4-£6 per hour (including fuel). Between them the four majors cover Bath, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Guildford, Huddersfield, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Oxford, Sheffield, Southampton, St. Albans and York, with other cities to follow.
Internationally Zipcar (which started in Boston, MA, as far back as 1999) has cars in over 50 US cities and more than 100 university campuses. In Europe, GreenWheels is dominant in the Netherlands and Germany, but the country with the most car-sharers per capita is Switzerland, where the first clubs emerged in 1987.
Arguments for
Frugal. Unless you drive for a living, or drive to and from work, the yearly cost of using a pay-as-you-go car is a fraction of what you'd spend on car ownership. You don't have to worry about the cost of monthly repayments, depreciation, insurance, fuel (up to a daily mileage cap), road tax or residents' parking permits. If you live in London, some of the providers also factor in the cost of the Congestion Charge.
Fun. You get to try out a number of different vehicles and aren't tied-down to driving the same car day in, day out. Between them, the car clubs operate family hatchbacks, hybrids (Toyota Prius, Honda Insight), frugal diesels (Vauxhall Corsa Eco, VW Golf Bluemotion) and even Mini Coopers.
Green. For each pay-as-you-go car there are typically 30 car club members. If each of these members replace an existing car with car club membership this takes 29 cars off the road. The fewer cars there are on the road, the less carbon is expended in the production of new cars. In congested city centres this could lead to fewer parked cars which would lead to less driving around hunting for spaces (and the wasted fuel and unnecessary emissions this creates).
Convenience. Because many car clubs have locations in different cities somebody from Manchester, for instance, can use a car when they visit Birmingham or Edinburgh.
Arguments against
Availability. You can't guarantee that there will be a car available in a location convenient to you. Of course you can book far in advance, but you can't always drive away whenever the fancy takes you. Inevitably pay-as-you-go cars are more popular at the weekends, making spontaneous day trips less likely.
Ownership. There's a social status to car ownership that isn't always trumped by the satisfaction of doing one's bit for the environment. Some of the companies insist on plastering their cars with logos, making it impossible to pretend that you're driving your own wheels.
Other users. Although there are contractual penalties for breaking the rules, it's not uncommon to find the car you have booked hasn't arrived back yet, or that the interior is littered, or the fuel tank close to empty (car club members are expected to fill up the cars when necessary, using the pre-payment card in the glove compartment).
Pets. Quite understandably, most car clubs forbid the carrying of pets. But this can be hard on environmentally-minded dog walkers.
Longer journeys. Car clubs only really make sense for short, urban journeys. If you want to book a car for an entire weekend, or need to drive from city to city, then traditional rental cars are more cost-effective.
Related links
Smart idea? Have your say...
Would you ditch your own car if there was a car club vehicle parked on your street? Or could you not bear to share? Let us know your thoughts on pay-as-you-go cars.
More motoring schemes and ideas
So if you live in London have a heavily subsidised Public Transport System, don't have pets, children, need to travel spontaneously etc. etc. etc. it's a great idea. For the other 56 million we still need our cars because we don't have a bus or a train to get to work, and 20 miles is a bit much to walk. Also having the nearest supermarket half an hour away by car sort of makes it a necessity for those of us in the real world.
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silly
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Wow, what's next? Making this thing mandatory and telling you what to do some more? That is rediculous, if I want to use my car only for 4 hours a day, it is MY car, is nobody's business. I will use it as much as I want, whenever I want, and I don't have to share it with you, or have you or the company tell me HOW to use it, WHAT to do and what NOT to do in the car................Come on people, are you that blind, or do you just not get it? They will make this thing mandatory, plus, you drive from Sheffield to Manchester to work, keep it there for 8 hours, come back, go and drop it off, that is 10 hours at least, if you don't wanna go shopping after work, so then you work the day to pay off the company...................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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WOW, some people think they so righteous from keeping a car off the street......................HEY Idiot (pardon my French) it is still a bloody car on the street, you are still driving it, but instead, you are paying someone else for the car, not the insurance company...........................MORON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pardon my French again, I can't help it, some people are just too stupid, I can't hold it.................I have turett's syndrome..............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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AS much as I love owning a car, the depreciation we are expected to cover now is excessive and a major factor at looking at alternative ways. The car industry control the buy and sell prices, no matter what they say. The customer looses all round from the day he takes it from the showroom. Times are and will change, let us see if the car industry wakes up and gives us value for money
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paul millward said it all. The ultimate 'car share scheme' has been in place for years, the humble mini cab. As long as the price remains reasonable it is the best solution. If you have ever visited a country with low personal car ownership you'd notice the streets swarming with cabs. In the former soviet union you often see fleets of small minibuses driving fixed routes offering a bus type service for pennies and there's a bus along every two minutes at least.
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tree huggers should move out the city. Cars and the key to freedom, and the ability to express ones individualism. the long hair'd hippy lot should be able to understand that not all of us want to drive around in cars made from leaves that run on recycled urine. Some of us LOVE petrol, the smell, the sense of occasion of driving a real car. Electric cars are only viabale when your 8 years old.
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If you're in Manchester and need a car,van or minibus try using 'Spinning Wheels Vehicle Hire'. Very helpful staff with good prices
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unless you live next to the car pay as you go facility its sounds like a none runner to me as it defeats the object.having use other modes of transport to go and pick the car up...dont see the point in travelling a couple of miles to pick up a car , do your errands in it around town to then drop it of and make your way home
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Sounds like a great idea. I can drive but don't currently own a car so this could prove to be a a cost saving measure in the mean time. I have just signed up witha car share company so will see how it goes. the basic idea is a good one & in these eco friendly & money watching times quite important.
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