ZipCar Review: 5 Notes on Renting a Daily Car

We went several years owning a Nissan Leaf and a mid-size SUV. But when the SUV was in the shop for two months, we needed a car that would go more than 80 miles – not a lot but just for a few trips.

I had heard of ZipCars for years and was seriously curious about whether they were an actual option for non-car owners. So, our situation seemed like a perfect chance to try out ZipCar. I got an account and ended up booking four trips. Here are my notes.

It Requires A Bit of Planning

I’m within a 20-minute walk of three ZipCar locations, which have two cars each. I needed the car on two Saturdays in a row. There were usually three cars available when I checked, except that my plans kept changing slightly. The tee time shifted, lunchtime started, I needed to make another stop, etc.- all the usual plan changes that happen in 2024.

Those plan changes really messed with my booking times. When it was all said and done, I had one choice truly available. It was going to require a 10-minute jog in the heat rather than a 20-minute walk to get the car on time.

There is a very expensive penalty for returning the car late. Given the unpredictability of Atlanta traffic, I usually had to book for much longer than I actually needed, even if I still had to pay a $40 penalty on one trip due to I-20 being shut down for a multi-car wreck.

If ZipCar was my only form of out-of-city driving, I would get used to the planning and booking. But coming from a car sitting outside my house, the planning was a lot more than I expected.

It’s Not That Cheap…but Still Not Too Expensive

When I booked in advance, my daily rate was between $75 and $130 for a sedan, plus taxes (10%) in Atlanta / Fulton / Georgia and the cost of fuel. It had unlimited daily miles.

Two of my trips were about 40 miles round trip, and two others were 200 miles round trip. Based purely on cost per mile, the 200-mile trips were very reasonable. The 40-mile trips…not so much.

And TBH – it was not that cheap. It was much more expensive than I expected. However, total car ownership is much more expensive than anyone estimates. When I started doing the math, ZipCar is a pretty good deal…if you only use it a couple of times monthly and do not own your car. It makes zero sense if you already own a vehicle.

You Are Still Very Dependent on Technology

The technology behind ZipCar is incredible. It’s wild that I can download an app to my phone and…take a car.

But since there’s no ZipCar store or in-person option, when the technology inevitably does not work…it is absolutely awful.

Out of four trips, I had one where the car and app would not sync, and I could not end my trip (and remember the penalties for returning late). It was a 98F Sunday evening in an empty MARTA subway parking lot with no access to restrooms or food services and a solid 30-minute walk back to my house, and the car was beeping and going nuts.

I ended up staying on hold for more than an hour with customer service – who, since they could not get electronic access to the car – just assumed that I had done something shady.

After being my nicest, most pragmatic, problem-solving self with 3 different ZipCar reps for more than 45 more minutes…I finally got a supervisor who told me how to do a valid walk-around video, what pictures to take, and how to send all the documentation to her on my phone so I could finally leave and walk home.

It was not ideal at all. Honestly, it was an experience that would have made me question any car-free lifestyle in America and just buy a car.

It’s Definitely a Shared Car

The cars were fine, but I could absolutely tell that they were cleaned and maintained by regular people, not paid employees under management. One car wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t a car I wanted to sit in for five hours, so I grabbed a rag and diluted Dawn to wipe it down before driving.

The maintenance seemed fine, but I was also slightly paranoid about stuff breaking. ZipCar, again, relies 100% on sensors and technology to manage their cars. But technology doesn’t always work. And when it comes to tires, batteries, and oil levels in very remote areas of Georgia with no cellphone signal…I don’t want to trust technology. I want to know if the owner has a maintenance system.

It’s Great That ZipCar Exists…but This Isn’t What I Thought

I’m glad ZipCar exists. Car ownership should be a luxury, not a basic requirement for living, especially in the sixth largest metro in the United States. Anyone should have freedom of mobility without a car. That said, America is a big country, so a service like ZipCar should be perfect.

However, ZipCar, in reality, reminds me a lot of public transit in America. I’m so glad that it exists. I will campaign for its existence and investment…but is this it? It’s just not very good or dependable in practice.

Car culture in America has led to this awful feedback loop: Since there is not a lot of demand for non-car mobility, there’s not a lot of support, so there’s not a lot of good service, so there’s even more demand for cars, and on and on.

But! Even if long car trips are still the domain of car ownership, most trips are less than 2 miles. And every single one of those can be via bike, which is a mode of transportation continually getting better in America.

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