Re:Kind of Pricey (Score 1)

A couple things to consider: Zipcar's price (in Boston, about $8/hr including tax) includes gas and insurance. For a rental car, gas and insurance could easily add another $30/day. Second, it's much easier to get your Zipcar than it is to get a rental car. With Zipcar, you just reserve the car online, then grab the car when your reservation starts. With a rental car, you have to go the rental car place, fill out the paperwork and spend the time dropping it off when you are done.

So, it depends on what you want the car for. If you need a car for several short trips per month, say, 5 2-hour trips to the grocery store, that will cost you about $80 and you avoid the hassle of getting the rental car. However, if you need the car for an entire weekend, it usually works out cheaper to get the rental car despite Zipcar's daily rate of about $50-60.

Also, you say that a "quick run to the store" can be done with public transportation. Boston has decent public transportation, but there are lots of places I need to go that would literally take an hour or two each way with all the bus transferring. So, it's worth $8/hr of my time to use the Zipcar.

Zipcar isn't perfect, though. It is too expensive to use when I want to go over to a friend's house and hang out for an extended period of time, say 3+ hours. Also, you have to make the reservation ahead of time, so you can't be flexible with your plans. For example, I used it for my soccer game the other night, and everyone wanted to go out for drinks afterwards, but I couldn't because I would have returned the Zipcar late, for which there is a fine of $25/hr.

On the whole, though, it's a great complement for public transportation. I'm happy because I'm spending less than $200/month on it, whereas leasing a car with gas, insurance, and maintainance would probably cost $500-600.