Car Share (Pittsburgh: rental car, rentals, house)

[jersey224]

Has anyone used Philly Car Share/ZipCar or any other type of rentals in the city? If so, what are your thoughts and/or suggestions?

[hellophila!]

I've used carshare through my employer. Because the company pays the tab, I can't speak to price but as far as convenience and ease of setting up and changing reservations, it is great! In my experience, the customer service has also always been incredibly helpful and friendly. There are places to pick up cars all over the city so you never need to go far to get your rental.

[niceguy19125]

ZipCar is the way to go. The Philly-centric crowd will say PhillyCarShare, but should you actually ever decide to leave this 'burg and travel elsewhere, you'd be able to use your ZipCar membership in other cities. I've never had any issues with ZipCar since joining three years ago, and love it. I've used it in two other cities where it's been cheaper than the traditional rental car companies. http://www.zipcar.com/philadelphia/r...search-by-time

[Joe84323]

Zipcar is far more expensive than Phillycarshare. They're really not competitive at all, which led me to choose Phillycarshare. If you're in another city, you're probably going to want to rent a car.

[solibs]

Originally Posted by Joe84323

Zipcar is far more expensive than Phillycarshare. They're really not competitive at all, which led me to choose Phillycarshare. If you're in another city, you're probably going to want to rent a car.

actually, the price, customer service and reliability are what made me leave PCS for Zipcar.

Zipcar is more expensive per hour but you don't pay mileage and the annual fee adds up to a lot less than the PCS monthly fees. That and since Zipcars always have gas cards in them you never have to worry about faxing in your gas receipts and, as a result, the cars are usually filled up.

PCS has agreements with carsharing orgs in other cities but I don't know that much about it. When I went to Pittsburgh I stayed downtown and took the bus or light rail just about everywhere I needed to go. I really wanted to go check out Falling Water which is about an hour outside of the city. Zipcar was perfect. I did the same thing in Toronto last year. It's the same thing if you go to Boston or San Francisco or Chicago. You don't need a car but they do come in handy sometimes.

[gvillager]

Originally Posted by solibs

actually, the price, customer service and reliability are what made me leave PCS for Zipcar.

I did the same thing. Zipcar is definitely the better value if you use it for long 100+ mile trips. PCS is better for short trips around the city.

[jersey224]

Sounds good! thanks for all of the info! I will only be needing a car 1 time per week to go around the city, so it sounds you guys are saying philly car share will be my best bet, even though I have to pay for miles

[solibs]

Originally Posted by jersey224

so it sounds you guys are saying philly car share will be my best bet, even though I have to pay for miles

sit down and price them both out.

With PCS, if your trips are typically less than 6 miles then that's the better bet.

For me, I don't need a car to get around the city. That's what the bus and subway and taxis are bicycles are for. I need a car to get out of the city. Going to the beach. Going to that giant movie theater in Cherry Hill. Going to visit my in-laws. Et cetera.

[KansastoSouthphilly]

I agree that zipcar has better service and pricing. I still use PCS because they have a pod a block from my house and the closest zipcar is ~10 blocks away.

I would take pod location into your decision as well.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by jersey224

, so it sounds you guys are saying philly car share will be my best bet, even though I have to pay for miles

nope, didn't say that...and not the consensus, but do what you want.