Originally Posted by
lostarchitect
Also, you cannot compare the cost for a rental car from a rural location or in the suburbs to what they cost in the city. Rental cars are MUCH more expensive if you rent in the city than if you rent outside of it. In that context Zipcars don't look so expensive, especially when only used for a couple hours.
They are more expensive inside of the city. True. When I lived in Brooklyn I would actually take the train down to Newark, grab the rental and drive back up to Brooklyn. But that's NYC. Its a different beast. Out here in PDX, I sometimes take the train out to Beaverton and get rentals at better rates and without Multnomah county's rental car tax. I just do not find using a car for two hours practical, however. A grocery run like an earlier poster talked about has got to be better performed with a bike and trailer (or panniers)!. Shopping serious enough to need a rental car takes an hour minimum... realization dawns... CrankyOne uses one rental to get to the Whole Foods, turns it in so as to be off the clock and then grabs another to go home... that only works if you get discounts for partial hour rentals. Is that the case? No matter how you slice and dice it. The smart way to use rental cars is as little as possible. Then when it is unavoidable, max out the value of the 24 hour period you have paid for by making multiple trips.