ZipCar after a year

We’ve been using ZipCar for a year now. I would have to declare it a big success. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, we had two bad experiences during the year. One time someone was late getting back so I didn’t get the car on time. The other time someone didn’t leave the key in the car. The last issue has been addressed. Now ZipCars have the keys attached under the steering wheel via a retractable cord, so you can remove the keys from the ignition but you have to leave them in the care.

Over the course of the year, ZipCar has added a bunch of cars in a garage that is super close (the same garage we used to park our car in). Most of the time I can get a car in that garage.

How much did we save? Well, here are our monthly ZipCar costs.

That’s a grand total of just under $1,500 for the year. But those aren’t our only costs. We often took the train up to my wife’s sister’s place when we would have driven if we owned a car (though I’ve actually come to prefer the train). Let’s say we did that 6 times over the year with a total cost of around $100/trip for the whole family.

If we are out and our nanny is working late we need to drive her home. Last year I’d drive her myself (unless we were drinking). These days we call a car service. Let’s say that happened twice a month at $25 each.

That’s pretty much it. Let’s assume there were a few times where we took a cab when we would have driven if we had a car. Say that happened once a month at $30 each.

Car replacement costs in 2009:

• ZipCar: $1,500
• Trains: $600
• Car Service: $600
• Extra cabs: $360

Total: $3060.

What were our car costs in 2008? When you factor in the lease, insurance, garage, maintenance and gas it ran around $900/month. That’s a bit over $10,000 for the year.

So we saved about $7,000. In a tight year, that’s a huge deal (actually, a huge deal any year). But what did we lose in terms of convenience?

Well, we had the two bad experiences and overall the cars, while pretty nice, were not as nice as our Acura MDX. But I never had to take a car to the shop, worry about registration, state inspection or anything like that. Overall I’d say the convenience factor was a wash but there was a car quality downgrade.

Given the amount that we drive, ZipCar was a big win.