

Enterprise Rent-A-Car vs. Zipcar - anderzole
http://www.marco.org/307236055

======
Brushfire
Zipcar is really a great concept, I've used it many times. That said, the
author forgot to compare on one key segment: price. And that's where the
companies differ in their model. Zipcar is about $75/day, where most rental
cars are significantly less than that. But you cant rent them by the hour. And
Zipcar wont come pick you up. And Zipcar charges a membership fee.

There is a place for both of these companies in the market, so a comparison
like this is kind of like comparing chartered flights to Southwest. That's not
to say the big nationals couldnt learn lessons from zipcar, like the audio
jacks, reasonable insurance plans, etc.

~~~
evansolomon
When you factor in gas, Zipcar can easily be cheaper. If you live in SF, for
instance, Zipcar is most likely the cheapest way to rent a car to go to Tahoe.
On a trip last year my (Zip)car beat the other car by about $20 after all was
said and done. So the $75/day can be misleading at times.

Also, unrelated, Zipcar allows members who are under 25, which makes it much
more expensive to rent a car from a traditional place like Enterprise. Being
currently under 25, this is a massive benefit.

~~~
Brushfire
Interesting. I'm based in Chicago.

That said, I literally just drove the San Fran to Tahoe drive after visiting
VC firms in the bay area 2 weeks ago. We did it in a National rented vehicle
(granted it was carrying 7 people..) and our gas bill was only $90. And that
was in a Toyota Sequoia, so I've got to assume a compact car would be
something like $40-$50 (feel free to correct me). If you rented the car for
$30/day (normal rental, not a Sequoia), then it would be way cheaper.

    
    
      Rental  $30*4 + $40 = $160
      Zipcar  $75*4 = $300
    

I'm not trying to argue unnecessarily, I just see Zipcar as smart for trips <
2 days only. I think that's the customer they are targeting, too. Also, its
great to know that as gas prices go up, Zipcar becomes a better option.

~~~
smokey_the_bear
On ZipCar I can get a Subaru Impreza for $66/day. For a three day Tahoe trip,
that's a great deal. Renting a 4wd drive vehicle from a rental agency is way
more than $30 a day.

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staunch
Not that I have much love for Enterprise, but I think this is a pretty biased
review.

* Claiming Enterprise locations are in bad parts of town may be true where you live. There's one a block from me, in a very nice part of town.

* Leaving out the fact that Zipcar requires an application to join (which takes days to process).

* Zipcar requires a $50 annual membership + $25 per family member

* A spotless driving record and that you've had your license for over 1 year.

* Enterprise is cheaper in many cases ( _always_ if you have your own insurance that covers a rental).

Zipcar seems like a cool little company, and I hope they destroy Enterprise.
Right now they're a bit lame in a few areas.

~~~
natrius
_"Claiming Enterprise locations are in bad parts of town may be true where you
live."_

I think it's a near-universal occurrence. Traditional car rentals are based on
warehousing cars at airports and on low-cost land elsewhere. Car sharing is
based on cars parked within walking distance.

Zipcar isn't really structured for trip rentals. It's for regular but
infrequent secondary transportation. The membership, application, and cost
make sense for that use case.

~~~
dnsworks
I live in SOMA (San Francisco) on Folsom between 3rd Street & 2nd street.
There is an Enterprise on Folsom between 3rd Street & Folsom, right next to
Twitter. Draw your own conclusions.

~~~
natrius
I missed a third place where they often show up: downtowns.

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old-gregg
On a sunny weekend:

Enterprise - you call, make a reservation, get a car.

Zipcar - you've get a choice of 0 (zero) available cars within walking
distance from your apartment.

That's how two first weekends of being a Zipcar member went for me. I
cancelled my membership without ever seeing a Zipcar.

~~~
pyre
> _Enterprise - you call, make a reservation, get a car._

Not necessarily. It's possible for Enterprise to also run out of vehicles.

~~~
awa
Usually, they'll get another car for you from another enterprise dealer or
give you a free upgrade. I have made multiple reservations with enterprise
till now and haven't hit the same problem. I am sure its possible but I
haven't heard people talking about it,

Also, some of the points in the article are plain wrong. I have rented from
enterprise in AZ (Tucson) and CA (Mountain View) and both times the location
was convenient plus they picked me up!

Regarding the Saturday/Sunday, Enterprise dealers closed on sunday run a 3 day
promo in which you get a 50% off, In grad school I used to plan many trips
during the weekend so I can save some bucks on the rental.

Also, the insurance rates are available on the site and if you cough up about
$10/day you are off the hook for damage to the car.

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ben1040
Enterprise is actually moving into the hourly space, with a separate brand
called WeCar. Works exactly like Zipcar (reserve online, pay for gas with a
fleet card, hourly rentals, every car is a hybrid). A coworker of mine uses it
and loves it.

I don't think Zipcar will kill Enterprise, though, because they really seem to
compete for different groups of customers. Enterprise's bread and butter is
replacement vehicles for people who are having their current cars repaired
(probably for a couple days or a week), and they pretty much seem to have a
lock on that market. Nearly every time I've needed a loaner from a garage or
body shop, they've sent me to Enterprise.

~~~
pyre
> _every car is a hybrid_

While this may be true of WeCar, not _all_ ZipCars are hyrids. At least not in
my experience.

~~~
dnsworks
I probably used ZipCar 100+ times this year, and I am not sure that I ever
used a hybrid. I know I never used a Prius (none are ever available in the 8
lots within 2 blocks of my apartment)

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pmorici
I've had nothing but great experiences with Enterprise. Then again it sounds
like the author is very picky about his vehicles.

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unohoo
this post is pretty lop-sided and in some aspects makes no sense to me.

>> Enterprise: Despite the nice Japanese cars advertised on the website, most
real-world cars stocked are cheap, lifeless Chevy Random Numbers

Does it really matter what make the rental is ? As long as it meets your space
and other requirements, i dont give a shit if its japanese or korean or
american.

>> Enterprise: You can only pick up and return cars during limited business
hours, and they’re closed on Sundays.It’s therefore impossible to rent a car
for only Saturday and Sunday, and if you’re arriving home from a trip later in
the evening than the branch’s closing time (usually around 6 PM), you need to
book the rental to include the entire following day.

That is so not true. Yes, their office is closed on sundays, so you cant
pickup a rental. but you can drop off the rental (they have drop off box for
keys).

>> Enterprise: Cars are kept in front of a sketchy office in a bad part of
town. Probably true for his city - but cant be generalized.

besides all these, the author never bothers to make any mention of the fact
that Enterprise folks will come pick you up for your rental. at times, that is
so much convenient.

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rufo
I suppose it depends on your use patterns, but I've usually taken advantage of
Enterprise's 50%-off Friday-thru-Monday special, which works well when I need
a nicer/larger car for a weekend. They've also fudged it for me a few times,
so I've picked up a car Saturday and kept it at the weekend rate until
Tuesday.

Also, between most major credit cards and most car insurance covering rental
damage, many people don't need to pay for the damage waiver.

I could see how Zipcar would be great if you live in an area where a car is
optional, but Enterprise has been fine for my limited rental needs.

~~~
smokey_the_bear
When I lived in San Francisco, I used to use ZipCar when I needed to pick
someone up at the airport late at night, even though I had my own car. The $8
was worth it to me to be able to park 300ft from my apartment.

------
msabalau
I think highly of both companies, although my use of each has varied
dramatically depending on my circumstances.

When I owned a car, and lived in the suburbs, Enterprise was great because I
already had insurance coverage. When I needed to rent from them because my car
was being repaired, they would come and pick me, which was great. In every
location I've been too, the staff has been very friendly and helpful--it was
no surprise to read that management practices at Enterprise had informed work
on Net Promotor Scores.

Now that I live in a city, and do not own a car, ZipCar is fantastic. The
annual insurance fee is less than a day's insurance cost at a traditional car
rental company. I can get chores done in just a couple of hours, so renting by
the hour is incredibly attractive, especially given the abundance available in
my neighborhood. I would likely pass by over 20 different Zipcars on the 10
minute walk to the nearest Enterprise outlet. Zipcar employees are also
incredibly friendly and proactively helpful on the phone.

Sometimes when companies have different policies and products, it's because
they are targeting different segments of the market, not because one is better
than the other.

------
smokey_the_bear
I love ZipCar, but the author doesn't mention the difference in price between
the two services. Zipcar costs $8-10 per hour and $66-101 per day depending on
the car and your plan. You can often rent cars from normal car rental agencies
for $20 a day (though with fees it ends up being 40).

One thing he didn't mention is that ZipCar is great for allowing multiple
drivers. Any ZipCar member can drive any car, no matter who rented it.

~~~
pyre
> _You can often rent cars from normal car rental agencies for $20 a day
> (though with fees it ends up being 40)_

That doesn't take into account whether or not you have your own insurance
(e.g. if you already have a car). It also doesn't take into account taxes.
IIRC, Multinomah County (the county where Portland, Oregon is) has a 15% tax
on rental vehicles. This is _on top_ of the Enterprise quoted price. I don't
know if ZipCar works this into their costs, but I don't remember ever seeing
this tax on an invoice from ZipCar.

I've had good experience from a customer service perspective with Enterprise,
but from a cost perspective, not so much. I once rented a car for a day from
them which was supposed to be ~$60. The final cost with insurance, taxes, etc
was over $100. On the other hand -- as a ZipCar member -- I can rent a ZipCar
for ~$69/day and that includes gas.

I was able to sign up for $25 (+ $10 for my wife) by signing up at the
Portland Gay Pride 'celebration' (I would say 'Gay Pride Parade,' but it was
at the tents _after_ the parade). We've also been able to get free credits
when we see their booths at other events (e.g. VegFest '09). I've also gotten
free credits for calling them to tell them that I saw the lights were left on
on one of their cars (I was at a bus stop that was near a ZipCar spot).

While I have no complaints about Enterprise customer service, I would say that
ZipCar is the Zappos of car rental (though I may be wrong since I've never
interacted with Zappos; I'm only guessing based on all the stories I hear).

~~~
jluxenberg
Re: rental car tax, interesting article about the rental tax on Zipcars;
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121383390638486797.html>

Bottom line, the rental car tax was intended to tax tourists and Zipcar has
been fighting against it because most Zipcar members are locals without a car.
In some states the tax laws are such that Zipcar is forced to collect a fee
every time you reserve a car.

------
natrius
While we're talking about car sharing, I'm a huge fan of the car2go model.
Basically, it's Zipcar except you can park in any public parking space instead
of having to return it to the spot where you picked it up. It looks like
they're trying to make most of their money from corporate contracts, such as
the City of Austin, which is the only customer during the pilot phase. They're
probably also writing some of it off as advertising. It's run by Daimler and
all the cars are Smart Fortwos, which I see pretty much every day now. It's
not open to the public yet in Austin, but between that, the bus and a folding
bike to make half car2go, half bike trips more feasible, I wouldn't need my
rarely used car at all.

[http://www.car2go.com/portal/austin/page/mybookings/mapEnlar...](http://www.car2go.com/portal/austin/page/mybookings/mapEnlarged.faces)

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physcab
I used to be a happy Zipcar member. I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of
$600 that year on reservations and whatnot. Then I unfortunately backed up
into a tree. I paid the $500 fine. Then they closed my account. Back to my
bike.

