2arrs, 2ells - Enterprise Rent-A-Car vs. Zipcar

30th December 2009

Post reblogged from Marco's stuff with 87 notes

Enterprise Rent-A-Car vs. Zipcar

Marco wrote up a great Enterprise vs. Zipcar comparison. He’s at least 90% right — legacy rental car companies are just as backwards as legacy airlines. And Zipcar is doing a ton of innovative things (I can’t wait to try their iPhone app that can lock/unlock the car remotely). That said, I have a few quibbles…

marco:

Enterprise: Minimum 1-day rental, but since they’re closed on Sundays, you often need to buy more than you need. Calendar days, not total time, are charged: renting from Monday, 9 AM to Tuesday, 8 AM is a two-day rental.
Zipcar: Minimum 1-hour rental. But there’s an unfortunate maximum of 3 days. Billing is done by the half-hour, and the day rate is truly 24 hours: renting from Monday, 9 AM to Tuesday, 8 AM is a one-day rental.

This isn’t the case for the legacy rentals I’ve done in the past (mostly through Avis), nor is it the case for a rental I just looked up on Enterprise.com (take a look). Enterprise is even a tad flexible for a 25 hour rental - they charge you for one day and one hour (although the hourly rate is about a third of the day rate!).

Enterprise: Cars are kept in front of a sketchy office in a bad part of town. Fake smalltalk with the employees is required when picking up and dropping off cars.
Zipcar: Cars are kept in lots or garages in upscale urban-residential neighborhoods. Pickup requires, at most, telling a garage attendant which car you need. Dropoff requires no interaction whatsoever.

This is a misleading comparison for two reasons:

Zipcar doesn’t have cars at airports. Legacy rental companies have their biggest locations at airports. If you’re traveling, going with a legacy rental saves significant time.
Most legacy rental companies have programs (Avis Preferred, Hertz #1 Club Gold) that you can sign up for to spare you the hassle of the desk clerk - you enter all of your billing information in advance, and then you can walk straight to your car when you get to the rental location. Caveat - I’m Avis Preferred, but it didn’t work the past two times I tried to rent from Avis.

Enterprise: Picking up takes a half hour (assuming there’s no line) of paperwork with the paranoia-inducing clipboard walkaround. Every scratch and scuff are stressful: Is that big enough to count? How about that? Did I do that?
Zipcar: Picking up only takes longer than a few seconds if a garage attendant needs to get the car out. You’re supposed to do a quick look around for noticeable damage and call them if you find any. I never have.

A walkaround while picking up a car? I’ve never heard of this. My understanding was with both legacy rental companies + Zipcar that the burden was on the renter to report any damage on pickup. Then, the rental company checks for damage on return. I know that some of the cheapo legacy rental companies generate a ton of revenue on damage reports, but I’ve never had any problems with Avis.

Enterprise: You must pay any tolls you encounter in cash, so you not only need to have enough cash on hand, but you usually need to wait in the much slower and longer lines for the cash toll booths.
Zipcar: All cars have EZpass, with charges automatically passed through to your account.

Some of the legacy rental companies are imitating Zipcar and doing this as well (Avis in Colorado has it), but with ridiculous fees attached.

Enterprise: My most recent Enterprise car’s exterior and glass were covered in salt residue.
Zipcar: The cars are always clean, being detailed regularly by their garages’ staff.

My anecdotal evidence goes the other way (I always have spotless legacy rentals and have had some mildly grungy Zipcars). Legacy rentals should be cleaned before every use, while Zipcars can’t (they’re often booked back to back).

Overall: Enterprise is so expensive and miserable that I think I might start limiting my trips to 3 days just so I can use Zipcar instead. I wish Zipcar would extend the limit to 4-5 days, but I understand why they don’t.

Zipcar is fantastic in cities where you don’t need a car: New York, Boston, and San Francisco (and maybe DC, Portland, and Philadelphia?). If you live in one of these places, Zipcar is awesome for running errands or afternoon escapes. And if you’re visiting, Zipcar lets you see places out of the reach of public transport (i.e. Muir Woods & Walden Pond), but saves you from overnight parking and all of the other hassles.

I don’t see the point in multiday Zipcar use like Marco is wishing for. First, Zipcar is significantly more expensive. I just checked rates for a weekday rental in Cambridge, MA in January:
Zipcar: $79/day for a Honda Civic (gas, insurance included)
Avis: $42/day for an “Intermediate” car (no gas, no insurance, taxes included)
Even if you use Zipcar’s full 180 mile allowance, that’s 6-7 gallons of gas or something like $20 of value. I’m not even going to try to calculate the worth of insurance, but most people have some sort of coverage already (either through a credit card, or their own insurance).

Additionally, you lose the ability to pick up or drop off at the airport (n.b. airport rentals have insane taxes associated with them, because city governments love to tax out of town travelers).

One word of warning — be careful with late returns of a Zipcar! There can be a hefty fine (and a pissed off renter) waiting for you if you get stuck in traffic or lost on your way back to the Zipcar spot. I learned (the hard way) to reserve an extra half hour or so of flex time at the end of my reservation.

Zipcar has their own comparison vs. legacy rental car companies. I think it’s pretty fair - with the exception of insurance (see above) and underage fees (these are easily waived with the legacy carriers with a bit of googling, for example)

Tagged: rental car travel advice

Source: marco