Episode 239 - How Zipcar works - a car sharing Toronto adventure

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Car sharing services such as Zipcar and AutoShare essentially rent cars, but they're not your father's car rental agencies. For one thing, you can rent a car for as little as one hour. Secondly, you have the pick of a fleet of cool cars you will actually enjoy driving such as Mini Coopers, Toyota Priuses, Mustang convertibles, pickup trucks and even BMWs. They're parked all over the city, and none of them are older than 3 years. As a member, you can book the car of your choice via PC or smartphone, walk up to that car on the reserved time, unlock the car, and drive off.

In a Zipcar, the doors are locked and unlocked with a RFID card you wave against the windshield and the car keys are actually in the car itself. There is no lineups or paperwork to sign, and the cars are ready for use 24 hours a day. The price? The hourly rental cost is roughly $10-$13 an hour with gas, insurance and mileage up to 200 km are included. There is also a one-time $75 application fee and, depending on your usage, a maximum $55 annual fee.

Even better, the TTC recently announced a partnership with Zipcar where Metropass holders can sign up for Zipcar with free activation and a $30 annual fee.

AutoShare is a similar service to Zipcar, although it lacks some of the convenient tech features. Instead of a RFID card, you obtain the car keys via a lockbox and you need to manually pencil in your mileage in a logbook in the visor. Zipcar also gives you access to their network in cars in cities all over North America. However, AutoShare is Canadian owned and operated and offers a slightly lower hourly rate.

You can imagine the possibilities carsharing can provide. In minutes, you can rent a car to pick someone at the airport or rent a SUV to take home furniture. For urban condo dwellers or folks who only need a car once in a while, we think it's a fun, environmentally friendly, convenient and cheap alternative to buying a second car, a bigger car, or even any car at all.

Zipcar locations near The Beach (Note: locations may be added or moved in the future): * Queen St East/Elmer Ave. * Kingston Rd/Southwood Dr * Main St/Gerrard St * 76 Kingston Rd * Danforth Ave/Barrington Ave * Woodbine Ave/Danforth Ave * Danforth Ave/Greenwood Ave

AutoShare locations near The Beach (Note: locations may be added or moved in the future): * Kingston Rd. & Queen (Days Inn) * 145 Strathmore (West of Greenwood) * Coxwell TTC * Woodbine TTC * 2301 Danforth Ave * Main & Danforth (Sobeys) * Gerrard & Coxwell * Woodbine & Queen * Queen St. E & Waverley * Kingston Rd. & Main * Queen & Leslie

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• George O'Neill
• Toronto real estate
• beach real estate
• beaches real estate
• O'Neill Real Estate
• vlog
• zipcar
• autoshare
• carsharing
• mini
• cooper
• ttc
• car sharing

[DelaRosaCorral]

so whehn you have a ttc metropass, you get to sign up without any fees and you immediately get a zipcard and have access to zipcars?

[oneillrealestate]

@DelaRosaCorral It's more like having $55 off the initial fee to join Zipcar. You still need to sign up for the service and you still need to pay per use to reserve a Zipcar.

[adymalady]

is the ttc pass deal ongoing?

Thanks