Zipcars For Apartment Renters Near Arizona State

Wednesday, October 28 2009 07:02

Are you and your friends living in Tempe apartments near Arizona State without wheels of your own?  Are you trying to save cash by using mass transit but find grocery shopping and other chores inconvenient?  What if I told you that you don’t have to own a car, but can rent one for as little as an hour $8 per hour?  Wow, $8, that’s less than the cost of a pizza.

Go to www.zipcar.com where they’ll show you that “there are lots of Zipcars at Arizona State University” near your Tempe or Phoenix apartments.  And their user friendly website will show you the “four simple steps to zipcar freedom.”  

The company issues all subscribers an RFID (radio frequency identification) card.  Users make a reservation to use a specific vehicle at a predetermined Zipcar location then take their RFID card called a Zipcard, to that location and hold it against a card reader in the windshield of the rental car.  This card reader acknowledges the reservation and unlocks the car doors.  The RFID card is used throughout the rental period to lock and unlock the doors.   According to Zipcar, no one can start the car without the correct Zipcard.

When the customer is done with the Zipcar, he or she returns it to its reserved Zipcar location and locks the car with the Zipcard.
Zipcard has an iPhone app that allows customers to find and reserve cars and a mobile website for other smartphones.  The company also provides text alerts to customers near the end of their reservation.
Zipcar has a variety of models at several locations near ASU in Tempe.  As of October 2009, the company had five locations on ASU’s Tempe campus with eleven vehicles.  They have a Cooper Mini, a Honda Odyssey Minivan, 2-Toyota Prius, a Scion xB, a Toyota Yaris, 2- Honda Civic Hybrids, a Toyota Tacoma Pickup, a Honda Element and a Toyota Matrix.  And each vehicle has a cute name like “Pershell” a Toyota Prius at Vista del Sol.
Did I mention that gas and insurance are included?  There is a fuel card in each vehicle and you use the card inside to fill the tank at the nearest station to Rancho Las Palmas when you are at ¼ tank.  The website even has a demo of how this works.
There is an application fee of $25 to join Zipcar and a $50 per year annual fee.  You must be 21 years old and there are some licensing requirements and you must not have had any major violations in the last three years (these are all clearly explained on the website).  The upfront fees are pretty minor when you consider the cost of insurance and maintenance when you own a car.   Zipcar is a bargain.
So, if you can’t currently afford a car or don’t want the hassle and expense, you might try Zipcar and have the best of both worlds—access to a car and minimal expenses.