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I was a heavy user of car2go from Sep-Dec last year (~$500/month) due to commitments that largely required me in two places at once. I have used the service for about two years now, though, and excluding that period of four months have an average monthly spend in the neighbourhood of $150.

In general, I have been overwhelmingly happy with the service. I live in Vancouver and there is always a car within a few blocks. Parking is really well coordinated too. You can park basically anywhere except the downtown core. Within downtown there is a great abundance of dedicated spots which mean you aren't left walking very much.

car2go meets a good inflection point between cost and convenience. Using a taxi would increase the cost substantially and only marginally increase convenience. Owning a car would keep the cost about the same and substantially reduce the convenience.

There is only one true issue I have with car2go and it is with the computers in the car: they are slow, crash easily (and take forever to restart), and the network signal is sometimes touchy. This has sometimes added an extra 10-15 minutes to my rentals.

That said, their customer service is consistently great and very forgiving. Every time the takes-forever-to-end-a-rental scenario has happened, car2go offered to refund the entire trip and throw in free minutes as a bonus. If I was in a rush, they said I could go do what I needed to do and come end the rental later in the day.

All in all, it has been a positive experience with car2go and I will continue to be an active member. My only wish is that I could get some savings out of my usage, maybe with a frequent-driver program :)




Yeah, the onboard computer is a joke. In Stuttgart they have electric Smarts, and those are much more fun than the convential ones. Like auto scooter or something.




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