Saturday, April 7, 2012

20 Reasons Why I Heart Zipcar

Hi y'all!

The last couple of months have been cra-zay!  Let's recap from three days before Christmas:  Quit my job. Break my shoulder. Christmas. Get a job. New Years. Sell most of my belongings. Sell my car. Pack the rest of my stuff. Put my house on the market. Move to a boarding house in Philly for two long months.   Start a new job.  Start physical therapy. A lot of fighting with the banks about my mortgage.  Order all new stuff.  Move into my apartment.  Assemble two small chests, one dresser, one desk, a bed frame, three closet Elfa units.  Movers arrive with my stuff.  Mom arrives to help me un-pack.  Shoulder declared healed. Un-pack, organize, and unpack some more.   Do my taxes. Take a nap.

So that (and a whole lot of working) is what has been keeping me busy.  It is also the reason why my brain has had no energy for fun things like blogging.  Now I am down to finishing a couple of decorative touches, waiting on the last two pieces of furniture (a lamp, and a side table) to be delivered.  I will show you pictures sometime soon.

But today's post isn't about my apartment, or living in a new place.  Today my post is about the fantastic, amazing, convenient, smartest service I have ever signed up for.  I am here to declare it today.  I am in love with Zipcar.







I know most of you reading this live in the burbs, or at least in a city with enough urban sprawl that having a car is a must. As a city girl, most of the time I get around by foot or bus, and very occasionally, by cab.  All of that public transportation works great until I need to make a grocery store run, or go somewhere that will have me hauling more than two bags back home.

Zipcar = best. invention. ever!  Basically, I pay a monthly membership fee to Zipcar.  For that I get a swipe card that serves as my key to all the Zipcars in the city.  I can get online, on my iPhone, iPad, or even call an 800 number, and reserve a car for a few hours or for a whole day.  The cars are about $10/hour or $80/day to rent.  Oh, and the insurance, parking, maintenance, and gas is all included. When it is a $12 cab ride just to get to Target, this is a smokin deal!

I love Zipcar so much, as I was driving one today, I made a mental list of all the reasons why I love it:

1. It is super convenient.
2. There are about 15 Zipcar locations with several cars each within a 5 minute walk of my apartment.
3. The cars are clean.
4. The cars have gas.
5. The cars have reserved spots.  This is a big, freaking deal in the city.
6. I have reserved cars as much as a day in advance, and as little as 1 hour in advance.  There is always a car.
7. I have learned to bundle my errands.  I keep running lists for the grocery store, Target, Lowes, and Ikea on my phone.  I also keep a running bag for Goodwill donations in the closet, and drop off a load whenever I get a car.
8. Because I bundle my errands, I don't do much impulse shopping.
9. It gives me a chance to see more of the city, see my good friend in New Jersey, and try out restaurants outside of my normal perimeter.
10. I don't have to pay to park my own car.
11. I don't have to pay to insure my own car.
12. I don't have to pay for a car that would sit in a garage 90% of the time.
I3. Because I don't have a car, I don't have to chauffeur customers when the come to town.  (My new employer is very serious about visitors never having to deal with transportation, even if they arrive at 2am.)
14. If Zipcar has to change your reservation unexpectedly, they upgrade your car.  I was once upgraded to a BMW.
15.  You get to "test drive" lots of different cars.
16. If you forget/lose your key card, you can unlock your car from the phone.
17. For the first time in 20 years, I don't have the responsibility of a car, but I still have the freedom of having one.
18. You can reserve the car type that fits your needs for the day - compact hybrid to SUV.
19. All of the cars come with a built in AUX chord for plugging in your iPhone.
20. I don't even know what the price of gas is right now.

There it is 20 reasons why I heart Zipcar!

I will be back soon with a peek or two of my place.  In the mean time, I hope you have a wonderful Easter holiday!





1 comment:

  1. I know what you mean, Carrie. Well, we do own a car but the last two years here in Korea we've hardly driven it. We live on a small base and everything is in walking distance. I am not looking forward to returning to the world of driving everywhere when we move to AL this summer.

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