GM Car Owners With OnStar Now Can Be Their Own Rental Agencies 195
The Los Angeles Times reports that the world of micro-rentals just got a whole lot more crowded, with the introduction of a nationwide partnership between GM and ride-sharing company RelayRides. RelayRides has been arranging short-term car sharing in just a few cities for several years; car owners can sign up to make their own cars available for short-term rentals to others, so their expensive investment (especially in cities where parking is like a second apartment's rent) isn't sitting idle. Now, the two companies are rolling out that system in a much larger market: the rest of the U.S. Owners of GM cars new enough to be equipped with OnStar monitoring systems will be able to sign up to take part with the OnStar system providing the ability to unlock and track those cars remotely, which might make the bargain more attractive to many owners who'd like to earn money from their cars (and reduce the total number of cars needed in a given area), but reluctant to hand the keys to a stranger. (Cars without the system can still be enrolled, but will require a key hand-off.)
Re:Important reminder (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Important reminder (Score:5, Informative)
RelayRides will take a 40% cut and provide a $1-million insurance policy for the owner and $300,000 for the renter.
Re:Important reminder (Score:2, Informative)
Really? Because on their web page, they say the provide a $1 million liability insurance.
Re:Sweet (Score:5, Informative)
Seriously. I just had a rental with 5,000 miles on it. The thing looked, felt, drove, and smelled like it'd been used to drive angry pigs to and from a slaughterhouse by a lead-footed 9-day-old corpse with IBS. If there's one thing people don't give a fuck about, it's taking care of a rental.
Re:Sweet - Disagree (Score:5, Informative)
I've had a lot of people raise their eyebrow at this. They typically recount a story where they treated their rental like crap. But they've rented many cars. Most are rented at the airport by business people who drive to a hotel and an office, and back to the airport to go home. Most rentals are like that minus the horror stories you hear.
The nice thing about the Hertz program is that you rent the vehicle after finding it online near you. You can rent it for 3 days at $50/day. You get to drive it and see if the tire pressure sucks, or the car shimmies, or the tranny doesn't shift right. You bring it to a garage and have them inspect the car for damage and general road worthiness. If you decide to buy, you go to their website, click "Buy" and keep the car. They send you an fedex with all the paperwork, and even do financing through Chase or BoA. After you send them the downpayment, they send you the completed registration and plates for your state. You can even transfer your old plates if you sell your old car separately. I dumped a 100k+ mileage Honda Accord hybrid on CarMax. They paid me 4k for it, and the AC didn't work and there was significant body damage. We now have a 2011 late model SUV with 37k miles, the AC works, and the car has been like a dream in comparison. Gets the same mileage, and is from a reputable Japanese manufacturer.
For all those who are going to reply that the car will be trouble down the road, I'd ask you to tell me how you treated your last lease vehicle. That is what you're going to get on a used car lot. One driver who didn't change the oil, and didn't give a crap about the car because it was just a lease and they will trade up in 3 years anyway. Is there really any appreciable difference? Yes. The rental company had an incentive to make sure the car was in its rental fleet, and so they did the maintenance regularly. It all depends on your POV... if you want to roll the dice that you got a good lease car over a bad one, okay. Or, you can buy the rental for thousands less, with the chance that a small number of drivers abused the car, while most treated it with care lest they end up having to pay the rental company for damage. I'll take the latter.
relayrides insurance (Score:5, Informative)
Its worth remembering what happened to a poor boston student who rented her car for a carshare out using relay rides (and their liability insurance (same 1 million dollar liability insurance GM is using):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/14/your-money/relayrides-accident-raises-questions-on-liabilities-of-car-sharing.html?pagewanted=all [nytimes.com]
Re:Still Evil (Score:2, Informative)
Unfortunately, the statement is more true than not. I've volunteered within a few different social service and public assistant roles over the years. When looking for assistance on things like housing/heating/food, the government forms all state very boldly that a lack of citizenship or legal residency will not necessarily disqualify you. I'm not a bigot, but as a taxpayer it disturbs me to see welfare programs abused to the extent they are... let alone by illegal immigrants.