Hitting the spot: designated car club bays remove the agony of parking. Photo: Lara-Marie BarnesThey promise all the convenience of owning a car without any of the downsides. You don't even have to find a parking space. But is it all too good to be true? asks Jim Griffin
Car clubs advertise themselves as the perfect solution to ownership - the flexibility of a car but without the tax, insurance, petrol or depreciation. Got an errand to run? Find a vehicle near you, book it for an hour or two, and return it to its designated parking spot. It's so simple.
And the user figures suggest it's an idea that has caught the public imagination. In London there are now 28,000 members, up from just 25 a decade ago. Countrywide, figures in the past five years have rocketed by more than 5,000%.
But can a car club really be an adequate replacement for the convenience of having your own car? And how much money can clubbers save?
The intro pack I received from City Car Club is all vibrant colours and funky graphics. "Book, jump in and drive away" it boasts. Go online, input your postcode and find a car at a designated location that is most convenient. Book from 30 minutes to a few hours (or more) and pay an hourly rate. Swipe your membership card over a reader to unlock the doors, retrieve the keys from the glove box and away you go.
I'm excited by how futuristic and simple it all sounds.
But remote systems such as this need to work, which - as I discovered - isn't always the case.
I am web-literate. I work predominantly online and see hundreds of websites a week. But the City Car Club site was a struggle. It kept timing out and resetting itself without my completing a booking, and it is a pain to navigate - at one point my account was charged for a reservation that, to my knowledge, I hadn't finalised.
After much struggle and cursing my first booking was made over the phone, to a real person.
Things improve when I pick up the car. The new Kia Ceed 1.4 is fantastic. I swipe my card over the windscreen reader and the doors pop open. The car is in perfect nick both inside and out. I enter my pin into the onboard computer and a few seconds later the engine is mobilised. I grin like an excited schoolboy at how clever it all is. "It's the future!" I announce. The Kia is great to drive - smooth and nippy with sharp brakes. Only the knackered radio and CD player dampen my mood.
Returning the car to the designated parking space is the truly brilliant idea. I could have done something meaningful in all the hours I've wasted driving around suburban streets hunting down a parking space. All this frustration disappears, however, as we ease into the car club spot.
I turn the engine off, replace the keys in the glove box and lock the car with my swipe card. My irritation about the clunky website and broken stereo has lessened, but remains, tarnishing an otherwise excellent experience.
Unfortunately, my misgivings are compounded the next time I take the car out. Or rather don't. I book it for a 30-minute slot. Arriving five minutes late isn't the ideal start, I'll admit, but when the Vauxhall Corsa's onboard computer fails to log me in, I'm very annoyed. Calling the helpline, each automated option I choose rings out before bumping me back to the main automated menu without speaking to anyone. Around 15 minutes later, the engine finally mobilises and I can start the car. I don't bother. I have just under 10 minutes left on my slot and haven't moved an inch.
A car club, it seems to me, is meant to win us over with its convenience, ease and economic benefits. We're supposed to think "This is great - I can do without my car altogether!" And it's an admirable ambition, one that despite my experiences, I will pursue. Although there has been a huge upturn in users, it's a fledgling idea. But it will continue to grow and eventually there will be a car within five minutes of every urban dweller - economies and environmental pressures decree it.
I'm convinced there's a good car club out there. I'm just not convinced that I've found it.
money@guardian.co.uk
Streets ahead? How the companies compare
These are the main nationwide companies. But look out for many more that operate on a local level.
City Car Club (citycarclub.co.uk)
Members: 5,000
Cars in fleet: 300
Locations: London, Edinburgh, Norwich, Brighton, Hove, Bath, Bristol and Camberley
Joining fee: £75
Membership fee: N/A
Cost per hour: £4.50 outside London, £4.75 in London
Petrol: Club fuel card
Cost per mile: 50 free a day, 20p a mile thereafter
Streetcar (streetcar.co.uk)
Members: 30,000
Cars in fleet: 800
Locations: London, Brighton, Cambridge, Guildford, Maidstone and Southampton
Joining fee: N/A
Membership fee: £49.50 a year
Cost per hour: £3.95
Petrol: Club fuel card
Cost per mile: 30 free a day, 23p a mile thereafter
WhizzGo (whizzgo.co.uk)
Members: 4,000
Cars in fleet: 200+
Locations: Leeds, London, Brighton, Liverpool, York, Southampton, Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham and Newcastle
Joining fee: £150 (inc £125 refundable insurance deposit)
Membership fee: N/A
Cost per hour: £4.95
Petrol: Club fuel card
Cost per mile: 30 free a day, 20p a mile thereafter
For more frequent users, recurring fees can be used to lower the hourly rates, and monthly packages are available. There are also day rates. See individual websites for more details.
Caring and sharing
Grant Hewson sold his car - an ageing and costly 4x4 - in February. The recent credit crunch put him off getting a loan - and he cannot afford a replacement vehicle without one. Instead, he joined Streetcar.
"My car was costing me around £60 a month in insurance alone," he says. He spends slightly less than that on a VW Golf car club car. "I use it to do a weekly shop and to go to B&Q - it's ideal for an hour or two. The cars are all new, clean and of a good quality.
"There is a car three minutes away from my house, and another, four minutes away." But does he think the viability of the service as a genuine replacement for owning a vehicle is based on your location? "The further into central London you get, the more availability there is," he says. "I don't think it would work living in a rural area."
And although he has plans to buy when he moves further out of town, he's enjoying the feelgood factor. "You feel like you're doing your bit by sharing a car - for the economies involved and also for the environment."
And the user figures suggest it's an idea that has caught the public imagination. In London there are now 28,000 members, up from just 25 a decade ago. Countrywide, figures in the past five years have rocketed by more than 5,000%.
But can a car club really be an adequate replacement for the convenience of having your own car? And how much money can clubbers save?
The intro pack I received from City Car Club is all vibrant colours and funky graphics. "Book, jump in and drive away" it boasts. Go online, input your postcode and find a car at a designated location that is most convenient. Book from 30 minutes to a few hours (or more) and pay an hourly rate. Swipe your membership card over a reader to unlock the doors, retrieve the keys from the glove box and away you go.
I'm excited by how futuristic and simple it all sounds.
But remote systems such as this need to work, which - as I discovered - isn't always the case.
I am web-literate. I work predominantly online and see hundreds of websites a week. But the City Car Club site was a struggle. It kept timing out and resetting itself without my completing a booking, and it is a pain to navigate - at one point my account was charged for a reservation that, to my knowledge, I hadn't finalised.
After much struggle and cursing my first booking was made over the phone, to a real person.
Things improve when I pick up the car. The new Kia Ceed 1.4 is fantastic. I swipe my card over the windscreen reader and the doors pop open. The car is in perfect nick both inside and out. I enter my pin into the onboard computer and a few seconds later the engine is mobilised. I grin like an excited schoolboy at how clever it all is. "It's the future!" I announce. The Kia is great to drive - smooth and nippy with sharp brakes. Only the knackered radio and CD player dampen my mood.
Returning the car to the designated parking space is the truly brilliant idea. I could have done something meaningful in all the hours I've wasted driving around suburban streets hunting down a parking space. All this frustration disappears, however, as we ease into the car club spot.
I turn the engine off, replace the keys in the glove box and lock the car with my swipe card. My irritation about the clunky website and broken stereo has lessened, but remains, tarnishing an otherwise excellent experience.
Unfortunately, my misgivings are compounded the next time I take the car out. Or rather don't. I book it for a 30-minute slot. Arriving five minutes late isn't the ideal start, I'll admit, but when the Vauxhall Corsa's onboard computer fails to log me in, I'm very annoyed. Calling the helpline, each automated option I choose rings out before bumping me back to the main automated menu without speaking to anyone. Around 15 minutes later, the engine finally mobilises and I can start the car. I don't bother. I have just under 10 minutes left on my slot and haven't moved an inch.
A car club, it seems to me, is meant to win us over with its convenience, ease and economic benefits. We're supposed to think "This is great - I can do without my car altogether!" And it's an admirable ambition, one that despite my experiences, I will pursue. Although there has been a huge upturn in users, it's a fledgling idea. But it will continue to grow and eventually there will be a car within five minutes of every urban dweller - economies and environmental pressures decree it.
I'm convinced there's a good car club out there. I'm just not convinced that I've found it.
money@guardian.co.uk
Streets ahead? How the companies compare
These are the main nationwide companies. But look out for many more that operate on a local level.
City Car Club (citycarclub.co.uk)
Members: 5,000
Cars in fleet: 300
Locations: London, Edinburgh, Norwich, Brighton, Hove, Bath, Bristol and Camberley
Joining fee: £75
Membership fee: N/A
Cost per hour: £4.50 outside London, £4.75 in London
Petrol: Club fuel card
Cost per mile: 50 free a day, 20p a mile thereafter
Streetcar (streetcar.co.uk)
Members: 30,000
Cars in fleet: 800
Locations: London, Brighton, Cambridge, Guildford, Maidstone and Southampton
Joining fee: N/A
Membership fee: £49.50 a year
Cost per hour: £3.95
Petrol: Club fuel card
Cost per mile: 30 free a day, 23p a mile thereafter
WhizzGo (whizzgo.co.uk)
Members: 4,000
Cars in fleet: 200+
Locations: Leeds, London, Brighton, Liverpool, York, Southampton, Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham and Newcastle
Joining fee: £150 (inc £125 refundable insurance deposit)
Membership fee: N/A
Cost per hour: £4.95
Petrol: Club fuel card
Cost per mile: 30 free a day, 20p a mile thereafter
For more frequent users, recurring fees can be used to lower the hourly rates, and monthly packages are available. There are also day rates. See individual websites for more details.
Caring and sharing
Grant Hewson sold his car - an ageing and costly 4x4 - in February. The recent credit crunch put him off getting a loan - and he cannot afford a replacement vehicle without one. Instead, he joined Streetcar.
"My car was costing me around £60 a month in insurance alone," he says. He spends slightly less than that on a VW Golf car club car. "I use it to do a weekly shop and to go to B&Q - it's ideal for an hour or two. The cars are all new, clean and of a good quality.
"There is a car three minutes away from my house, and another, four minutes away." But does he think the viability of the service as a genuine replacement for owning a vehicle is based on your location? "The further into central London you get, the more availability there is," he says. "I don't think it would work living in a rural area."
And although he has plans to buy when he moves further out of town, he's enjoying the feelgood factor. "You feel like you're doing your bit by sharing a car - for the economies involved and also for the environment."
Ref.: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/apr/26/motoring.consumeraffairs
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