Zipcar is adding locations in Downtown LA where the PacMutual Building will be the first commercial complex to offer Zipcars for rent
Early this month, Zipcar added Downtown LA to their “carsharing” locations in Los Angeles allowing drivers to rent a car for a few hours or even a few days. Carsharing is especially attractive for those who do not own cars but may need to take a short trip outside of the city or perhaps to pick up something from Craigslist or Ikea.
Three Zipcars have been added to the PacMutual Building located at 6th and Grand in the Financial District (also formerly known as the Pacific Center before Rising Realty Partners purchased it in April 2012). In case you’re curious about what kind of cars are on stock: a Honda Civic, Mazda 3, and Toyota Prius.
The process is easy as pie:
1) You join/register with Zipcar
2) You reserve the car online
3) You unlock the car
4) You drive away
There are also another two Zipcars located just down the street from PacMutual at the Pegasus Apartments: a Mini Cooper and a Honda Civic.
These are the Zipcars parked at the PacMutual Building in Downtown LA (Photo: Chris Rising)
That’s smart! And yes, easy!
The headline should read “Zipcar Returns Car Sharing Service to Downtown LA”. Zipcar pulled Flexcar’s fleet of vehicles from DTLA after purchasing Flexcar in 2007.
^ So true, but don’t forget the word “finally” in that title!
I hear both LAXCarShare and Zipcar have promos if you are a former Flexcar member
Zero residents in that area.
There are a “few” residents in that area that could easily access this Zipcar location: Milano Lofts, Library Court, Pegasus, 655 Hope, Brockman, and Roosevelt
How is this different then renting a car?
How is this different then a rent a car.
Car sharing is a great amenity to any city with a great transit/rail system. Keep in mind that if you are a regular Metro rider, you receive discounts on joining LAXCarShare.
http://www.metro.net/service/discounts/travelsustainability/laxcarshare/
why no story on LAXCarShare when they opened? why don’t locals support local?
I wasn’t aware there was LAXCarShare next to my office building. There are many people at my work that take the train or the bus but have to drive if they have a offsite meeting. I’ll let them know about it.
I’ve used Zipcar while I was at grad school. It’s a great system. If you’re like me and only drive once or twice a week, sell your car, save money on insurance and parking and use Zipcar or LAXCarShare – which ever is more conveniently located for you. It’s like riding the metro, once you figure out how it works, it becomes another easy way to get around town.
FYI folks…
When you join
Annual fee $60
One-time Application fee$25
When you drive
weekday
Hourly rates from $8
Daily rates from$72
weekend
Hourly rates from$9
Daily rates from$79
What’s Included
Gas
Insurance
180 free miles
No deposit, no monthly committment, must have valid DL for at least one year and no recent drug/alcohol/major violations (see Zipcar website).
LAXCarShare:
$0 application fee
$25 membership fee
$15 annual renewal
$7/hour Mon-Fri
$8/hour weekends
$60/ day
Several friends of mine have used both and have had better customer service experiences with ZipCar. They would love to support a local business, but had trouble reaching anyone at LAXCarShare when trying to find out more information. Calls often went unanswered and return phone calls were difficult to come by.
I’m glad to see Zipcar increasing their presence in the L.A market!
Yes, I had a very bad personal experience with LAXCarShare dodging payment for advertising on this website. They got two weeks and an ad design free out of me and never paid! They always kept saying “We’ve mailed out the payment,” but I never received it. It was impossible to reach anyone through customer service. I eventually took the ad off and there was still no response from them. Not the best company to deal with unfortunately. Kind of shady if you ask me.