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For an auto-less driver, one of the best discoveries of 2019 was having my friend, Jess, put me on to Getaround. One day in D.C., we reallllly wanted to use a Groupon we found for a nearby Korean spa in the suburbs, but we had NO CAR. In showing true human ingenuity, Jess racked her brain until she remembered Getaround, a peer-to-peer car rental app that allows you to rent cars in your area for the amount of time you need.
The quote I received for a 24-hr rental with a major car rental company was around $120 for the day, while Getaround only cost around $57 for the same amount of time. We also didn’t need it for 24-hours, more like 5 hours to get our spa and H-mart visit on. What’s really awesome is that there are some available cars that work out to under $10/hour — even for just a lone hour! Way cheaper than an Uber both ways if you’re staying local. Jess ended up having a referral code, which started me on my own Getaround rental journey.
Now, I am lucky enough to live in beautiful and exotic, Jersey City, so the network of rentals was pretty fleshed out. However, I did notice that there weren’t that many cars available in Manhattan, and the selection was definitely was not as expansive in the NYC area as it was in D.C. The boyf and I have used Getaround three times in the Jersey City/NYC area on major holidays to get to Storm King Art Center, The Met Cloisters, Orchard Beach, and CitiField Stadium – all of these places are somewhat a commuter’s nightmare if you were trekking it with the MTA alone. However, we saved ourselves time, frustration, public transit holiday schedules, and limited the usual crowd contact we would have encountered if we commuted to these places on a holiday weekend.
My ratings:
How It Works: 5/5 You scroll through all available choices in the Getaround app based on your starting point address and the date/time you need a rental. Select the available car you like, and a couple of taps later, it’s reserved for you! When your rental is completed, you return the vehicle to an assigned lot or street parking close to the pick-up spot – so please note that these vehicles are for ROUNDTRIPS, not one-ways.
All cars are connected to “teh Cloud” and allows you to use the app to lock/unlock the car. (That means that as long as you have your phone on you, you will never be locked out!) If you happen to like that car, you can easily rent the same car again under your trip history. Note that a $150 hold/deposit will be placed on your card on file, and returned after your first rental.
Convenience: 5/5 I really liked that the Getaround app was very easy to use. You search by availability, car model, price…practically every measure that matters. We were also able to select the specific hours we needed for our journey. We also were able to return the car very easily into lots or indicated parking spaces, so we didn’t have to wait for rental offices to open in the morning, etc. There are also very many cars available at all hours of the night in my area. Another great feature is that many are registered with EZPass via their license plates for tolls, and you can cut the lines without tediously counting out change — BECAUSE WHO ACTUALLY CARRIES CASH NOWADAYS?!
Customer support/ ease of use: 4.5/5 During one of our rentals, we COULD NOT FIND THE CAR via the GPS. We let customer support know, and they promptly gave us $15 in credit toward a future rental since we lost about 2 hours searching for this tiny car in a 4 story parking multiplex. It is harder to get in touch with the owner if you need to, however. I also forgot my dashboard phone holder for my phone, and Getaround was able to rent it out to me again, for $1 to pick up my item.
Cost: 5/5 In the cost breakdown, there is the reservation cost and a $1 booking fee. I really like the price points since $12 for a 2-hour rental is already cheaper than an Uber/Lyft in both directions. As I mentioned earlier, the costs are significantly lower than if you were renting from the big name rentals. You are billed about 2 weeks later for any tolls incurred on the trip – to the same credit card you have on file.
PRO TIPS – try to rent for more than 12 hours to see if there’s a price break for the vehicle’s overall rental cost. This helped us save about $30. And look for hybrids that don’t need to be gassed up upon return, definitely saving you time, hassle, and ca$h.
Overall, I would definitely recommend Getaround — really like this service, so far! These things are really about availability in your area so I understand that it might not be as conveniently located for you as the company continues to expand its operation.
Leave a comment below if you’d like me to pass along a $40 coupon for your first rental! I have 3 codes that I’m happy to share!