Car2Go Coming to Calgary Edit- closing as of October 31

[RW99]

Unless my eyes deceive me, they have enlarged the home area. Nothing on their website or twitter yet. Up to McKnight on the NE side and more importantly for me, into Dalhousie in the NW. This will now cover 98% of where I travel to in the city, very happy

[united]

^^^

car2go Calgary ‏@car2goCalgary 22 Jul
Have you noticed a change on the home area map? That's right! We have expanded our boundaries! Happy driving!

[pylon]

LOL, they still wont go anywhere near 'that' NE or the 'Bad' SE.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by pylon

LOL, they still wont go anywhere near 'that' NE or the 'Bad' SE.

Or those monocled warbucks types in Strathcona / Aspen...

Not sure how I like these expanded gridlines. Would hate to see C2G turn into a transit / downtown parking dodge exclusively, which I think it's well down that path already. The further you push the home zone out the easier it is to do this...

[Bigtime]

Yup, all this expanded home area does is drive the vehicles farther and farther out in the evenings.

[jammies]

I still haven't had a problem getting a car within a few blocks of me in the Beltline, day or night, so they can expand the boundaries as they wish. They are also adding more cars to the fleet, so it's not like they are stretching the same resources over a bigger area.

Besides which, if it's going to be an alternative to owning your own car for people, they have to have access to it in their neighborhood. I hope that they are looking at eventually covering 95% of the city and having the fleet to cover it.

[Misterpants]

Out of curiosity, has anyone done a comparison on their monthly costs doing Car2Go versus owning a car? Would be interesting to see what an average month looks like for a Car2Go user...

[jammies]

I've spent $2374.69 over the first 7 months of this year, using Car2go exclusively. That includes a couple weekend trips to Edmonton, plus all my driving otherwise, as I got rid of my car last September. That works out to $339.24 a month.

Since I live downtown, I would have to pay for parking at my building @ $100/month. Before I axed my vehicle, I tracked my gas expenses, which were around $120/month; insurance/registration was another $95/month. Add in maintenance, which I'd say is around another $90/month ($1000 year minimum, as for example I'd have had to buy new tires this year) and you're looking at $400/month on a car which I owned free and clear of any loan.

Of course, if you don't pay for parking and have a new car where maintenance isn't such a big deal, those numbers go down, but your monthly payments on the car more than cover that number and almost certainly are much much more. And if you park downtown for work, you're probably spending more than $300 on that alone.

On the other hand, my driving habits are considerably different now, in that if I have grocery shopping or something where I need a car, I try to do several tasks during that trip instead of just going out and back. I also will gladly accept being a passenger if someone else wants to drive, whereas before I always liked to be the one driving. So it's not necessarily that a direct cost comparison is valid. But then you have to ask if changing your habits isn't maybe a good thing - an economic incentive to do what you should be doing anyway.

[WilsonFourTwo]

I just signed up (haven't even received my fob yet) but the (highly unscientific) math was pretty simple for me.

Average about 12,000km per year and the 5-year costs on my car (Volks Jetta) averages out to about $0.58/km (Auto cost, gas, insurance, basic maintenance). Of course I'll get 10 years out of the car and project a total ownership cost into the neighborhood of $0.37.

Gar2Go currently costs $0.38 per minute (I average about 50km/h according to my car) which breaks out to be about $0.46/km.

Frankly I see it as a wash. Given that I don't have to pay for parking downtown but still have access to car when I need it, Car2Go is a great option. I don't intend to ditch my car however.

EDIT: Turns out my original math was correct. Well, color me amazed.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by WilsonFourTwo

I just signed up (haven't even received my fob yet) but the (highly unscientific) math was pretty simple for me.
Average about 12,000km per year and the 5-year costs on my car (Volks Jetta) averages out to about $0.58/km (Auto cost, gas, insurance, basic maintenance). Of course I'll get 10 years out of the car and project a total ownership cost into the neighborhood of $0.37.

Gar2Go currently costs $0.38 per minute (I average about 50km/h according to my car) which breaks out to be about $0.32/km.

Frankly I see it as a wash. Given that I don't have to pay for parking downtown but still have access to car when I need it, Car2Go is a great option. I don't intend to ditch my car however.

Better try that one again........... I get 46¢ per KM with that math.

[rayne008]

Originally Posted by Robotic

Car2go has a tent setup in Marda Gras today. I asked for a promo code and they told me 'student0030' will waive the $35 signup fee, and give you 30 minutes.

Did the code work? Seems like there isn't a way to validate the code. Basically you sign up and if the code is good, you won't get charged; however if the code is expired you will be dinged the sign-up fee.

[Robotic]

Originally Posted by rayne008

Did the code work? Seems like there isn't a way to validate the code. Basically you sign up and if the code is good, you won't get charged; however if the code is expired you will be dinged the sign-up fee.

Worked for me. I signed up the same day I was told the code. I checked my credit card and theres no charge on it. It's possible it expired shortly thereafter.

I'm presuming you signed up and they charged you the $35 fee? Did you get the 30 minutes signup bonus?

[rayne008]

I just signed up today, but didn't enter my payment info yet upon reading the code may or may not be accepted.

This wasn't a priority for me, as it would be used as an alternative to driving my vehicle to events.

[Robotic]

Give it a day or 2 and you should receive an email saying you've been approved. You may need to login and enter your drivers license info

[ken0042]

When I signed up there was a place to email your code to have them verify it.

[WilsonFourTwo]

Originally Posted by rayne008

Did the code work? Seems like there isn't a way to validate the code. Basically you sign up and if the code is good, you won't get charged; however if the code is expired you will be dinged the sign-up fee.

Worked for me. No fee charged and 30 free minutes showing on my account. Signed up on Thursday....

[rayne008]

Originally Posted by WilsonFourTwo

Worked for me. No fee charged and 30 free minutes showing on my account. Signed up on Thursday....

Just to update this worked for me as well, card showed up today with 30 minutes on the account and no membership fee. I drive downtown everyday anyways, but this may be useful to get to events at the stampede grounds and such.

[bossy22]

I just got my card in the mail. How does parking work? If I park in a parkplus zone outside my work, it's free for car2go. What happens when the 3 hour period ends? Can I get a ticket?

[Bigtime]

Nope, you can leave the Car2Go there ticket free. The only zones you have to be careful of are streets or avenues where the on street parking ends at a certain time and they become tow-away zones. If you park it there and it is still there when the street becomes tow away and it gets towed you will get charged for it.

[cupofjoe]

Originally Posted by jammies

I've spent $2374.69 over the first 7 months of this year, using Car2go exclusively. That includes a couple weekend trips to Edmonton, plus all my driving otherwise, as I got rid of my car last September. That works out to $339.24 a month.

Since I live downtown, I would have to pay for parking at my building @ $100/month. Before I axed my vehicle, I tracked my gas expenses, which were around $120/month; insurance/registration was another $95/month. Add in maintenance, which I'd say is around another $90/month ($1000 year minimum, as for example I'd have had to buy new tires this year) and you're looking at $400/month on a car which I owned free and clear of any loan.

Of course, if you don't pay for parking and have a new car where maintenance isn't such a big deal, those numbers go down, but your monthly payments on the car more than cover that number and almost certainly are much much more. And if you park downtown for work, you're probably spending more than $300 on that alone.

On the other hand, my driving habits are considerably different now, in that if I have grocery shopping or something where I need a car, I try to do several tasks during that trip instead of just going out and back. I also will gladly accept being a passenger if someone else wants to drive, whereas before I always liked to be the one driving. So it's not necessarily that a direct cost comparison is valid. But then you have to ask if changing your habits isn't maybe a good thing - an economic incentive to do what you should be doing anyway.

I am surprised nobody has factored in depreciation and ownership costs especially if Car2go is replacing one of the family vehicles. CAA has a PDF on this. Their cost calculation for owning and driving a Civic 12,000 km a year is $7723 or ~$643 a month. Parking would be on top of this $100 a month in this case, so $743 a month.

$743 vs $339 is significant savings. Some will probably argue that they own their car outright there so their ownership costs are far less etc. There is always a cost of having dollars tied up in a depreciating asset, I think even in the best of circumstances, $550 - $600 is a pretty realistic number on the cost of owning a car and driving it 12,000 kms a year

I know there are intangibles of having your own car but I would find it hard to believe that you are not saving a significant amount of money by replacing one of your family cars with Car2go. Neither my wife or I work downtown and we live way out in the burbs. So Car2go would not work for us, but if I commuted downtown and lived in the Car2go area I would strongly consider using it.