The New Face of Car Ownership

Car ownership. Whether it’s a three-year lease or driving something around till the wheels fall off, car ownership can be as committed as a marriage. But is it the only way? Does it benefit everyone, including the environment, to be monogamous when it comes to your ride?  Car rentals even, can seem like a long-dealt, tiring process akin to wasting a half day at the car rental shop (only to worry if you really should have bought that extra car protection).

Wouldn’t it be nice to just get a set of keys and take the car out for a straight commute or even an hour to pick up groceries? Wanna take a spur-of-the-moment weekend trip out of the city with the crew? For tomorrow’s savvy modern society, will car ownership stay reserved to those only willing spent hundreds to thousands of dollars?

Perhaps not.

At least, according to some pretty up-and-coming car-borrowing companies popping up across the country, like Zipcar, Getaround, Relay Rides and I-Go.

Groups of locals are now borrowing a single set of wheels among themselves—anywhere from a few hours to a few days. The concept is particularly appealing for the fact that you can take out a borrowed set of wheels for $8 per hour. How about renting something like a Mini Cooper or a Hybrid?

Plus, borrowing someone else’s wheels definitely lightens the carbon footprint. According to Zipcar’s website, 10 percent of the population is expected to adopt car sharing as their primary mode of transportation.

The idea was so fetching that innovative of innovative companies Google, even opted to lend their employees some electric cars of their own, to do anything from errands to commutes.