Zipcar

The Boston Business Journal reports Avis Budget will pay $500 million for the locally based car-sharing service.The move will let Zipcar users rent Budget cars on the weekends.

Some local Zipcar fans were not pleased this morning. Lalunkee tweets:

I expect that this will ruin a wonderful thing. Crap.

Nathan Spencer adds:

I saw what Avis did to Budget and I worry this will be a reversal of what Zipcar was founded upon. Also, not for nothing, this is another example of a good Boston-based company moving up and out.

Although the companies say Zipcar will keep its local headquarters - and will still move them from Cambridge to South Boston, Spencer is not convinced that means much:

Oh, right, just like Gillette. It's not Avis' fault. Boston needs to find ways to keep successful companies here.

Galen Moore notices a rather large hole in Zipcar's Boston coverage - not a single one of their cars is available in Roxbury or the neighboring parts of Dorchester.

Hmm, a quick look at their map also shows zilchcar in Hyde Park.

The company responds to the hubbub over its parking spaces in Brookline.

An Illinois man says fees charged by Zipcar on top of its normal charges (such as late fees and forcing people to reserve a car for an hour if they remember later in the day they forgot something in the car) are unfair and violate Massachusetts law, so yesterday he filed suit in US District Court in Boston, seeking $5 million for himself and other Zipcar customers (and, of course, his lawyers).

The Boston Business Journal reports: ZipCar teams with driving school:

... "The safety of our members is critical to us," said Dan Curtin, general manager of ZipCar in Boston, in a statement. "Most of our members live and work in the Boston area and we are excited to work with In Control to educate them about safe, responsible driving whether they are in the city or venturing our of town." ...

DJDiva does not specify if the person in front of her who braked for a GREEN light in Somerville and THEN decided to turn was a ZipCar driver.

Marty Wrin says he used to be a loyal Zipcar user. But when it cut its Jamaica Plain car inventory in half - and moved them to a spot about a mile from his house - he decided to cut the cord:

I'm going to use my neighbors car when I need one to go to a race or triathlon or a specific errand. It's a win-win situation for us, not much win for Zipcar but they didn't seem that interested in JP anyway so I imagine that they won't even notice....

CitySwimmer, who lives in Roslindale, is trying to see if she can go a month without using her car (in which case she could sell it and put the savings toward buying a condo). But much as she loves her Rozzie apartment, she realizes there are still times when a car would come in handy. So rent a Zipcar, right? Wrong:

... Well, there are no Zipcars in Roslindale.

I emailed them a month ago to ask about the likelihood of getting one and didn't get a response. So I called last week. The woman with whom I spoke was curt and very negative. She told me that there would not be a Zipcar in Roslindale because there was no need and getting permits from the City would be very difficult; I find both statements difficult to believe. I asked if a petition from Roslindale residents would help. She said it might and that other neighborhoods had won Zipcars that way - so, I'll be getting that started pronto. ...